Sharp rounding back into form
■ Siloam Springs’ outside hitter tore her ACL back in February.
Shaylon Sharp had big plans for her senior volleyball season at Siloam Springs and none of them included tearing her ACL.
But that’s exactly what happened to Sharp back in February.
While playing in a match for the Ozark Juniors 17s in a tournament in Omaha, Neb., the 5-foot-9 outside hitter went up to a hit a ball that was set a little farther out than normal. She came down awkwardly on her left knee and felt a pop and instant pain.
“I knew it was bad when I felt the pop,” Sharp said, “and I was pretty scared.”
The worst fear was a reality. It
was a torn ACL in her left knee.
“I was very devastated,” she said. “Me and my mom just instantly started crying looking at each other. It’s never happened and we knew it was really serious.”
Sharp comes from an athletic family. Her parents, Daron and Sherri, were both athletes, and her grandfather played in the National Football League. Shaylon Sharp’s brother, Boston, played football and basketball at Siloam Springs, while her sister, Makenzie, played volleyball, basketball and ran track for the Lady Panthers before going on to play college volleyball at Lyon. But none of them ever suffered an injury like this.
“Nothing like that has happened in my family,” Shaylon Sharp said. “For that to happen to me was surprising and scary. I knew right then I was going to be out a long time.”
Sharp had surgery to repair her ACL on March 17, and not long after, she began the long road back to recovery.
And she had quite a bit of motivation as well.
Her doctor told her that with hard work and dedication in the rehabilitation, she could be back on the volleyball court within six months.
That was good news to first-year head volleyball coach Joellen Wright, who had been promoted from assistant coach about a month earlier.
“She was optimistic once she heard,” Wright said. “I think the doctor gave her some hope.”
Prior to her injury, Sharp had just come off an outstanding junior season for Siloam Springs that saw her record a team-high 310 kills and 375 digs. She was named All-State in Class 6A for the 2016 season.
Sharp, along junior outside hitter Ellie Lampton, were thought to be among the top outside hitters in Class 6A entering the 2017 season. All of the sudden, the Lady Panthers were down a hitter and without one of their team captains on the floor.
Wright said the Lady Panthers didn’t see Sharp a lot during the offseason because she was rehabbing her knee with head trainer Brian Nitz.
Sharp said the rehab wasn’t easy at times, but Nitz made sure she stuck with it.
“There were times when I wanted to quit,” Sharp said. “But he would make sure he got in my face a couple of times and told me, ‘You’re going to do it.’”
When summer rolled around, Sharp was a constant at Lady Panthers’ workouts and practices, even if she wasn’t getting to participate.
“She didn’t miss,” Wright said. “A lot of kids who get injured sort of sit on the sideline or don’t take that active part. You can tell that wasn’t Shaylon’s heart. She wanted to be in the mix and this was her senior year, and she wasn’t going to miss any of it.”
The tough reality for the Lady Panthers, though, was that Sharp wasn’t projected to be back until the middle of September, and even then she wasn’t going to be in midseason form coming off the ACL injury.
When volleyball season began in late August, the Lady Panthers lost nine of their first 10 matches, including some tough losses to Class 7A schools Rogers, Fort Smith Southside and Bentonville, two tournament losses to 6AWest rival Greenwood and a season-opening loss at defending 3A state champion Paris.
Sharp watched every one of the games from the Lady Panthers’ bench.
“It was really hard, especially when they’re down because you see it more when you’re on the bench,” she said. “You see what needs to be fixed more when you’re watching. I just wish I could have gone out there and helped them out.”
With the Lady Panthers sitting at 1-9, Sharp returned to action on Sept. 5 against Clarksville at home and she immediately gave the team a lift.
Siloam Springs swept Clarksville that night and then won at Alma two days later. Siloam Springs made it three wins in a row with a come-from-behind victory at Shiloh Christian and then a sweep at home against Russellville for four straight victories.
Heading into Tuesday’s 6A-West Conference Tournament game at Benton, the Lady Panthers (14-14) were 13-5 with Sharp back in the lineup. Sharp and the Lady Panthers will play a final 6AWest Conference Tournament game on Saturday against an opponent to be determined. Then next week, they’ll head to Greenwood for the Class 6A State Tournament.
Sharp said she isn’t quite back to where she was before her injury. Her defense is a bit slower and she’ll serve the ball straight into the net every now and then, but one thing that hasn’t suffered is her ability to hammer the volleyball.
She is second on the team with 156 kills to go with 149 digs and 42
service aces.
“She’s working to try and get to where she was,” Wright said. “She’s definitely helping us. Her presence — she is a strong, influential person on the court. When she celebrates and she’s happy, it’s awesome.
“If she says it, they listen. If she relaxes, I think she’s kind of a temperature gauge for us sometimes. As she’s coming back, we’re beginning to depend more on her.”
And the best part?
Sharp is going to get the chance to play at the next level. She recently committed to play volleyball at Missouri Southern State in Joplin, Mo., and she hopes to sign in the early signing period in November.
“Sometimes it would go through my head that I wasn’t ever going to be as good as I was,” she said, “and I wasn’t going to be able to play at the next level like I wanted to. That changed. I finally fought through it.”