Lawrence High's E'lease Stafford (40) splits the defense between Notre Dame de Sion's Madline Dercher (15) and Anaiya Uhde (30)

Less than a month following major knee surgery, E’lease Stafford was back in the weight room with a goal to prove people wrong.

A star player for Lawrence High’s girls basketball team, Stafford tore a ligament in her left knee in the team’s final regular-season game last year. She watched from the bench as the Lions fell one win short of a trip to the state tournament.

Instead of sulking in the offseason, Stafford was determined to make sure she didn’t miss any more games. Through the first five games of the season, the 5-foot-11 junior is averaging 11.8 points to lead the Lions to a 5-0 record and No. 4 ranking in Class 6A.

“I had people tell me that it was going to take a year and you won’t be back,” Stafford said. “I was like, ‘Watch me be back in the summer. Watch me be back when the season starts.’ Just using that as motivation. That pushed me because I wanted to be back when the season started.”

Lawrence High junior E'lease Stafford (40) celebrates a layup-and-the-foul bucket in the fourth quarter of the City Showdown on Friday, Dec. 16, 2016 at Allen Fieldhouse

Even with the motivation to return better than ever, that didn’t mean the rehab process was easy for Stafford, a first-team all-Sunflower League selection. When her summer-ball team was traveling across the region, she was forced to stay home.

The Lions played in team camps throughout the summer at Arkansas, Emporia State and Wichita State. Stafford, a wing who can score in the post or behind the 3-point line, traveled to all of them but couldn’t participate, instead spending her time coaching her teammates. On a team with five returning starters, she was the only one who wasn’t playing.

“She’s in the huddle, she’s talking to players, she’s pumping them up,” Lawrence coach Jeff Dickson said. “That just had to kill her and yet she did those things. That’s why outside of all her God-given talent, she’s just a truly remarkable person.”

Despite sitting on the bench, it was an opportunity for Stafford to repay her teammates. They supported her when she suffered a season-ending injury and she wanted to cheer them on whenever she could.

“I showed them that I care and I still wanted to be a part of the team,” Stafford said. “At first, when it happened, I was a little depressed. I was like, ‘Oh, my career is over. I don’t get to do anything. What if I’m not as good again as I was?’ Then I had my team here to help support me.”

When Stafford wasn’t cleared by her doctors to jump at the start of the fall sports season, she opted to join the school’s cross country team. The previous year, she competed at the varsity volleyball level. Now she was running in junior-varsity and ‘C’ team races.

“I hated every day I went to practice,” Stafford said of the daily five-mile runs. “But I liked it at the end. It came in clutch for (basketball season). Saturday mornings were fun, getting up early and going to the meet and running.”

It was the first time Stafford ever ran cross country. At the start of the season, she admitted she was “kind of slow,” relegated at times to jogging and walking.

All of it was done to prepare for the upcoming basketball season. And sure enough, she was back on the court for the first day of tryouts.

“She’s been an inspiration for everybody with how hard she’s worked at it,” Dickson said. “She didn’t feel sorry for herself for very long. She got right back to work.”

In the final game prior to winter break, Stafford scored a game-high 21 points in the City Showdown at Allen Fieldhouse, which included nine points in the fourth quarter. She added three rebounds, three assists and four steals in the team’s 47-42 victory over Free State.

It was full circle for Stafford, who injured her knee against Free State last season and plays with a big brace on her left leg. She initially thought it was an ankle injury before she tried to stand up and felt a pain shoot into her knee.

One difference in her play, since the injury, is her emotion. In her first two seasons, she was always calm. There were times when she wasn’t as assertive as her team needed her to be.

But in the City Showdown, there was one play in the third quarter where Stafford converted on a layup-and-the-foul bucket to tie the score. She responded by letting out a scream of joy.

“It brought tears to my eyes to see her excitement and see how bad she wanted that,” Dickson said.

Physically and mentally, Stafford feels as good as ever. Since her sophomore year, she’s tried to take a leadership role on the team.

Dickson said she’s only scratching the surface of her full potential. Plus, there’s no questioning her commitment to doing anything to help the team win.

“I would say I’m not a different player, I just have a different mindset now,” Stafford said. “Now I want it more because sitting out for nine months wasn’t fun. Now every game that I get to play, I don’t want to take it for granted. I want to give it my all.”