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At the beginning of Wednesday practice, Edith Hutt (center) listens to her coach go over the game she and her Courtland varsity volleyball team played the night before.
Courtland senior Edith Hutt takes part in a serving drill at practice yesterday. The transfer from Stonewall Jackson is recovering from a fracture in her spine that forced her to miss the entire 2004 volleyball season.
Edith Hutt, a senior at Courtland High School, says she's pain-free after recovering from a bad back injury last season. |
By ADAM HIMMELSBACH
One year ago, she was confined to her home, nursing a back that felt as if it'd been cracked like a lobster tail.
She couldn't go to school, because sitting for an entire class period turned her into a mound of ache. She couldn't go to the movies. She couldn't run. She couldn't do much of anything.
Obviously, then, Edith Hutt couldn't play volleyball. That part hurt the most.
So today, to see the senior running and setting and spiking for the Courtland Cougars without a flinch, it's nothing short of amazing. She's a bundle of power and grace.
For a time, the transfer from Stonewall Jackson wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to do any of this again.
During the spring of 2004, her sophomore year, Hutt started having lower back pain while tossing a discus for the Stonewall Jackson track team. Doctors told her it was just a muscle strain, so she kept throwing. She plopped bags of ice onto her back after practice each day, and kept throwing.
The pain worsened. She told herself she wouldn't be stopped by a stupid strain. She stayed active through the summer.
By last August it was no longer possible to sweep the pain under the carpet. Hutt woke up one morning and couldn't bend over.
She went back to the doctor. They told her she had fractures in her first and fourth lumbar vertebrae. They told her she couldn't play volleyball.
For Hutt, that wasn't an option. She took painkillers and showed up for the first day of practice. Somehow, she made it through tryouts and the first game of the season, but then she could barely move. Her volleyball season was over.
It got worse. When she went to class and sat for extended periods, the pain was unbearable, so she was home-schooled for several months. She watched as the volleyball team won a district championship. They won it without her, and that part wasn't easy to swallow.
Hutt wore a large back brace, taking it off only when she went to sleep.
As winter arrived, she grew depressed. This wasn't the life a vibrant and active teenage girl was supposed to live.
"Emotionally, it was such a hard year for her," said Julie Nothnagel, an assistant coach for the Stonewall Jackson track team who volunteered to be Hutt's home-bound teacher. "She was always home, and when she wasn't, she couldn't really do anything."
In January Hutt had the brace removed and started attending physical therapy sessions three times a week. She strengthened her core muscles by doing Pilates.
"I could actually feel my back getting strong again," she said. "I told myself I would get through it."
Hutt's family moved from Manassas to Fredericksburg in June. The rising senior started seeing a personal trainer, and her strength and stamina increased each day.
Courtland volleyball coach Bob Hott heard about the powerful outside hitter who'd come to town. He contacted the girl and asked if she was thinking about joining the team. It was like asking a chef if he was thinking about cooking dinner.
"During tryouts it was like, 'Wow'," Hott said. "She's a very solid passer and her mechanics for hitting are very good. I was very excited."
It can be difficult for a senior transfer student to plop herself into a new school and join a new team without knowing a soul.
Hutt's had no trouble.
Her teammates and coaches selected her to be a co-captain and she's slated to replace 2004 Free Lance-Star player of the year Nikki Denue as the Cougars' starting outside hitter.
"She's going to start reaching and snapping some balls, and she'll be able to spread the blocks out," Hott said. "They're not going to be able to ignore her."
Hutt still plays with a tinge of tenuousness. She worries that if she makes a wrong move, she might tweak something and have to go through this all over again. But each day, she grows more comfortable and confident. She's learned that you can't take anything for granted.
"I'm just so glad to be back playing again," she said, smiling. "It feels wonderful."
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