You should know Jada.
You should have seen her at camp. She’s a sophomore in a program that has celebrated success the past couple of seasons centered around her sister Mya, the teams setter…all 5-3 of her. Jada loves being taller than her “big” sister, loves volleyball and basketball and plays both plus other sports since she is one of a handful of female athletes at her high school which houses less students daily than a slow day at the Phoenix DMV.
She worked hard the two and a half days of camp with temps in the mid 80’s in a gym lacking A/C. She hung with the older players, working on her jump serve and her approach and diving for loose balls with one minor difference.
Her pain was visible. Her foot would drag behind her in an awkward angle. She had a noticeable limp when she walked and ran. She grimaced with every move, with every pivot and pushed off her legs that had betrayed her heading into adulthood.
Her knees were disheveled causing her pain and imbalance. At the end of June, Jada had a tibial tubercle osteotomy where bone was cut and refitted. She will be in a brace and wheel chair for the next few months and then 4-6 months of rehab.
Three months into that rehab, the other leg will be done.
Jada never whined, never complained or tried to get out of what everyone was doing despite the fact she was hurting. She never made excuses and kept her focus and intensity the entire two and a half days of camp. She was a few weeks from a life altering pair of surgeries that will affect her social and athletic life as a high school junior.
She says, “I’m happy that the pain might go away but I will be mad if I have to miss any junior year sports.”
You should meet Zay. She lives in a small town in north Texas. She is new to volleyball but a wonderful basketball player and has the strength and power that high school coaches drool over. She is personable, loves taking selfies but seems moody at times.
On the first day of camp, during a demo and explanation of a jump serve, she soured. She became withdrawn and angry that she couldn’t get her steps right, that she kept hitting the ball under the net. Her camp coach blindly told her to stay with it, she’d get it but her anger lead to her becoming withdrawn and mentally checking out of the session, basically giving up and feeling she was now behind everyone else in a sport she was just learning.
Zay is dyslexic. She had struggled with it from her early childhood and at times, her frustration with learning bubbled over into her athletic life as well.
The coach saw her checking out and realizing a potential that lie inside of her, spent the first 15 minutes of her lunch going over the steps with her alone. She was a little embarrassed at first but warmed to the one on one coaching. She got the steps and started making clean contact on the ball. She smiled for the first time in a few hours and her confidence grew with each piece of feedback.
After lunch, Zay was cracking jump serves much to the delight of her teammates and coaches. She fought through her demons and served them off the court; her confident smile lighting up her gym just a little bit more.
I wish you could meet Lauren.
She is a six foot statuesque bundle of funny and charming with prominent cheek bones normally found on the cover of fashion magazines. She works hard in the gym and has been a relentless and constant contributor to her high school program in the Pacific Northwest.
Last season, she noticed during pre season camp she felt weak and out of shape. She was prodded to work harder in the weight room and she did but with little result. Season started and her energy lacked. She began to lose weight and the coaching staff called her Parents attention to it.
They balked at first but as her eyes began to bulge out of her head and her eyesight worsened, they realized she had the symptoms of a family ailment they had hoped she would avoid: Graves' disease. Her thyroid gland was basically running like an Indy car engine all the time which was causing her to lose weight and adding to her symptoms. Lauren’s promising senior year was derailed and she wound up watching some of the final games of her teams season from the bench.
She has taken prescriptions but may require more treatment and ultimately surgery. She has handled it in her way: with humor and deflection. She has spent the summer with friends and teammates, at the lake and parks and going to ball games. While she doesn’t talk about it, she worries that her eyesight may be affected going forward. She has too much to see heading to Arizona for college.
Dusty eyes opened a little wider and ears and minds kept open a little longer and things we might have missed become clearer.
Heroes are all around us, but most of the time, they keep their secret identities: just everyday stories where heroes battle demons and villains. They surround us if we pay attention and they change OUR lives with just a casual interaction.
These are our heroes. Quiet, unassuming but courageous: on the court or off. They raise the bar for us all.
No capes necessary.
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