Inspired by courageous performances

There's something about untimely injuries that can be gut-wrenching to more than just the injured athletes.

I had been planning for more than a month to write my column this week about one particular athlete whose senior track season was derailed by an injury.

But then, in the span of a few hours at the Far West League district meet on Saturday, my plan changed from writing about the disappointment of injury to the heart-warming experience of watching an athlete compete with an injury.

I was talking with some athletes near the track during the girls 400-meter final when I saw Brookings-Harbor's Nicole Nowlin come racing around the corner with her arm in a cast and sling. I'd never actually seen a person run a race like that before, and I instantly thought it was cool - cool because that student wanted to participate at district, even if she finished last, just to participate.

And Nowlin wasn't the only story of courage at the meet on Saturday.

North Bend's Alishia Newman was just a few feet from the finish line on the way to winning the 100 meters when she tripped and crashed onto the track, suffering multiple scrapes. She was obviously in pain, and upset, after the race. But an hour later, she was back on the track winning the 200 meters.

I found out later that Newman had to overcome injuries from a car accident before the season just to compete this spring.

And later in the day, North Bend's Jory Lara crashed on his final attempt in the triple jump, dislocating his shoulder.

All week, Lara had been looking forward to the meet-ending 4x400-meter relay, where the Bulldogs had a chance to qualify for state. Suddenly, all the joy of setting personal bests in both the long jump and triple jump was lost in the tremendous pain of his shoulder injury.

But, amazingly, after a quick visit with North Bend trainer Mark Wells, there was Lara back on the track, his shoulder heavily wrapped, to run the relay.

North Bend didn't make it to state, but Lara put up a courageous effort trying to help his team get there.

It's worth noting, as long as we're talking about injuries, that Wells has been something of a super trainer for the Bulldogs this year. He patched up both Lara and Newman, as well as athletes from other schools, at the district meet, and also helped North Bend's Andrew Greif and Heidi Davison recover from injuries earlier in the season. Wells also was the trainer who helped keep the Bulldog girls basketball team on the court through injuries during its run to the state championship in March.

The athlete I originally intended to write about this week is Bandon's Nikki Smith. As a junior, Smith won both the hurdles races at the Class 2A state meet, and her future was promising enough that she earned a scholarship to Portland State University.

But at the start of basketball season, she cracked her knee and needed to have two screws surgically inserted to help it heal.

Her senior year of basketball was gone. So, she would later find out, was her track season.

I talked with Smith for a long time during the Coos County Meet. She was on the outside of the fence watching when, if life were fair, she would have been inside winning two more county titles.

She said she cried the first couple of times she saw the hurdles races at meets this spring. Though she couldn't compete, she was helping groom a new young hurdler at Bandon, freshman Avery Richards, doing all she could as a teammate, hoping somehow her knee would heal in time for her to compete again in the hurdles at district and state.

It didn't.

But Smith still wanted to compete somehow, anyhow. She had thrown the javelin her junior year, and got to be relatively good, tossing the spear better than 100 feet before turning her entire focus to the track.

Bandon coach Jim Boyd entered her in the event last week at the Big Fir League's district meet, and though she couldn't do a proper running approach - Boyd called it more of a slow jog - Smith got eighth place at the meet.

It's not what she wanted, which was a shot at the hurdles. But it was a chance to compete, and something any athlete or coach should be proud of.

"I was glad she wanted to do something," said Boyd. "I was just tickled to death that she could take part."

Ironically, Richards, the young hurdler Nikki has been tutoring, crashed twice during the finals in the high hurdles on Saturday, getting up after falling to the track the first time only to crash over another barrier. Still, she got up and finished the race.

It was yet another courageous story.

It's a sad story. But it's a positive one, too.