Persistence pays off for Vernon Hills' Groody

For the last three years, very little about basketball put a smile on the face of Vernon Hills' Kirsten Groody.

That's why she is savoring every minute of an immensely satisfying and in some ways completely unexpected senior year.

"When I went into the season, I wasn't really expecting to see the floor a lot," she said. "I was expecting to be more of a water person."

Instead, she's played a much more important role for the Cougars (12-13).

"She can start or come off the bench," coach Paul Brettner said. "She can hit some shots and is one of our better defenders. She can do a whole lot of things for us, and she's a role model for the younger kids."

Groody's best game may have come, appropriately enough, last Friday on Senior Night. She scored a team-high 13 points as Vernon Hills held off Round Lake 48-46.

"That was awesome," she said. "It was a really hard decision to come back for another year and I'm glad I made it."

Groody, best known athletically for being the Cougars' No. 1 golfer the last two years, considered herself more of a basketball player before arriving at Vernon Hills.

At a routine physical prior to the start of high school, she had some blood drawn. The results showed Groody had idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. More simply put, this meant her platelet count was low. As a result, contact sports would be risky because if she began to bleed there was concern her blood would not clot fast enough.

The diagnosis was particularly surprising because there were no symptoms.

"It was a total shock," she said.

Groody did not let the condition sap her love of basketball. She participated in the non-contact drills on the freshman team and she also was the team manager. Her most memorable moment was when she was inserted at the end of one game.

"They had me cherry picking and I took one shot; it rimmed in and out," she said with a grimace.

By the start of her sophomore year, her condition had improved enough that she was cleared to join the team. She saw playing time on the sophomore team, but her season was cut short when she broke a finger on her right (shooting) hand.

As a junior, her season started out on a promising note. Then, out of nowhere her lower back started acting up.

"She was real close to earning playing time when her back went all goofy for six weeks," Brettner said. "It was another huge setback."

At the time, Groody thought that would be the last time she would put on a Vernon Hills basketball uniform.

"I had never been able to play a full season," she said.. "Three strikes and you're out."

The one positive from her health issues was that she became increasingly enamored with the game of golf. She knew golf presented substantially less risk of getting injured. Not one to feel sorry for herself, Groody, a top student who will attend Notre Dame last year, also spent her time as a key member of several clubs at school.

When golf season ended in the fall, Groody's teammates started a daily sales pitch that would have impressed an up-and-coming college football recruiting coordinator.

"We put a lot of pressure on her," senior guard Jamie Rucks said. "We told her she needed to play and how much of an impact she would have. (This season) wouldn't have been the same without her."

Groody is glad she listened.

"I wouldn't have stuck with it if it wasn't for coach Brettner and my teammates," she said. "They were so encouraging."