Franklin's amputation didn't stop her. It led the Cannon Falls native to USA Sitting Volleyball
Jul. 11—ROCHESTER — Two and a half years ago, MaKenzie Franklin lay in a ditch, begging to stay alive.
She and her boyfriend, Devon Wittman, were on an evening motorcycle ride near Hager City, Wis., on Sept. 13, 2020, when they crashed and slid off the road. Franklin and Wittman were taken to a Red Wing hospital, then airlifted to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys for surgeries.
Doctors attempted to save Franklin's left leg during the initial eight-hour surgery. But, after more surgeries, it was clear amputation was the route to take. Franklin lost her left leg above her knee.
What she didn't lose, though, was her spirit.
Actually, the 28-year-old Franklin believes the accident made her more determined, which set her on a path to becoming a member of the USA Women's Sitting Volleyball team.
"Two years ago, I was laying in a hospital bed, unsure of how to even walk in a prosthetic, and now I'm on the USA Volleyball team," the Cannon Falls native said. "I believed in myself, and I told myself I'd work really, really hard if God just let me live when I was laying in the ditch."
Six months after the amputation, Franklin was at the gym, working out on the ground because she didn't have her prosthetic yet. She started setting an exercise ball. A thought crossed her mind: Is there such a thing as sitting volleyball?
Turns out there is, and the U.S. national team is one of the best in the world. Franklin Instagram-messaged members of the team, attempting to find a way to start training with them.
"I was in the national team development training program for a short amount of time before the head coach, Bill Hamiter, asked me to come train with the USA team," Franklin said. "We went to Colorado Springs in January (2023) to the Paralympic Olympic Training Center, and that was when I officially was announced as a member of the national team."
Franklin is rarely home now.
The USA team hosts a weekend training camp at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Okla., once a month and travels to play in tournaments across the world. If she's not training in Oklahoma, Franklin is practicing with the racquetball net she bought on Amazon and adjusted to sitting volleyball height.
She never thought she'd play volleyball again after the accident. But, once she realized she could, "I'm like, 'Well, I have to do this,'" she said. "This is what I was meant to do."
Franklin's first tournament with Team USA was the ParaVolley Pan American Zonal Championship in Edmonton in May — the tournament that ended with the top-ranked sitting volleyball team earning a spot in the 2024 Paris Paralympics after sweeping Canada 3-0 at the tournament.
The pressure of the tournament had her emotions high, and the idea of her family not being there was difficult for Franklin. But that changed before the first game.
"My mom and brother called me and they were like, 'Guess what? We're coming to Canada,'" she said. "I just started bawling because I had so much anxiety."
Franklin didn't start during the tournament, but Hamiter subbed her in during high-pressure moments. Experiencing the wins in Canada helped Franklin again during the team's win at the Dutch Tournament in Assen, Netherlands, on July 2, where they beat Italy, Ukraine, Netherlands, Great Britain and Canada. Franklin posted four kills and a block in the sweep of Great Britain and added seven blocks in the win over Canada.
"I definitely try to show people that there are possibilities for disabled people to still be competitive," Franklin said.
At this point, her amputation is a footnote in Franklin's life; nothing is stopping her from achieving her goals. That includes hiking Mt. Cayambe in Ecuador in August to
raise money for patients
waiting for prosthetic care.
"We have pretty good access to medical care and prosthetic care. I can't imagine not having that access," she said. "That (hike is) something I'm super duper excited about."
