Ashley Lake can deal with the pain.
It’s a part of who she is, and what she always will be.
She’s never known anything but pain.
A sore hip sitting in class. A swollen knee that forces a noticeable limp as she walks the halls at Emporia High School. A shoulder that screams for mercy at the slightest bit of overuse.
The senior middle blocker for Emporia High’s volleyball team was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis when she was just 23 months old, and she has gone her entire life with at least some sort of ache or pang afflicting her body.
That includes when she plays sports.
“I don’t really know how it feels to play sports and not be in pain,” Lake said. “I guess I’m used to it.”
Ice doesn’t help. Practices make her sore, much more so than the average athlete. Rest and medication are the only things that bring a sense of dulling calmness to her ever-aching body.
The pain of sports? That’s nothing.
“When you decide that you want to be an athlete, you’re going to have to deal with pain,” EHS volleyball coach Kendra Bloomquist said. “She’s known that for some time now, but I don’t know that she knows it any other way. Pain is just an everyday thing to her.”
***
It’s the summer before her junior year, and Ashley Lake is playing in a summer league basketball game.
In the middle of the game, Lake comes over to the sideline holding her hand.
She had broken her finger, and it was a gruesome break.
“She came off the court and her finger was cranked clear sideways,” Bloomquist said. “Most people would faint or something, but she just said something like, ‘It kind of hurts.’ She was ready to go back out onto the court.”
Lake did go back out onto the court and ended up finishing that basketball game.
Only when the swelling went down the next day — and she saw the exposed bone protruding from her knuckle — did Lake finally go to the doctor.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Lake said, shrugging off the episode as if it were a scraped knee. “I’m always in pain, so I guess I’m pretty tough when it comes to being hurt.
“Pain to me is different.”
It was that kind of toughness that had Emporia High girls basketball coach Bill Nienstedt excited about having Lake on his team for Lake’s junior year.
“The second part of her sophomore season, she was a major contributor to our varsity team,” Nienstedt said. “She was just kind of coming into her own as a basketball player, and we were thinking she had a really, really bright future ahead of her.”
But during volleyball season last year, Lake came down with mono, and it floored her.
The illness had a heightening effect on her arthritis. She could barely walk. There were days where she couldn’t get out of bed because the pain was so great.
Playing sports? Out of the question.
She went from being a three-sport athlete — she also swam in the spring — to one where there was some question as to whether she would ever participate in anything again.
“She went through a tough time,” Nienstedt said, “and it was really hard to see her struggling like that.”
Lake missed weeks and weeks of school. She missed a good chunk of the volleyball season and all of basketball and swimming.
It was being away from basketball that really got to her.
“Basketball is actually my favorite,” Lake said. “It was difficult not being able to play.”
She recovered, though not completely. She still has mono in her system, and she often has to take extended breaks during volleyball matches to rest.
Still, knowing that the simple act of walking was at times too much for her to handle less than a year ago makes seeing Lake dive for a ball or slam down a hard kill across the net nothing short of inspiring to those who watch her.
“I think it’s just remarkable that she’s been able to come back and play volleyball this year,” Nienstedt said.
***
No one would fault Ashley Lake if she simply quit, citing the pain as being too much to handle.
But she can’t do that.
“I love sports too much to give up completely,” she said.
Her will and determination show on the volleyball court. Lake leads the Lady Spartans in digs (287) and hitting percentage (.240), is second on the team in block assists (29) and is third in service aces (11), kills (102) and receiving (2.2 on 3.0 scale).
She is considered one of Emporia’s most powerful hitters, capable of blasting shots nearly straight down when provided a good set.
“You wouldn’t have any idea that she’s been dealing with this her whole life,” Bloomquist said. “If you watch her play back there, with as low as she gets and as quick as she moves, you don’t know that she’s dealing with what she’s dealing with. You wouldn’t have any idea at all.”
The obvious question becomes how an arthritic teenager can subject her already ailing body to the rigors of playing a sport.
There have been times when Lake’s teammates have had to help her up off the court after she’s made a dive for a ball, simply because the pain is too much to overcome on her own. After games, she said she feels “like I’m stuck in an old person’s body.”
But her reasoning for playing is quite simple. Sports take her away from dealing with and thinking about being sore. A volleyball match can mean an hour or so of welcome relief, a time to forget that her body is screaming at her to stop what she is doing and just rest.
“When I get up and move around and play, I forget that I have arthritis,” she said. “At least, until after the game’s over. Then I feel it again. But playing sports, it’s a good way to forget about it.”
Ashley Lake can deal with the pain.
It’s knowing that one day she might have to give up playing sports that she has a hard time accepting.
“I wouldn’t have anything to look forward to,” Lake said. “I can’t imagine my life without sports.”
soccermon (anonymous) says...
Ashley is one of the greatest kids I have had the pleasure to know. She never complains. You go girl!
October 9, 2007 at 11:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )