Sportsbeat by Peter Jakey–Combating the pain with fierce competitiveness
Time is precious to Rogers City High School senior Katie Tulgestke. With June looming closer by the day, the Huron basketball captain, who has suffered numerous injuries in her short high school career, is determined to not waste a moment of it.
At practice Monday, with no game for almost a week, Tulgestke was hustling up and down the full length of the court, making a shot on offense and harassing teammates while on defense. It was easy to see Katie was loving every minute of it. ?She just looks forward to practice,? said basketball coach Emily McLean. ?I mean, who looks forward to practice? Basketball makes her happy and that?s why she gives it her all out there.?
Once the action stops, and the adrenaline stops flowing as much, the pain sinks in. ?This isn?t doing so hot right now,? said Tulgestke, trying to catch her breath and grimacing from the pain of an ankle that has bothered her since the start of the basketball season. ?I tweaked it a little in the Rudyard game (last Friday).? Tulgestke?s list of injuries is longer than most people?s resumes. She?s fractured both wrists, her right ankle twice, fingers, as well as sprained her ankle too many times to count.
The most serious of the injuries took place in a powder-puff football game in the fall of 2008. She was running with the ball, and when she went to make a cut, her body went one way, while the knee went another. The injury required the entire reconstruction of her left anterior cruciate ligament, a six to eight-month recovery. She missed the entire 2008-09 basketball season.
?Not playing last year opened up my eyes so much,? said Katie. ?I know people don?t mean to do it, but they take for granted what they have. I did it before I tore my ACL. ?Sports are what I love to do. I love sports. Coming back this year, I wanted to get the full basketball experience and work hard every day.?
Her mother Kathy was her therapist, which offered entirely different challenges. ?Not only did I have to do the exercises in therapy, but I also had to do my exercises before I went to bed,? said Katie. ?Actually, it?s kind of tough,? said Kathy. ?She couldn?t get away with anything.? She recovered in time to play shortstop for the Hurons in the spring and lead the team in hitting.
Unfortunately, Katie re-injured the knee in volleyball this past fall. Katie has heard all the jokes about being the walking wounded and that she needs to be in a plastic bubble, but don?t expect her to stop, or slow down for that matter. Recently, a basketball practice was cancelled because of bad driving conditions, yet she got together with family members and played in a pole barn for two hours. ?She tells us all the time ?I will only give 110% at my practices and my games because I have all of last year to make up for and I cant get that back,? ? said Katie?s mom, Kath
?She brings a lot of heart,? said McLean. ?That kid will give everything for you, even though she?s in pain.? She wears a lumbering ACL knee brace and uses Brege Ultra ankle braces on both feet. Teammate Sam Hall calls them her ?bionicles.? Softball coach Karl Grambau said Katie is a ?determined young lady,? who has a drive to compete. ?She will always do her best for herself and the team.? Grambau also said Katie hasn?t let her grades slip through all the physical trials and remains a RCHS honor student with plans of becoming a K-9 officer following her studies at Ferris State University.
?Now that things have calmed down, we just keep our fingers crossed that she can coast through her senior year, enjoy the competition and that her teams will have success,? said Kathy. Through the pain, the blood, the sweat and the tears Katie continues to push herself and her teammates with her fierce drive to compete and her heart of a champion.