She lost her senior season to a knee injury. Now, Kentwood product Alison Fairchild is returning for one last day of prep competition at today\u2019s All-State volleyball series<\/b><\/p>\n
A biting sense of humor pulled her through.<\/p>\n
Because during even the most difficult of times in what was supposed to be the finest volleyball season of her already strong prep career, Alison Fairchild always had that on which to fall back.<\/p>\n
Even when she couldn\u2019t fall back on the one thing she once unknowingly counted on the most: her left knee.<\/p>\n
A little more than a year ago while playing at the Emerald City Classic with her Kent Juniors volleyball team, it was that left knee that gave out on Fairchild, a Kentwood High graduate who will play at Western Washington University in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was me being stupid,\u201d admits Fairchild, 18, who lists her favorite movie as \u201cAnchorman\u201d with Will Ferrill and her favorite book as the dictionary, sections \u201cB\u201d and \u201cS\u201d. \u201cI went up for a hit, came down and landed on one foot. It just snapped out from under me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Snapped out might just be the mild description of the year.<\/p>\n
Though the injury stole her senior season, it did not take away the final match of Fairchild\u2019s prep career. That will come on tonight during the 23rd annual All-State series at Fife High School. Despite missing the entire school year, Fairchild still was named to the all-state team in mid-April.<\/p>\n
She admitted it\u2019s an honor, to say the least. And an opportunity for a second chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am hoping to play a little. I haven\u2019t played much in a year and I am very excited,\u201d said Fairchild, who had a staple removed from her injured knee in mid-June. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d make the team. When I got hurt, I was like, \u2018I am never going to do anything for high school ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tahoma\u2019s Kaytlyn Aust is the only other local player who will compete in the match.<\/p>\n
One step at a time<\/b><\/p>\n
For Fairchild, it will be as much about stepping onto the court again as it will be as taking another step toward recovery, a road that hasn\u2019t gone as smoothly as she would\u2019ve liked the last several months.<\/p>\n
The injury not only cut out Fairchild\u2019s legs from underneath her, but stole the senior season from Kentwood\u2019s middle blocker\/outside hitter. The unorthodox landing resulted in a torn ACL and MCL. In addition, upon trying to get to her feet after falling, Fairchild also fractured her leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of fun,\u201d deadpanned Fairchild, who\u2019s never at a loss for words and routinely can reply to virtually any question with a sarcastic quip. \u201cI was still in great hope (that I could play in the fall).<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when the doctor touched my knee,\u201d Fairchild said, \u201cI couldn\u2019t handle it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy leg was just dangling there, being held on by skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Fairchild, a first-team all-league selection as a junior, had to spend her senior year watching while Kentwood cruised to the South Puget Sound League North Division title. Won a district championship. And took third at the state tournament, the program\u2019s best placing since 1987, all the while finishing with a 35-1 overall record.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt put a hole in our team where we didn\u2019t think we\u2019d have one,\u201d Kentwood coach Bil Caillier lamented.<\/p>\n
Would Fairchild have been enough to overcome Lewis & Clark in the state semifinals, a match the Conquerors lost by just two points in the fifth and deciding game?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to quantify that,\u201d Caillier said. \u201cAfter we lost to Lewis & Clark by two points in the final game, I turned to Alison and said, \u2018What do you think, you think you\u2019re good enough to give us two points?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the injury, Fairchild remained \u201cinvaluable\u201d to the Kentwood team, Caillier noted, showing up for every game, match and tournament and lending a hand anywhere she was needed as the team\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n
In fact, there probably wasn\u2019t a better stat taker in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked to (Cailler) before I ever went to the doctor and I told him, even if I couldn\u2019t play, I\u2019d manage,\u201d Fairchild said. \u201cI think he was a little disappointed. (But) he loves to have me around, he can\u2019t deny that.\u201d<\/p>\n
All along, Fairchild used her unique sense of humor to keep her spirits afloat.<\/p>\n
\u201c(My sense of humor) made it look like I was up when I was down,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was really hard. No athlete wants to sit on the bench and take stats for a team you should be playing for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some doors shut, another opens<\/b><\/p>\n
Before blowing out her knee, Fairchild was being recruited to play college volleyball by the University of Idaho, Washington and Cal Berkeley, among others.<\/p>\n
And after the injury?<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I was hurt, I had no one,\u201d she said. \u201cI went to top of the line to the bottom. And then Western came along.\u201d<\/p>\n
Western actually had been in contact with Fairchild since her sophomore season. And even post-injury, the Vikings still wanted the Kentwood standout to be part of their program.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my perspective, a significant injury like this can ultimately heal, but it is revealing of a person\u2019s character, too,\u201d said Western Washington volleyball coach Diane Fick, whose team is coming off its finest season in school history after going 26-5 and winning the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship. \u201cAlison did everything she could to be involved with her team and contribute, which impressed me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
It still might be a while before Fairchild is able to contribute as much as she once did for Kentwood, when she routinely racked up 8 to 10 kills per game her junior season. That said, going to a school that will welcome her with open arms \u2014 bum knee or not \u2014 is nice to have after a lost senior season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I go to Western, they\u2019ll still need to work with me because I can barely even jump right now,\u201d said Fairchild, who fittingly is considering a career in physical therapy and will be on a partial scholarship with the Vikings. \u201cThey\u2019re going to have to put a lot of time into me and I don\u2019t think a lot of coaches wanted to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, with Fairchild, that additional work can always bring a smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cSarcasm runs deep here, and Alison will fit in very nicely with this group,\u201d Fick said.<\/p>\n
Erick Walker can be reached at 425-432-1435 or ewalker@reporternewspapers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A biting sense of humor pulled her through.
\nBecause during even the most difficult of times in what was supposed to be the finest volleyball season of her already strong prep career, Alison Fairchild always had that on which to fall back.
\nEven when she couldn\u2019t fall back on the one thing she once unknowingly counted on the most: her left knee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":14052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14051"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}