Steele Venters has been cleared to return to the court. Now Gonzaga’s veteran wing looks to regain his confidence

Steele Venters has had his share of medical consultations the past two years, many of which the 24-year-old Gonzaga wing probably wouldn’t care to revisit.

Two years ago, one appointment confirmed an ACL tear to his right knee just a handful of days before the highly touted Eastern Washington transfer and former Big Sky Player of the Year was set to debut for the 11th-ranked Zags.

Last August, Venters suspected he’d ruptured an Achilles while running off a screen during an individual workout with Gonzaga assistant Stephen Gentry. Doctors confirmed a left tendon tear later the same day, effectively restarting the yearlong clock on Venters’ rehabilitation process.

Long overdue for some good news, Venters left his latest medical check-in with a beaming smile.

Three weeks ago, doctors cleared Venters to return to basketball activities without any restrictions. The next step is a green light from Gonzaga’s athletic training staff.

Venters is back to participating in 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 drills, but the Zags are keeping him out of full-court, full-contact 5-on-5 games, giving him a chance to rebuild strength and stamina before he goes “live.”

“So, I would say I’m about a month away,” Venters told The Spokesman-Review last Saturday at Spokane Hoopfest. “I probably could go right now, but coaches are just trying to ease me into it, not try to force it. It’s June, so there’s no reason to force it right now. I feel great, I’m gaining confidence in it every day. I feel like that’s one of the biggest things for me is just trying to gain confidence that it’s not going to happen again. So just that and trying to trust the Lord that it’s going to be fine.”

Everything is tracking in the right direction for Venters, who hasn’t played a game in more than 800 days, since Eastern Washington’s 71-60 loss to Oklahoma State in a postseason NIT matchup on March 19, 2023.

Venters missed two full seasons with major injuries after hardly encountering an ankle sprain in four years at EWU. He made 66 appearances over three seasons with the Eagles (Venters redshirted in 2019-20), missing just one game during the 2021-22 season, when former EWU coach David Riley held his star wing out of a 39-point win over NAIA Multnomah for precautionary reasons. Venters returned and played 27 minutes in the team’s next game, seven days later against Texas Tech.

“Well, yeah, there’s been some dark days, for sure,” said father Wade Venters, who has his own experience with crippling basketball injuries, suffering an ACL tear before he played at Central Washington. “I thought when he hurt his knee the first time, I thought OK, here we go. He’ll be done with that and right back to playing again. But then when the second one happened, it was tough and I know for him, sitting on the bench watching, (he) struggled.

“But he’s a grinder, when he can be in the gym he’s in the gym. He’ll be back, he’ll be back better than ever.”

Venters was recently pictured going through a variety of dribbling and shooting drills in an Instagram video posted by Buckets Gym, a training facility in Liberty Lake.

In parts of the video, Venters is seen dribbling between the legs while simultaneously tossing a tennis ball to himself, dribbling through a course of waist-high obstacles, moving through a set of cones while bouncing the ball behind his back and dribbling full speed into pull-up shots from various parts of the court.

Physically speaking, Venters is able to do most, if not all, the things he did three seasons ago at EWU, where he earned Big Sky Player of the Year honors while averaging 15.3 points per game on 37% shooting from the 3-point line.

Clearing another set of mental hurdles will be the next step for Venters as he gets closer to making his debut in a Gonzaga uniform.

“I think it’s really just trying to visualize me being out on the court,” he said. “I played four years at Eastern, then I’ve had two back-to-back injuries, so just trying to gain that confidence and be positive.”

One key resource has been Venters’ agent, Greg Lawrence of Wasserman Basketball.

Venters signed with Lawrence before either of his injuries , but the partnership has been fortuitous for reasons the Gonzaga player couldn’t have anticipated. Lawrence represents former Zag Domantas Sabonis and a number of other NBA players, but one of his most recognizable clients is Klay Thompson, the former Washington State guard who went through the same injuries, and in the same order as Venters, toward the end of his tenure with the Golden State Warriors.

Lawrence hasn’t connected the two, but he’s been able to lend perspective and give advice to Venters after going through the same hardships with Thompson.

The NBA veteran’s comeback story could also be a source of hope and inspiration for Venters. Thompson, like Venters, missed two full seasons before returning to help Golden State capture an NBA title in 2021-22. The guard didn’t return to his All-Star form at both ends of the court, but still posted solid offensive numbers, averaging better than 20 ppg while hitting 38% of his 3-pointers.

“My agent obviously went through the same thing with him, so he’s been giving me advice throughout the whole thing,” Venters said. “Just stay positive, keep your head up and trust the process.”

Venters will spend the next months looking to regain confidence in different areas of his game, perhaps with the exception of one. The 6-foot-7 wing from Ellensburg assures he’s never lost faith in his shooting ability, probably no surprise to anyone who followed his career at EWU.

“No, never,” Venters said. “That’s always been the same. It’ll always stay the same.”

In 2021-22, Venters ranked No. 7 in the NCAA with a 3-point percentage of 43.4%. His length, wingspan and quick release should all be weapons for Gonzaga on the perimeter next season, particularly on the heels of a season when the Bulldogs didn’t meet their standard from the 3-point line, shooting 34.4% .

“He feels like he just wants to give so much to this program and he wants to show people,” Wade Venters said.

Corey Kispert, a fellow sharpshooter and Washington native, got to know the former EWU player during open runs at John Stockton’s downtown Warehouse basketball facility.

In interviews after committing to the Zags, Venters said GU’s coaching staff hoped he’d fill a Kispert-like role, at least on the offensive end with his ability to run off screens and knock down catch-and-shoot opportunities.

Kispert had a chance to play and spend time with Venters when the fifth-year NBA player and former Zag returned to Spokane last weekend for Hoopfest.

“It was good to see Steele out there,” Kispert said. “I know he’s had a little bit of a difficult journey and a lot of roadblocks, so to get him back on the court as soon as possible playing and doing what he loves to do will be really cool.”

Venters can move, cut, run and jump the way he could prior to the Achilles injury, but trainers and coaches want him to err on the side of caution, knowing the Zags are still four months from playing.

It’s much easier said than done for someone who’s been champing at the bit to start scrimmaging with a new set of Gonzaga teammates and solidify his role on next year’s team.

“For sure, yeah,” Venters said. “It’s tough to sit on the sidelines knowing I could be out there, but at the same time I have to do what’s best for me and that’s the best thing for the team right now. We have a great group coming, so they’ve made it really easy and everyone’s supporting me right now.”

Venters’ latest injury is still fresh and there’s reasonable trepidation about his return to the court, given when his last two setbacks occurred and the window that still exists between now and the start of Gonzaga’s season.

That hasn’t stopped Venters and those in his circle from anticipating and visualizing a moment that’s been two years in the making.

“I can’t even,” Wade Venters said. “When they call his name … I’m getting kind of teared up (thinking) about it.”