4B COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL OCTOBER 24, 2018
told me to lift my leg and I would
look at it and I’d be like, I’m try-
ing to. It’s just not moving,” said
Derrick.
An athlete as soon as she could
walk, Derrick was now without
part of her identity. She had suf-
fered through injuries before – a
broken foot, nerve damage, a
minor knee injury – but this was
different. This was touching on all
parts of her life.
“A lot of my relationships hap-
pen through sports and so I strug-
gled with having relationships
Nicki Derrick back in the lineup with her teammates against
with people without sports. And so
Yoncalla.
that took me awhile to be like, we
since second grade. So to see them play without
don’t have the sports relationship,
me, I was happy for them but I wished I could be I’m going to have to find a way to connect with
out there with them.”
them in a different way and it took me a couple
She attended practices and games and did what months to realize that,” she reflected.
she could to help the team. Her and Rice would
After pulling herself away from reading story af-
discuss strategy from the bench and she would ter story online about various ACL injuries – both
give tips about particular players she had played the inspiring and frightening – she made progress
against growing up in ASA. She offered advice both physically and mentally. And once back at
to teammates going through hitting slumps and school, things started to feel almost normal again.
even called pitches for one game when the North
“When I came back with crutches everyone was
Douglas pitching coach, her dad, was unable to like, what can I do to help you? And it was just
attend the game. But while her teammates got to something that, I was just so part of everything
focus all their energy on the season at-hand, Der- that it didn’t really make me feel like I was injured
rick was focused on the rehab process.
because people went out of their way to make sure
“Going from month-to-month I would get ex- I was included,” said Derrick. “So honestly, just
cited about stuff like walking and if it was just a the people I had around me got me through this.
normal year I would get excited about softball Because if I was alone, I can tell you, I would not
wins. It was a really hard adjustment and as an have made it through.”
athlete you feel so defeated and I was not used to
it at all,” said Derrick.
fter a summer of gaining back strength, it
After suffering the injury in February, Derrick
was time for volleyball season. Now a ju-
had surgery in March. Between the time she was nior, Derrick started the season by being able to
injured and the procedure, she had been moving run but was unable to participate in scrimmage or
somewhat-fine and had convinced herself sur- drills that forced her to move side-to-side.
gery was no longer necessary. Her doctor knew
“I would go to physical therapy once a week, so
otherwise and provided an ultimatum: if she did every single week I would come back with some-
not undergo the surgery, she would never be able thing new I could do and something exciting to
to play sports again. After undergoing surgery, tell the team,” said Derrick. “And that would just
things didn’t get better right away; it was intense make my day so much better. To see the excite-
pain for the first week and discomfort for the next ment in their faces when I tell them, it was like
month.
okay, they care about me. They are waiting for me
“You lose so much muscle in the span of two to come back. So I really loved that.”
weeks after surgery. So my first day of rehab was
Not only waiting, but excited for her to come
probably the hardest days of my life because they back to the starting lineup.
ND from B1
J
esse Rice had to see for himself if the rumors
were true. Was Nicki Derrick really that good
of a softball pitcher? Rice, the head softball coach
at North Douglas, decided to stick around after
practice when Derrick’s eighth grade team came
to play.
“I watched her pitch that first time,” said Rice
reflecting on seeing a player who would soon turn
this consistently good softball team in to a great
softball team “and said, ‘Wow, she really is as good
as they say.’ She really was.”
Growing up, Derrick didn’t meet a sport she
didn’t love. First there was gymnastics then a brief
soccer stint but by second grade it was all the same
sports she plays today: volleyball, basketball and
softball.
“I would start volleyball and be, ‘Oh, this is my
favorite sport.’ Then I would get into basketball,
‘Oh, love this.’ And then softball and it’d be, ‘Oh,
by far favorite sport,’” she said.
Regardless of favorite, Derrick especially excels
in softball. In her freshman year she was named
starter and Rice’s only concern was that she was,
well, a freshman.
“She was only 14-years-old. I was thinking, she’s
got all this talent but I was concerned about her
maturity level. You know, being young. Freshmen
are freshmen and you expect them to make mis-
takes,” he said.
Rice soon found with Derrick, it was not an issue
at all. Determination to win met with an often-un-
hittable fastball – while also being the team leader
in homeruns – was a combination that helped the
Warriors win a league and then, ultimately, a state
title. The team’s playoff-run saw Derrick throw
a no-hitter followed by 10 strikeouts in the state
championship to help give the school its first-ever
softball title. Derrick was named to the 1A first-
team in addition to being named pitcher of the
year and player of the year.
But last season, sidelined by injury, she was
forced to watch from the dugout.
“That was the (season) I was most excited for
and because it hadn’t fully hit me, it wasn’t as hard
on me as I thought it was going to be,” said Derrick.
“When they started games, it was like, I cannot
wait to be recovered. It was hard for me mentally
to watch them. Especially the (other sophomores
at the time) because we’ve been playing together
A
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“She’s got a great work ethic and she wanted to
come back as soon as possible,” said head coach
Anne Campbell. “But one thing that she had to be
was patient which I am sure was frustrating for
her and also for us because we just knew that get-
ting her back would change our game.”
With Derrick out as setter, North Douglas’s
Abby Whipple and Arianna Helgren, a pair of le-
thal outside hitters, spent the summer learning to
be setters for the first time. All season they took
up the new position in order to help the team. The
addition of Derrick back into the team would not
only relieve them of this new position but would
open up the team’s offense. After being cleared for
games, she came back to practice at the start of
this month.
“It was (nerve wracking),” said Campbell. Af-
ter a first practice where she thought Nicki might
have been favoring her knee. The next practice
featured a guest-coach who was ready to, literally,
dive right in.
“Right off the bat we had a guest coach come
in and work with the girls and she started having
them do these lateral movements and I was like
biting my nails as Nicki was shuffling side to side,”
said Campbell. “Then (Nicki) just started diving
and she was running all over the place and she was
just Nicki again so I could tell that she was com-
fortable.”
Derrick played in her first game on October 4
and is working her way back to full strength as the
fourth-ranked Warriors now prepare for a playoff
run.
“I forget how much I love volleyball because it
is my least favorite sport. But...it’s fun being out
there with the girls,” Derrick said after North
Douglas defeated Yoncalla on October 9. “Volley-
ball has a different energy than sports like basket-
ball and softball: you get to celebrate every single
point with your team. That environment is just
really neat to be back. I love it.”
Volleyball will turn into basketball season
which will then bring the start of softball. A re-
turning cycle that for Derrick, was incomplete
over the last year. But now she’s back and ready for
everything that is coming her way.
“I love sports and these last six months made
me realize it and I want to be doing this for as long
as possible,” said Derrick.
“It’s just not something that I’m ready to give
up yet.”
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