From injury rehab to rookie of the year: The TJ Malone story

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Coming off an NCAA Final Four appearance followed by a canceled season, Penn State’s TJ Malone was ready to get back on the lacrosse field.

Over the summer of 2020, Malone worked out to his limits to get himself in the best shape possible. Then his hips began to bother him.

The pain didn’t go away when he went back to Penn State’s campus in the fall, even with rehab. After talking to hip specialist Dr. Benjamin Domb and getting an MRI done, Malone had his answer – torn labrums, the rings of cartilage that stabilize the hip joint, in both legs. He’d need surgery to continue to play lacrosse.

People in Malone’s life were telling him to hang up his cleats. But what do you do when you’re told to either quit the sport you love or live in pain?

“It was really, really tough to hear because I’d been playing sports my whole life,” Malone said.

Early start

The West Chester, Pennsylvania, native got his start in lacrosse in kindergarten, but he didn’t stick with it because his helmet was too big, and child Malone would get annoyed.

So Malone played other sports, like basketball, football and soccer, but he’s from a lacrosse family – all three of his siblings have played the sport.

He picked the game back up and played both lacrosse and basketball at The Haverford School, a 30-minute drive to Philadelphia. He was originally committed to play lacrosse at Amherst College, with hopes of a chance to walk on the basketball team, but his high school coach, John Nostrant, said he had the talent to play at a higher level. Malone finished his senior season, then Penn State called.

The day after his final game at Haverford, Malone and his dad drove the three hours to University Park.

“There was nobody on campus, rainy day, but I still loved it,” Malone said.

After talking to head lacrosse coach Jeff Tambroni and touring the facilities, Malone was offered a scholarship and committed that day.

Switching commits is a huge and complicated choice. Not only are you devoting yourself to another program, you’re completely changing where you’re going to get your degree.

“It’s kind of commonplace now, where kids may get poached or they may commit somewhere, and they may change their mind or have a better opportunity,” Nostrant said. But even a few years ago, it was a bigger deal.

Nostrant, who describes Malone as a “non-traditional attackman” due to his athleticism, said he “wasn’t surprised” that Malone was able to sign at a Division I level.

“He just always got better,” Nostrant said, “and he always rose to the challenge.”

Even though he was a late recruit from a Division III school, Malone arrived on campus with a clean slate and knew he had the same opportunities as everyone else.

“You don’t get many of those opportunities in life,” Malone said, “so I was excited to be there.”

On the field

In Malone's freshman season, Penn State’s team was filled with future Premier Lacrosse League talents: Grant Ament, Mac O’Keefe, Chris Sabia and Jack Traynor, to name a few, and that squad made it to the NCAA semifinals, their season ending in a 21-17 loss to Yale.

Even though that storybook season didn’t finish in Penn State’s favor, Malone was excited to get back on the field.

“What you see on the field is a very fierce competitor,” Tambroni said. “What you see off the field is a very warm, fun-loving, extremely loyal young man.”

Malone worked hard through the winter months of 2020, expecting great things – until the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down.

“It was such a bummer to have that (season) canceled because, it’s hard to say, obviously,” Malone said, “but I had a feeling we were going to win a national championship that year.”

So, Malone began gearing up for the 2021 season, working out hard the whole summer. That’s when the injuries began.

“I got really bad tendonitis in my knee, and it started to lead to compensation, and I started to compensate in my hips, and my hips started to really, really hurt,” Malone said.

Doctors couldn’t come up with a diagnosis, so Malone played through the 2021 season with the pain.

Tough choice

When the 2022 season rolled around, the pain was too much for Malone to bear. He sought outside help, and learned he would either need surgery or would have to stop playing entirely.

It’s a question no athlete wants to think about. Doctors and, at one point, Malone’s parents urged him to consider retirement and to look at the long-term effects on his body of playing the sport.

Malone remembers his parents saying, “You need to be careful with your decisions because if you just keep playing this sport, obviously you love it, but if it’s going to prevent you from living your life when you’re 50 years old, you want to think twice about that.”

Malone considered his options for a month, but he ultimately decided he couldn’t let lacrosse go. He had to get the surgeries.

Former teammate Ament told Malone he saw greatness in him, and Malone knew there would be an opportunity with the surgeries, so he just had to try it. “If I tried my best, I’d be very happy with the result no matter what it was,” he said.

Malone has always held his religious faith close to his chest, and it helped him through one of the toughest times in his life.

“I knew the whole time that no matter what happened, I had a God that loved me, so it allowed me to explore and do my best and not be afraid to fail,” he said.

He also said the decision was very freeing – as a college athlete, he felt he was doing so much for others, but this was a choice for himself.

Decision made, he had two hip surgeries; first in April, then May, and a final sports hernia surgery in September 2022, which would cause him to miss his senior season in its entirety.

In April, he got his first surgery, then flew back out to Chicago three weeks later to receive the second. He couldn’t walk in between.

On the plane, Malone was given a needle with aspirin so he wouldn’t clot up after the operation. He remembers hobbling to the back of the plane to the tiny bathroom on his crutches and stabbing himself with the medicine. “Part of the process,” Malone explained.

An injury's impact

Malone is so confident and open, it can almost make a listener believe what he went through was easy. But experts say the impact of a serious injury is very tough on an athlete.

When an athlete is out for a long period of time, it makes them think about their identity as a whole, explained Shea Brown, the wellness and clinical services coordinator at Penn State’s Athletic Clinical Psychology Department.

“Student-athletes feel that their entire identity is rooted in being an athlete, so when we talk about injury, it’s like being stripped of something that you have been your entire life,” Brown said.

“When we have a student-athlete who has been injured maybe once, twice, multiple times, the fear of getting back out into their sport, especially if it’s a repeat injury … that fear can permeate into performance.”

Juan Pablo Favero, a mental performance coach with the Cleveland Guardians, agrees with Brown.

“Not being able to play anymore is a loss, but it’s more than just that, right?” he said. “You’re losing part of your identity, and most athletes at all levels have a good portion of their self-identity tied to themselves as athletes.”

Favero also noted feelings of isolation away from teammates, and that took a toll on Malone, too – being sidelined during a huge culture shift at Penn State lacrosse was tough.

“A lot of people didn’t know what my problem was, including my trainers, which led to a lot of confusion around the injury,” Malone said. “I felt like I was letting the team down, even though I had a pretty serious injury. It wasn’t like I tore my ACL and everyone knew it was torn.”

But before even thinking about picking up a lacrosse stick again or getting back on the field, Malone had something bigger on his mind that summer: a highly coveted investment banking internship with TD Bank in New York City. Another way to excel may have helped.

The Big Apple

After the first two surgeries, Malone couldn’t walk and needed help around his house. When he was finally strong enough on his feet, the date was June 3, and he was due in the city on June 6 to begin work.

New York is known for being the city that never sleeps, and Malone certainly got that mantra while working 80-hour weeks in addition to rehabbing from his two surgeries.

Malone would be in the office at 8 a.m. and would clock out around 10 p.m., sometimes staying as late as 2 a.m.

“I would have to get up extra early to go to physical therapy, then I’d work up until midnight, then have to do it all again.”

“It taught me the lessons of hard work and consistency,” he said. “When life is hard, you can choose how you’re going to respond, and if you just continue to keep that hope and faith and belief in you and your ability, then nothing can really stop you.”

With all of the responsibility, Malone thinks the internship was one of the best things to happen to him that summer.

“I didn’t have time to think about my hips or think about lacrosse,” he said, “and I just had to be where my feet were and do my best.”

Even while at the desk, Malone used visuals to keep himself motivated. He envisioned being a successful businessman or his team winning the Big Ten championship or heading to the Final Four.

An important part of rehab was the stationary bike – two hours a day, to be precise. Two hours is a long time to do anything, but Malone would watch film to sharpen his game.

“I knew I was out for so long, and I needed to get my mind in lacrosse-shape,” he said. “The more you watch lacrosse, the better you’re going to get at it.”

Back in the game

After a summer in Manhattan, Malone returned to University Park for one more season and for his master’s degree in business analytics.

“The toughest point was returning to the field because I went from being one of the top players on the team to being one of the lower players on the depth chart,” he said.

The first lacrosse-related activity Malone did was the run test – a speed test to see who was putting work in over the summer.

Malone, who couldn’t walk five months prior, tied for first place on the team.

“At that point, I was like ‘Wow, all of this work I’ve been putting in has really started to pay off,’” he said.

Even with a great test, Malone had to work his way back up from fourth attackman back to top dog.

Malone started and played all 16 games, set career-highs in goals, assists and points and scored at least one goal in those 16 contests.

He was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, All-American by USILA, Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse Magazine and was drafted 17th overall by the Maryland Whipsnakes of the PLL.

In his first pro season, Malone led the Whipsnakes in points and assists as the team made its way to the league final. He had four helpers in the PLL championship game, but Maryland lost 12-8 to the Utah Archers and old friends O’Keefe and Ament.

After a near-retirement and three hip surgeries two years ago, Malone went on to win PLL Rookie of the Year for the 2024 season. He said he would have traded the individual award for the league title, but he couldn’t complain about the opportunity.

According to Tambroni, Malone has never been afraid of failure.

“He sees the big picture,” said Tambroni. “He sees it as an opportunity to learn more and then to move forward in either the same or different direction.”

Almost three years later, Malone says his hips feel “great.”

“They need a lot of maintenance,” he said, “but I am very fortunate.”

The PLL will begin its season in June, so in the offseason, Malone will continue to work out, and keep up with cardio exercises, like playing basketball.

After being out for an extended period of time, Malone has found a new outlook and appreciation for not only what is often called the Creator’s Game, but the little things in life.

“I get to do this. I get to put on my helmet today,” he said. “I get to go on a run today … (at one point), I couldn’t even walk.”