Carmel star gymnast Keane doing what she can for Corsairs after hip surgery

It hurt. A lot.

But Clare Keane's first thought last summer, as gymnastics workouts resumed after a long quarantine break, was to power through the sharp pains in her right hip.

Carmel's star gymnast, a state champion in 2020, wanted to keep going, and to not be sidelined for a possible surgery and months and months of rehab.

She hated the thought of being out, not just for her, but for her teammates.

"I love being part of the team, that's what I love most about high school gymnastics - the team," Keane said. "I didn't want to have to sit out and not compete. I didn't want to disappoint anyone, or let anyone down."

Teammate and best friend Lyndsey Basara was at the top of Keane's "do-not-disappoint" list. Basara is a senior, and Keane, a junior, was hoping to team with Basara for one last hurrah while leading Carmel to even greater heights this season.

Last year, the Corsairs placed second in the IHSA state meet.

"I couldn't believe it when Clare told me that she was debating about whether to keep going or to have surgery because she didn't want her sitting out to negatively affect my senior year," Basara said. "Like, that's one of the most selfless things you could say. But Clare was obviously hurting, and I told her that her health needed to be her priority.

"Obviously, I would want her to be alongside of me for my senior year, but my heart was absolutely breaking for her with how much she was struggling. We knew she had to do something."

So did Keane.

"Over the summer, I was trying to do as much as I could, but I couldn't do everything I wanted," Keane said. "I had to water down a lot of my skills quite a bit, just to save my body. So I wasn't doing what I knew I could do because I thought that would help, but I was also still in a lot of pain. It was very disheartening to know I wouldn't be the same. It was pretty sad actually.

"It got to the point where I was doing more crying that having fun."

Enough was enough

Keane had finally had enough.

On December 10, Keane, 17, had outpatient hip surgery. Doctors repaired a tear in her labrum, and also shaved down some extra bone in her ball joint area that was pinching the labrum and causing even more problems.

She is now out for the upcoming high school gymnastics season, which was recently approved by the IHSA for practices and meets. Keane won't be cleared for normal gymnastics activity until the summer.

"I was kind of sedated when the doctors explained it but basically, there was also an anatomical problem with that extra bone in the ball joint area pinching against my labrum every time I moved," Keane said. "It was getting to the point where it was wearing down my labrum."

Keane's hip bothered her during the gymnastics season last year. But she was still able to function well enough to win the state championship in uneven bars.

Then quarantine hit in March and Keane, like other gymnasts, wasn't able to do her normal workouts in the gym. She had to make due with mostly home workouts until June, when gyms opened back up.

"I tried to stay in shape over that big break the best I could, but it wasn't the same," Keane said. "To not have any real activity for that long and then to start up all of a sudden was probably what really did it with my hip."

She wasn't the only one

In just the last year, Carmel has had two other gymnasts out with hip injuries similar to Keane's injury.

Head coach Sarah Mikrut Doyle, a star gymnast at Carmel in the early 1990s who had back and hip problems during her own career, is working closely with school trainers to try to come up with preventive care for hip issues with her gymnasts.

"Now that we've had three kids with this issue, I was kind of freaking out, thinking, 'Is this something that we're doing?' " Doyle said. "But none of the injuries are exactly the same or consistently in the exact same location. They're all a little different.

"But we definitely need to investigate it more and look into doing different exercises and stretching and rehab for the hip. It's important because a hip injury can be traumatic and devastating to a gymnast's career."

Keane, the coach

Somehow, Keane, who was not allowed to walk for four weeks after her surgery, has shown incredible resiliency. She's already finding her way to practices to help the coaches and to cheer on her teammates.

"She's so mature and so well-adjusted," Doyle said of Keane. "She just wants to be there for her teammates. You know, it has to be so hard for her to watch. She's a defending state champion, and she is so natural on the bars. I miss her beautiful gymnastics. But she is helping with practices, she's helping her teammates put routines together. I could see her doing this long term. She could be a great coach someday."

For now, Keane is just thinking about how to get back to her own career.

"I've been doing gymnastics for ... well, just my whole life," Keane said with a chuckle. "I think my mom put me in classes when I was like 3-years-old. I am excited to be able to go again and I'm thinking that will happen in the summer. I'm hoping I'll have more pep in my step. I'm hoping I'll make a full recovery."

Twitter: @babcockmcgraw