Liam Sheely overcomes shoulder injury with coach’s help as Mt. Lebanon makes late-season surge

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, February 18, 2025 | 3:23 AM

Liam Sheely’s basketball coach is also a physical therapist, a combination that surely helped Mt. Lebanon’s leading scorer get back on the court this week.

A 6-foot-3 junior and 18-point scorer, Sheely has endured a rather painful season. His latest setback was a shoulder aggravation one week ago that was potentially season ending. He‘d already broken his hand to start the winter, dislocated a shoulder while sidelined and later injured a wrist on a fall.

All combined, Sheely sat out half the season.

“I felt bad for him,” Mt. Lebanon coach Joe David said. “He missed 11 games. But this will make up for it if we can go on a little run.”

With Sheely coming off the bench Monday to test his shoulder, sixth-seeded Mt. Lebanon defeated No. 11 Norwin, 61-34, in the WPIAL Class 6A first round. The Blue Devils advance to face No. 3 Imani Christian in a quarterfinal Thursday at a site and time to be announced.

Sheely scored seven points in the win.

“I felt fine in there,” he said. “I banged with them. Limited minutes, but I still felt like I could do what I wanted to do.”

Sheely’s health is directly linked with Mt. Lebanon’s late-season surge. The Blue Devils won eight of their last nine regular season games once he rejoined the lineup, giving them some timely momentum for the playoffs. But his status was again in question once Sheely aggravated his injured left shoulder last week against Peters Township.

“There was a point that we thought he was done for the year,” said David, who understands shoulder injuries better than most. “I’m a physical therapist, so we had a little bit of an advantage there. We did some things. Tony (Turchetta) did a really good job as a trainer. We got him a couple of different braces. … He’s been sore but actually started feeling better today.”

Sheely again showed his resilience.

“I was definitely uncertain what the rest of the season held,” he said. “But every day I’ve been doing physical therapy and rehab. I kept feeling better every day, especially with the brace I was wearing.”

Monday’s game started with Sheely on the bench. His coach planned to use him for only a few minutes as a chance to gauge his readiness. But Sheely insisted he felt good after he entered in the second quarter, so he played into the third. He was knocked down once on a made 3-pointer.

“My (original) plan was not to play him in any way, shape or form,” David said. “He told me today he felt really good.”

Sheely can score in a variety of ways and was voted first-team all-section despite missing 11 games. He averaged 22 points in the nine contests leading up to Monday, a stretch that included section wins over Central Catholic and Imani Christian.

His season high was 33 points.

At 7-6, Mt. Lebanon barely had a winning record in mid-January, but has improved to 16-7.

“That’s because he got healthy,” David said. “Before that we were OK. He makes a big difference in what we do in terms of scoring threats. He can get the ball to the rim. He’s multifaceted.”

Sheely scored 19 points in Mt. Lebanon’s last game against Imani Christian. The Blue Devils won 73-61.

“We’ve got three more days to get it stronger and go from there,” David said.

Sheely says he’ll be ready.

“Very ready,” he said. “Can’t wait.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Mt. lebanon