The RoundHouse | 4/13/2018 11:36:00 AM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
The end of Kaylee Huecker's athletic career rested on a desk in front of her, a piece of paper a signature away from completion and acceptance that a back injury no longer allowed her to do the thing she loved most – dive for softballs and rob base hits.
 
"We had talked and decided this last appointment I was going to was going to be my last one before I signed the paper and officially ended it," she said. "It was really tough knowing all I had worked for all my life was about to be taken away."
 
By signing a form that designated her back injury as career-ending, Huecker could remain on scholarship at Wichita State. She could study, graduate, work as a manager, but not play again as a Shocker. 
 
"When you file that career medical paperwork, she's done," Shocker coach Kristi Bredbenner said. 
 
Two days later, Huecker went to that final appointment in Wichita, late in 2016. She walked in expecting uncertainty and disappointment from an MRI that told previous doctors nothing. She walked out with new life for softball. The doctor diagnosed her with a herniated disc, one difficult to detect, that blocked a nerve root and limited the mobility in her left leg and caused her lower back to stiffen.
 
Huecker was two weeks out from a different doctor telling her surgery would not fix the problem and the back injury could bother her the rest of her life. The end of her softball days seemed inevitable.
 
The meeting in Bredbenner's office followed with the paperwork looming. Then the last-gasp visit to another doctor. 
 
"A miracle – that was probably the ninth doctor I had seen," she said. "I was shocked. He sat down right away and was like 'This is what's wrong with you. I can do a simple, quick surgery to fix it.'"
 
Crying, she called her mother to deliver the good news. 
 
"She heard me crying and thought it was over," Huecker said.
 
Surgery in January 2017 started Huecker's recovery. She started the first game of Wichita State's 2018 season at second base and every game since. She is strong defender, able to play shortstop and third base, with good range and great instincts. 
 
"Now we've got a middle infielder for the next four years we can work with," Bredbenner said. "She's tall, she's long. She does a great job of making the big plays. She's a gifted shortstop that's now a gifted second baseman."
 
Wichita State (22-15, 5-4 American Athletic Conference) travels to Houston (25-14, 4-5) for a three-game series that starts at 6 p.m. Friday. 
 
Huecker, from Lake St. Louis, Mo., came to Wichita State in August 2015. She said she injured her back while lifting weights before the 2016 season and started five games before the injury ended her season. On the plane ride home from a tournament in Alabama, teammate Cassidy Kelsheimer said she could barely move.
 
"I had been noticing it had been hurting a lot," Huecker said. "I dove for a ball and couldn't walk after that. 
 
Rehab from surgery took her out of the 2017 season. Throughout the pain, the mystery, the frustration, she leaned on coaches and teammates for hope. Kelsheimer, a junior from Strong City, Kan., drove her to Walgreen's for medicine and kept the best parts of softball in her mind. Teammate Bethany Canada, a junior from DeSoto, Mo., played with Huecker during the summer and also worked on memories of good health and good games.
 
"I think what really helped me most was that Cassidy did get to see my play a little bit before I got hurt and she was always telling me 'You're such a good infielder,' and constantly reminding me that I'll get back to hit," Huecker said. "That was something I definitely held close."
 
Kelsheimer and Huecker lived together for two years and Huecker grew close with the Kelsheimer family, who often made the 80-mile drive from Strong City. Sometimes, Kelsheimer had to help Huecker in and out of the car.
 
"I get it from my parents – we've always been those kind of people where if a tough situation happens, we want to help people through it," Kelsheimer said. "It was hard to see her go through it. I had never seen anything like that happen."
 
Kelsheimer watched her roommate take a succession of doctor visits without relief.
 
"The only thing you can do is tell her that God has a plan," Kelsheimer said. "When the doctors aren't giving her great news, it's hard to keep someone positive, but you have to try to fill her with good things and pray and hope things will work out in the end and they did."
 
Fans can see that every time Huecker ranges to snag a groundball, rises to her feet and throws. That action – jumping, stretching, seeing the ball stick in the glove – is her favorite part of the game.
 
"I love to dive," she said. "Obviously, diving kind of hurts a little bit, but it's a feeling you get after you make a cool, diving play that really sticks with you."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.