OLSH's Vann Kavals takes long, hard road in return from multiple injuries

Our Lady of Sacred Heart junior Vann Kavals’ high school athletic career has not panned out like your typical high school athlete thus far.

While most athletes spend most of their high school careers out on the field or on the court, that hasn’t been the case for Kavals over the past two seasons. He has had to put his high school football, basketball and baseball career on hold for almost two seasons due to suffering two injuries early on in the football season over the past two years.

Back in 2022 as a sophomore, the now-quarterback and defensive end for the Chargers had his season come to an end on the first drive of the regular season after suffering a torn ACL, sidelining him for a full year before he was able to suit back up next fall for OLSH.

Fast forward to September 2023, Kavlas was just three weeks into his junior season and under center for the Chargers where once again his year would be thrown for a tailspin as he broke his femur against Clairton in Week Two, which sidelined him for the rest of the season.

Kavals had surgery on his femur and had two screws placed in his leg. After that surgery, he once again started his road to recovery.

The ACL recovery for the junior was a long and tough journey, but this time around, with one rehab in the rearview mirror, Kavals knew the mindset he needed to be in to be able to work his way back up to full strength after another season-ending injury.

“As soon as it happened, I started physical therapy as soon as possible and I worked hard. Me and my friend Dereon [Greer] who also got injured during the football season, pushed each other and went as hard as we could with one another,” Kavals said. “He is doing great, I did great in my rehab and we are both way better than when we went in.”

When Kavals suffered his ACL tear back in the 2022 season, he rehabbed with local strength and conditioning coach Craedel Kimbrough as he continued to recover from a major injury that sidelined him for the rest of the athletic season.

When the junior went down again during football season, Kavals along with Greer have spent countless hours rehabbing with Kimbrough as he is now a part of the football staff, which has proved to be a huge asset for Kavals in his recovery.

“Me and Dereon [Greer] go there pretty much every weekday if we don’t have physical therapy, and if we do we still try and fit it in,” Kavals said. “Kimbrough is probably one of my biggest pieces in my recovery. Even with the basketball season, we try and fit it around practice because he is such a big factor in helping me get stronger. It is fantastic having him on the staff because we are already in the lab talking about things for the next football season.

"With him being here, I know what he has been through and where he has been, I know how hard he works and I have to work to get there.”

Most athletes who suffer two major injuries such as the ones Kavals suffered in back-to-back seasons may react negatively.

However, the broken femur was not a deterrent for the three-sport athlete as he set the lofty goal of returning for the opening night of the high school basketball season on Dec. 1.

There were a lot of people who stated that Kavals would not be able to reach that goal due to the severity of the injury that he suffered during the football season. But through countless hours of rehab and physical therapy, the junior reached his goal of starting the high school basketball season on time as he took the floor against Albert Gallatin to begin the season which was just under three months since he suffered the devastating injury.

The team captain and forward of the basketball team was overcome with emotion as he was able to reach the goal that he set out to achieve and overcome the adversity that he faced just less than three months earlier.

“There were a few people that were worried at first about me stepping back out onto the court so quickly, but now that I have proved to myself that I can do it, it makes me feel a lot better, boosts my confidence and I feel a lot stronger than I was before I got hurt the second time. Nobody believed that I would be able to get out there so early,” Kavals said. “Ever since I got hurt, I have been telling everyone that I would be back out on the court for the first basketball game of the season. When I was able to step out onto the court for the very first game, emotions just overtook me, it was amazing.”

With Kavals being back on the basketball court for the first time since his freshman season, it has been a welcomed sight for head coach Mike Rodriguez and his staff.

While Kavals may show rust due to his absence due to injury over the past season, he makes up for that rust with his gritty play style, which Rodriguez says helped aid in his recovery and resurgence back onto the basketball court this season.

“After injuring your femur in the third game of the football season and then you are back by the beginning of the basketball season, it was a recovery that was incredible,” Rodriguez said. “What was unfortunate for Vann was that when we stepped out onto the court this season, it was the first time that he picked up a basketball since his freshman season because he sustained injuries in the past two years of football. That may have set him back skills-wise, but he has more than made that up with his effort and intensity on the court. You can’t ask for anything more because he has been all of what we asked and better than that and he is getting rid of that rust every day.”

Along with Kavals’ playstyle out on the floor and his recovery over the past several months, Rodriguez has also been able to see the way the junior forward works each day which is highlighted by an intense work ethic.

That work ethic has helped put him in the spot that he is in today as he helps continue to compete and lead a young team that is comprised of mostly freshman and sophomores, who are in the process of continuing to figure their game out at the varsity level.

“What is truly amazing about Vann and it is not lost by any of us, not only was his recovery incredibly quick, but it is his intense work ethic, his desire to come back, his desire to be part of this group and this team, and he is like that regardless of if its football, basketball or baseball. He works as hard as anyone in the gym or on the field and leads by example. Not only is he a vocal leader, but he also leads by his presence, his actions and the way that he approaches his day-to-day. His work ethic is off the charts.”

“Our team has suffered key injuries to starters that played last year. We began the season with no starters from last year’s team because two other young men tore their ACL’s before the season began,” Rodriguez said. “We came into this season as a very young and inexperienced team and we didn’t know that we were going to have Vann back. But getting him back definitely made a difference in our program because it brought the intensity and toughness that you need on the basketball court to succeed.”

With Kavals healthy, he is now focused on finishing out the high school basketball regular season strong with a young team itching for a chance for the postseason after making their seventh consecutive WPIAL Championship game last season.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: OLSH's Vann Kavals takes long, hard road in return from multiple injuries