Glenwood's Karley Hawkins goes from no steps to big steps as Titans' two-sport standout

Karley Hawkins has always been driven, someone who, in her words, always wants to have a “plan of attack” for the coming day, week, month, and year. The plan of attack for her sophomore year at Chatham Glenwood was to maintain an honors society grade-point average, have successful seasons playing soccer and basketball, and be a normal teenage girl.

Not long into that school year in 2021, success for Hawkins was being able to just walk a few steps to the bathroom.

“I was a competitive athlete, and now I couldn’t walk on my own and was in serious pain all day, every day,” Hawkins said.

And doctors couldn’t seem to figure out what was wrong with her.

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At first, they said she probably just had some strained muscles in the legs, and that physical therapy was probably all she’d need. The pain, meanwhile, grew worse.

She needed crutches and a walker and had to miss multiple weeks of school. Playing sports was out. Doctors remained baffled. For months, she was essentially disabled. Only 5-foot-1, her weight dropped to just 88 pounds.

Further imaging tests were done the day before Thanksgiving. A bone biopsy was ordered. Was it cancer? Some other disease? For months, Hawkins’ mind reeled.

“The scariest part is the unknown. I wanted to know what it is I’m supposed to attack against,” she said.

Finally, doctors determined that a staph infection had gotten into Hawkins’ bloodstream and caused osteomyelitis, a swelling of bone tissue that comes from a bacterial infection. Finally, she started getting the right antibiotics to treat it.

An answer for the present, and the future

With the aid of two physical therapists and weeks of strength and motion exercises, Hawkins regained strength in her legs and core and slowly, very slowly, the pain began to abate. X-rays showed that bones in her pelvis, which had broken in several places throughout the fall, had healed themselves.

In the two years since, she has played on the Titans’ state championship soccer team as a junior and announced her commitment to play basketball on National Signing Day to attend Clarke University, in Dubuque, Iowa, on a partial athletic and scholastic scholarship.

“That day, and the day we won state, are like the two best days of my life. It really hit me on signing day, how lucky I was to be able to sign that piece of paper with family and friends around me, and how things were so different not even a couple years before,” Hawkins said. “It just really taught me not to take anything for granted. Now, when I find myself getting mad at something, I put things back in perspective pretty fast.”

Hawkins’ mother, Brittany, becomes emotional when talking about the journey as parents feeling helpless about their daughter.

“She has a real high tolerance for pain, so when she said it was bad, I knew it had to be really bad,” Brittany said. “She was on every pain medication imaginable, but nothing worked. I have guilt as a mom that I didn’t pick up on the symptoms and everything sooner. But they just couldn’t seem to find what was wrong.”

“It was a dark time,” her father, Chad, said. “I had to take her to school; she hobbled her way in and then needed help from there.”

In all, it was about six months when Hawkins couldn’t walk on her own. When she returned to play soccer her junior year, she played center midfield and outside back. This winter, she is the point guard on a basketball team that is playing for a regional title on Friday night.

“I’m in awe of how she handled everything,” Brittany said. “She was so determined. For us, it was gut-wrenching, but she was so strong.”

As she went through physical therapy, Hawkins not only regained her health but discovered a career path. She plans to become a physical therapist herself.

“Before my injury, that was in the back of my head as a career. After physical therapy, I thought I didn’t want anything else,” she said. “I want to help others who might be in the same situation someday. I have so many people - my family and friends, my PT (workers), my guidance counselor, (Julie Nortell-Briggs), who all helped me so much. I want to pay it forward now.”

Adrian Dater is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at sports@sj-r.com.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Glenwood two-sport athlete Karley Hawkins fights through blood infection