COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY Isaiah Cavaco, JE '01, now redshirting the year, would have been an asset to the Elis.

Injured Eli: Isaiah Cavaco redshirting junior season

Cavaco led the team in three-pointers and assists last season. After the surgeries, his rehabilitation seemed to be going quickly, and he felt ready to contribute to the team. However, early in the morning on Wed., Feb. 16, he saw an orthopedist from Sports Medicine, who decided not to clear Cavaco.

Cavaco disagreed with the doctor's decision. Cavaco's surgeon, who had been keeping up with his situation by phone, had cleared him to play a week and a half before. "I fought it all the way until the actual game day," Cavaco said.

Cavaco was especially frustrated because he feels he has been misdiagnosed by the Yale doctor in the past. "At the beginning of this year, I saw him three times," Cavaco said. "Not once did he diagnose the injury in my right knee." Cavaco also said that the doctor failed to diagnose a shredded meniscus in his left knee his freshman year. The doctor in question and Dr. Barry Goldberg, director of Sports Medicine, would not comment.

After learning that he would not be cleared, Cavaco immediately decided to redshirt. He will return to play for Yale next year. Then, after he graduates, he will look into going to a Division II business school where he can play one more year of basketball. Cavaco said, "This has changed the course of my life."

—Carl Bialik

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