McNamara a study in perseverence
What follows is a story of spirit.
In 2012 Kate McNamara felt her back go out of whack in a wakeboarding wipeout. Fast forward nearly five years and she is bidding for a spot at the U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships this June with a long-term goal of reaching the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Getting from there to here obviously was a bumpy ride.
Had she been satisfied boarding behind the boat that day in August 2012 her script would be different. Always the athlete, challenge beckoned and a wave twisted the 2005 Glenbard South graduate, now at age 30 a special education assistant and assistant girls track coach at Glenbard North.
"Right then and there I knew something really hurt," she said.
Diagnosed with a herniated disc, McNamara dug into physical therapy but saw no improvement. She then received two sets of epidural steroid injections, the second of which had her pain-free for about a year.
In 2015 came a dangerous one-two of a spring car accident that knocked her unconscious and a summer bicycle wreck where she flipped over the handlebars and onto her back. In November her back suddenly went out for a week.
"I'm like, I'm 28 years old, what's wrong?" she wondered.
For starters there was that herniated disc. It was compounded by a degenerative flattening of the disc between vertebrae L5 and S1, which spine-health.com tells us is the lumbosacral joint. Also, a tear of the disc's annular ring.
On St. Patrick's Day 2016 McNamara finally had surgery. It brought little luck to this lass.
Two days after surgery, she said, pain extended from the back of her neck down her left leg. She spent the next eight days in the hospital, then more than three weeks as an inpatient at a rehabilitation facility to deal with the fallout of three blood clots, swelling and pain in her left leg, and nerve problems that remain unsolved.
Structurally her back is sound, but due to lost muscle mass and nerve problems McNamara developed hip problems and foot drop; even with two leg braces she cannot walk any real distance.
Initially concerned she'd be limited to a wheelchair, through sessions with Warrenville physical therapist Deborah Walter ("she's been awesome," McNamara said) she can use crutches to get around before tiring.
"Giving up is not an option," McNamara said, while doctors continue to look into her nerve irregularity.
Last summer she joined a wheelchair softball team and played second base, third base and outfield for the Lincoln-Way Special Recreation Association Hawks, who finished eighth at the 2016 Wheelchair Softball World Series in Biloxi, Mississippi.
"Being on a team, to me, has always been important," she said. "Being on a team and playing sports has been who I am my whole life."
A thrower in track and field in middle school and for a year at College of DuPage, McNamara has since connected with the Great Lakes Adapative Sports Association. After practice efforts of about 60 feet in discus and 20 feet in shot put she'll compete for the first time in those two events plus javelin on Sunday at the Dairyland Games in Madison, Wisconsin.
"Sunday is kind of a primer, a warmup, sort of finding out how things work," said McNamara, an Eastern Illinois graduate now in Northern Illinois' graduate program to be a learning behavior specialist.
Starting a GoFundMe campaign to help finance the costs of travel and accommodations, uniforms and meet entry fees, McNamara will apply what she learns in Wisconsin at the Desert Challenge Games in Arizona on May 12-13. Her distance in discus practice surpasses the qualifying mark for the U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships June 2-4 in Los Angeles, but she's first got to prove it in Arizona.
"It does add up," she said of the expense, "which is the unfortunate side of it. But it's a dream I've got, and I don't want to give up on it because I can't afford it."
Part of McNamara's dream is representing family and country. Her father, Brian, and late grandfather, Ray, were Army men. Between asthma and her travails over the past five years that heritage is not in her cards.
"For me to ever be able to wear USA on my chest and represent our country I think would probably just be the most humbling experience ever, and my opportunity to represent the United States would be a dream come true," she said.
From the brink
On Tuesday Montini's boys volleyball team won its first conference title led by a coach who admits that when the season began he was little more than the bus driver.
Brian Opoka, who resigned the boys basketball position after the 2014-15 season to spend more time with his family, said he was asked in October to guide the boys volleyball team. Initially declining, after speaking with his wife, Donna, he reconsidered despite having no experience in the sport whatsoever.
He did have support in the form of staff members Laura Medina, Marie Becker and former Bronco Matt Vogrin, whose younger brothers Joe and Drew are key players. Becker gave Opoka volleyball drill videos to study on the fly.
Opoka said the program was actually in peril of vanishing several years ago as well had not Montini graduate Dan Vashinko taken the reigns at the time.
"We were just happy to have a coach so we were able to get a team going and be able to play," senior outside hitter Joe Vogrin said Tuesday after the Broncos beat DePaul Prep in two games to finish 6-0 in the Chicago Catholic League White Division.
"I was shocked at being able to win conference and being able win some tough games along the way," Vogrin said.
In past years Opoka said open gyms attracted around 13 players. This year about twice that showed up, and Montini is a program 28 strong, including four-year outside hitter Michael Orr and right-side Charlie Woods, a club player.
"This team is the best team, chemistry-wise, we've had in the program," Orr said. "It's like a brotherhood here. That's what helped achieve our goals."
Perhaps surprisingly, goals included a conference title and a playoff win or two. Not bad for a squad whose head coach didn't know how to fill out a lineup card much less set defenses, as Opoka does now.
"Between Marie and Laura and Matt we were able to set practices up and we just kept working and we were able to get better and better each week," Opoka said.
ICYMI
Email can be a vast repository. To lessen the load on the computer server, or whatever, here are a few things formerly retained within.
Earlier this year the Illinois High School Association announced its 2015-16 state coaches of the year. DuPage County winners included Timothy Christian boys soccer coach Stephen Fernandes, Downers Grove South softball coach Ron Havelka and Wheaton Academy girls soccer coach Dave Underwood.
Released after the National Federation of State High School Associations announced its national coaches of the year, it's an old enough list that Havelka has since retired and Underwood now teaches at Muchin College Prep.
On April 1 the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association inducted its 2017 Hall of Fame class. Entering as assistants were 40-year men Tom Vargos (Naperville North) and Jerry Blew (Lake Park). Hal Chiodo, briefly at West Chicago, went in as a retired head coach.
How great is Peg Kopec? More than a full year after her retirement following St. Francis' girls volleyball's 2015 Class 4A championship, she's among eight finalists for National High School Athletic Coaches Association coach of the year in girls volleyball over the 2015-16 school year. Kopec, who in 40 years won 1,238 matches and 12 state championships, will attend the NHSACA awards banquet June 21 in Peoria.
On April 6 the East Suburban Catholic Conference held its 12th hall of fame inductions at the Abbington in Glen Ellyn. Among the inductees were a pair of Benet graduates: Dan LeFevour, who at Central Michigan became the lone NCAA quarterback to throw for 12,000 yards and run for 2,500 (he's now with the Winnepeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League); and former ESCC girls soccer player of the year Stephanie Foley Hull, a 2004 grad who played at DePaul.
Benet also produced two Under Armour High School All-America honorable mention selections for girls volleyball. Minnesota-bound setter Sara Nielsen and outside hitter Veronica Snelling, headed to Missouri State. Nielsen also made honorable-mention for VolleyballMag.com and was listed among its "Fab 50."
The Indian Prairie Educational Foundation's "A+ Award" is a fantastic thing, and occasionally a local coach gets the nod for "making a difference." The foundation and District 204 surprised Neuqua Valley English teacher Michael Rossi with one for the month of March. He's a Naperville North grad who now is an assistant coach with the Neuqua Valley cross country team.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com
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