CHATTANOOGA — Long before his back surgery, Chattanooga basketball star Toby Denny was just an eight-year-old boy playing one-on-one basketball with his grandfather.
When his grandfather — the role model who first introduced Toby to the game of basketball — cracked a couple ribs and was sidelined, Toby had couldn't help but ask.
"Grandpa, when are you going to be able to play one-on-one again?"
A little more than a decade later, it was the grandson's turn to be in the hospital, and Chattanooga asking its hero, Toby — who is averaging nearly 23 points per game in his senior campaign — when he would play again.
Although rare in teenagers, Toby Denny suffered a bulging disc, and — after exploring every possible option to no avail — underwent back surgery on Sept. 27 with his senior season on the hardwood looming.
Now Denny is back and better than ever as Chattanooga opens up playoffs tonight against Blair with the entire community watching its star.
"He understands little kids are watching," Chattanooga coach Nick Gable said. "My kids think Toby is the greatest thing ever. Even when I shoot, I find myself saying Toby instead of Kobe (Bryant)."
Breaking point
In the weeks before reaching his breaking point, discomfort and relentless pain followed Denny everywhere.
In class, he had to ask teachers if he could stand because sitting was a nightmare.
"The kid literally looked like an old man walking — hunched over, just painful to see," Gable said. "The best athlete in the school is walking down the halls and can barely even move."
No matter the posture he picked, Denny was uncomfortable as he couldn't straighten his torso.
"I remember sitting there during the ACT and I was struggling at the end of that deal," Denny said. "I hated that."
The bulging disc started bothering him towards the end of last basketball season. Denny had been watching YouTube videos learning dunking techniques when the disc gradually became more irritated.
"I was starting to be able to throw it down pretty good, but every time I went up, I was like, 'Man, I'm hurting,'" Denny said.
Denny, a pitcher and a shortstop, played through baseball season and summer basketball camps. Denny took his shirt off at one camp, revealing his back was severely tilted to one side.
"It was scary. I was worried about him," said Gable, who is also Toby's baseball coach. "The first thing when you hear he's having surgery is, 'Oh great.' Then you think, 'Wait, This is a high school kid going through this his senior year and is hoping that it's successful.'"
Trying to avoid surgery at all costs, Denny went to the chiropractor. The chiropractor told him he couldn't help Denny anymore. When Denny got an MRI that revealed the bulging disc, his family doctor in Frederick, Dr. Trent Mefford, stated surgery was imminent.
Still holding out hope, Denny went to decompression therapy in Wichita Falls at the Champions Clinic.
Ten sessions with the decompression table will make you feel brand new, they told him. They did 20 sessions to make sure his back had healed properly. Five sessions passed hinting at improvement. He eventually finished the 20 sessions and felt a little better, but it wasn't like they said it should be.
Surgery on the nagging bulging disc in his back was the only option left.
"None of us wanted to go through with the surgery but that was the breaking point," Denny said. "We tried it all and had to now."
On the way back home from his last session in Wichita Falls, he broke the news to his parents -- first to his dad, Lester, over the phone.
"That was probably the low point right there," Denny said.
Lester, who has had the same surgery on the exact bulging disc twice in the past four years, helped his son get through it.
His mom, Holly, on the other hand, was apprehensive about going through with the surgery.
"You could tell my mom was disappointed to hear it, but she knew I wasn't wanting to hear that news at all either," Denny said. "She still kept me grounded and told me that God has a plan, reminding me that everything happens for a reason."
Toby finally made the call to have surgery on Sept. 27 at Comanche County Memorial Hospital in Lawton under the supervision of Dr. Mark Duncan, the same doctor who had done Lester's surgery.
"Everybody asked me if I was a bull rider went I went in to the doctor," said Denny, who was far younger than most bulging disc patients.
Dr. Duncan got him in within a week and a half after scheduling it. He was never nervous leading up to the surgery until the dreaded day the procedure arrived.
"The worst thing about it was wearing that gown," Denny laughed. "That was my most unpleasant memory."
Road to recovery
In Wednesday's practice, Denny went up for a rebound put back and came down flat on his back.
Four months removed from the successful surgery, Gable still was holding his breath.
"Of course he just pops right up," Gable said. "I don't know how many times this year I've asked, 'Did you hurt your back?' He always just smiles and says, 'I'm good, I'm good.'"
Knowing that telling an explosive player like Denny to play differently could cause him to blow out a knee trying to stop himself, Gable had to let his star keep attacking, taking charges and diving for loose balls.
"He plays with such reckless abandon," Gable said. "We thought, in order for Toby to be Toby, we're just going to have to let him play."
Driven by his relentless competitive nature, Denny wanted to play right away.
"Toby is the type of kid you want your son to grow up and be like and your daughter to grow up and date," Gable said. "He's well-spoken, completely composed and mature beyond his years and he plays with a competitiveness that rivals anybody."
Four weeks after the surgery, Denny was walking how he wanted to and started going to physical therapy for stretching and exercises to restore his torso flexibility.
Initially, sitting was tough after the surgery. Denny carried cushions around school and sat on those, but it sure beat standing in class.
Chatty played it safe and eight weeks post-surgery, he stepped on the court. He played for a quarter at Indiahoma with his back feeling brand new.
"I was gassed after that one quarter," Denny said. "I was toast — out of shape bad."
With a week and a half off from games with Thanksgiving break, he restored his conditioning levels and got his feel back for the court.
Denny, who is just 16 points away from reaching the 1,500-point club, is averaging 22.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. He scored 35 points in his first full game back in a win over Fletcher.
"Things clicked pretty quickly," Denny said of the on-court chemistry.
A lot of that had to do with Toby's friends who were vital in his recovery, particularly his core group of five, including two basketball teammates — seniors Michael Bailey and Caleb Hutson.
After his surgery, his friends would come over to his house with food and hang out and talk, keeping Denny in positive spirits.
"I'm blessed having an incredible tight friend group here at Chatty," Denny said.
Tough love was important too.
Gable ranked his favorite senior classes of all time. In no particular order, they are 2009 and 2013 — both State tournament teams at Big Pasture — and this group.
What Bailey and Hutson have done for their friend shows exactly why.
"Those three are inseparable. They couldn't be individually more different and yet still the same," Gable said. "They were great for Toby because one, they cared and two, they're not coddlers. They were the ones teasing him with the back brace on.
"Instead of sitting there saying, 'Oh man this stinks.' That gets the kid down too. They just ripped him and kept his spirits up. It's been amazing to watch that group."
Denny's coach, who called Toby's intelligence on the court almost unmatchable, is impressed given Denny's comeback is different than most.
"It's funny he's not just a kid coming back from back surgery," Gable said. "He's a kid who has to work twice as hard just about any kid we've played because he receives so much defensive attention."
Denny, who has torn his MCL and injured his PCL while avoiding surgery on both, is thankful he's back on the hardwood for the final chapter of his high school hoops career.
"Every injury I've had God has enabled me to fully recover," Denny said. "He's guided me and watched over me. Any setback I've had, I've recovered and I'm grateful for that."
Final go-around
Chasing goals outsiders might consider farfetched, Chatty is ready to make some noise with its leader, Denny, back.
"We feel like we got a shot and that's all you can ask for," Gable said. "We are good enough to get to the Area tournament where anything can happen, but we also know if things don't go right, we could get bounced that first night. It's such a thin line."
Denny missed the first six games. Without him, Chatty fell to 0-6. The Warriors (6-17) are much more dangerous than their record having two overtime losses and five losses by six points or less.
Chatty, which has taken down Geronimo (19-6) twice, has also played eight ranked Class A and Class B teams.
"We are battle tested and peaking at the right moment," Gable said. "This first round game against Blair is gonna be a battle."
As seniors, this is the last go-around for Denny, Bailey and Hutson, who Denny called the most uncredited guys on the team, are hoping to make some noise and prove everything happens for a reason.
"Defense hardly ever goes in the stat book, but Michael is a top defender in Class B basketball. I'm biased, whatever," Denny said. "He's at the top of the line, defensively. He's fantastic. Caleb is the driving force behind everything. He's the energizer."
Denny doesn't want to let them down.
"I want to know I've done everything I can to give our guys the opportunity to go as deep as we can," Denny said. "I want to fulfill what we each want to achieve and leave everything out there on the court."
**Editor's Note: Despite an impressive final game from Denny, Chatty lost in the Area tournament to Indiahoma, which made the state tournament, on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime, ending Denny's high school career.