Despite season-ending injuries, Glover excelled on court, in classroom

Nov. 12, 2025 — DENTON — When Kayla Glover was 19 years old, she learned how to walk – for the second time. 

The Texas Woman’s basketball player suffered a season-ending knee injury during her sophomore year that required nine months of rehabilitation. Mastering how to take those first few steps wasn’t easy.

“You don't know what you have, until you don't have it,” Glover said. “You really take things for granted. And I feel like that process really made me put into focus how small things can really be, but how big they really are.”

When Glover was 20, she learned about mental fortitude. The DeSoto native returned to the court for her junior year but still felt pain in her knee. Tests showed that Glover had sustained a second season-ending injury, this time with a stress fracture.

“I wouldn't say it almost broke me, but it was kind of one of those things I would have never guessed would have happened,” Glover said.

She questioned why this had happened to her, twice. But she knew what it took to come back.

“And I kind of went back to my faith in God and just trusting the process,” Glover said. “Stay strong … It was take it one day at a time. That was kind of the approach.”

Glover had surgery the summer before her senior year and was cleared to play a few weeks before the start of the 2024-25 season.  

Having played just two games in two years, Glover was uncertain how her senior season would unfold but she knew she was going to give it all she had.  

“I can't be scared of something that's happened in the past because I can only control what my future looks like,” Glover said. 

Turns out, she was an integral part to a special season. Glover started 27 games at point guard as the Pioneers won a third straight Lone Star Conference regular season title, second straight conference tournament title and advanced to a second straight NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance.

Glover didn’t just excel on the court. In addition to the surgeries, the rehab and the doctor’s appointments, she also graduated in three years with a biology degree, minoring in chemistry and kinesiology.  

“It taught me a lot about being adaptable and having discipline because after practice you're tired, you don't want to do anything, but then you go straight into a lab,” Glover said. “You have to lock back in and be able to give your full attention to it.”

With all her injuries in high school and college, Glover experienced firsthand what the orthopedics field looked like. She saw how much work went into being an orthopedic surgeon and she could see herself in that position. 

“I’ve always wanted to work in sports medicine because I understand the process and what it feels like, and I want to give back to others who are going through the same thing I did,” Glover said. 

Glover is scheduled to graduate with a master’s degree in kinesiology (sport management) in the School of Health Promotion and Kinesiology in May 2026. 

Medical school is the next step. 

Right now, her focus is on one more year of basketball as a graduate student.

“I really just genuinely want to have fun,” Glover said. “It's like a joy year, I would say, really enjoying basketball, knowing that this is one of my last opportunities to enjoy it on a collegiate level.”

Glover didn’t have a typical path as a student-athlete but says her journey allowed her to grow as a person. 

“I feel if you really want something, you should go after it," Glover said. "That's something that I want to be remembered by. I never gave up. I was always willing to just work harder and harder and find a way to make what I want to happen.”