Farris Takes Hard Road Back to Softball Field
May 4, 2006
By Tyler Hancock, OC Sports Information
After a tragic church van accident, Linzi Farris feared she may never be able to play softball again.
Now she has worked her way back onto the field as a key member of the Oklahoma Christian University softball team's pitching rotation.
Farris suffered serious injuries to her left shoulder (her pitching shoulder) in a van accident that involved nine other people on a 2004 senior trip with Memorial Road Church of Christ.
"The van had a bad tire and the tread came off of it," Farris said. "Our van went through two semi-trucks and hit a ditch, and then we flipped three times forward and three times sideways and landed upside down."
Farris is unsure of the exact moment when she injured her shoulder, but thinks it may have been hit by the person sitting next to her in the van. The hospital originally told her she did not have any serious injuries, but they had mixed up her x-rays with another passenger's.
"After I got my x-rays, they told me I had a shattered shoulder, a broken shoulder blade and a broken piece of my arm," Farris said.
With her shoulder being in such bad shape, Farris' doctor in Edmond told her it seemed unlikely she would ever pitch again. The news scared Farris since she had already received a scholarship to play for Coach Tom Heath at Oklahoma Christian about six months earlier.
"They told me that the chances of me ever pitching again were about five to 10 percent," Farris said. "That was tough to deal with."
Not long after receiving the bad news, she decided she would hang on to that small chance of being able to play again.
"She went from thinking it was sprained to finding out she may never play again," Farris' mother, Beverly, said. "But within 15 minutes of finding that out, she told the doctor she would play again."
Two weeks after the accident, Linzi started a rehab process that would prove to be long and grueling. Beverly said Linzi worked every day for a year - both in formal rehab sessions with OC athletic trainer Curtis McAuliff and on her own - to get her arm back in shape.
Four months after the accident, Linzi found out she had to have surgery when the doctors discovered she had a torn rotator cuff and scar tissue that needed to be smoothed over. But not even the setback of a surgery could keep her from getting back on the playing field.
"The rehab was really long," Linzi said. "At first, we thought I would be able to pitch in the spring season last year, but after the surgery, it went a lot longer than I had planned, but I just had to accept it and move on."
Being forced to watch from the sidelines proved tough for Farris, especially since two other Lady Eagle pitchers were also struggling with injuries.
"Linzi had never been hurt," Beverly said. "She was really looking forward to pitching in college. It was kind of her dream to be able to go to college and pitch. It was twice as hard for her to not be able to pitch because she wished she could be out there and help those other pitchers out."
Nearly two years removed from the accident, Linzi is thankful that she is able to get back out on the field once again.
"It's great to be back out there and not having to sit and watch from the dugout," Linzi said. "At first, I was worried about hurting it again because of some soreness I would get, but now I've gotten more confident in it and I'm having fun out there."
In high school, Linzi earned all-state honors as an outfielder for Edmond Memorial High School. She planned on playing in the outfield for the Lady Eagles as well, but due to her injuries, she can no longer throw overhand effectively.
"She learned how to readjust her goals since she can't play in the field anymore," Beverly said. "But she also knows that there is more to life than softball. She learned that as soon as the wreck happened."
The entire process of rehab, sitting out a season and not being able to do things she had previously been able to do has been a learning experience for Linzi.
"I have gotten a lot more patient," Linzi said. "That whole time going through rehab was a tough period in my life. I also don't take things for granted because you never know when something might happen that will change your life."
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