VINCENNES — Kendal Hill is playing basketball.
That’s a nondescript opening line, I know, especially if you’ve seen the South Knox junior on the AAU circuit in recent weeks or followed Sunday’s Junior Indiana All-Stars festivities in Charlestown, during which the 5-8 guard logged four points, three rebounds and a couple steals in a 75-67 loss to the Kentucky Juniors.
But Hill’s status should not be taken for granted. She spent last summer recovering from a torn ACL, then was sidelined almost immediately after sectionals by a serious health scare that briefly took away her vision and made even sleeping painful, drawing concerns from doctors of a tumor or possible Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis.
“I was scared, especially with them throwing around MS,” said Hill, who is South Knox’s all-time assists leader (488) and a 1,000-point scorer. “It’s like, I’m 16 years old and healthy. It’s still pretty fresh, but looking back, it was all pretty insane.”
Thankfully, there were no growths or lesions on Hill’s brain, and a neurologist cleared her of MS a couple days before our early-April interview at South Knox High. She was still dealing with the lingering effects of a spinal tap at the time, but a high-dose steroid alleviated her vision issues and a blood patch successfully addressed her increasingly aggressive headaches, allowing her to focus on getting back into basketball shape as she geared up for a critical summer in her recruitment.
“Kendal’s all gas, no brakes,” said longtime South Knox coach Hollie Anson-Eaves, who’s been coaching Hill since she was a sixth grader. “Sometimes that’s what I worry about with her, but she loves it.”
It began with eye pain three days after South Knox’s sectional loss to rival North Knox in early February.
Hill recalled it hurting to look around and while it “wasn’t terrible,” scans taken during a precautionary visit to the eye doctor revealed blurriness around her tissue, potentially the result of a virus attacking her optical nerve.
She was prescribed a steroid which proved effective, but once she was off the medicine her condition took a turn.
“I couldn’t go to sleep because it hurt to close my eye and it hurt when it was open,” she said, recalling the brutal headaches and vision issues that soon followed. First it was “blurry spots” that made seeing out of her right eye virtually impossible, then, while undergoing a series of MRIs in Evansville, everything went black.
Hill was prescribed more medicine, but a couple days later, her doctor recommended she be pulled from school and taken to the hospital, where they could administer high-dose steroids and perform a spinal tap.
Among the doctor’s list of theories were a potential brain tumor and multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that causes a breakdown of the protective covering of nerves.
“I was pretty scared, because obviously MS is really serious and you can die pretty soon from it,” Hill said. “But they said if you can catch it early enough, sometimes you can get on medicine and live longer. … But then they said it could be viral, too, so we were hoping for that.”
“To see her cry, that was tough, because you could tell she was scared,” Anson-Eaves continued. “It’s OK to cry, but I’ve never seen Kendal cry, even with her ACL. She called me crying, but I’d never seen actual tears, so that was tough. But she took it and handled it well, very well.”
The high-dose steroids alleviated Hill’s vision issues and while her back was hurting from the spinal tap, she was committed to playing at the first AAU event of the season in Chicago.
It did not go well.
A day or two removed from a three-day hospital stay, Hill’s headaches worsened and were accompanied by persistent nausea. She recalled laying on the ground and “being lazy,” struggling to walk or even sit up.
Hill’s dad did his best to help, encouraging her to hydrate and eat some fruit, but Hill simply couldn’t stomach it. They left the event early and shortly after returning to southwestern Indiana, Kendal was taken to the emergency room.
“It was pretty bad,” she said.
Doctors determined Hill was likely suffering from spinal headaches, caused by a leak in her spinal cavity where they inserted the needle. One possible solution they offered was an epidural blood patch, a procedure that uses an injection of the patient’s blood to stop fluid from leaking near the spinal cord and helps improve circulation to the brain.
It was risky — and it hurt terribly, Hill said, but within about 10 minutes, she felt “so much better.”
“After this experience and learning about all this stuff, I’m not doing nursing (as a career),” Hill laughed.
With all this behind her, Hill can focus on the summer ahead and her ongoing college recruitment.
A versatile guard who’s adapted her role to whatever her team needs, she is coming off a tremendous junior season, during which she averaged 19.2 points (43% FG, 31% 3PT), 10.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 4.3 steals to earn Underclass All-State plaudits from the IBCA and a Junior Indiana All-Stars nod.
No less important were the strides Hill took as a leader, a process accelerated while she was sidelined last summer.
That time away helped slow the game down for her, she said, allowing her to see things from a different perspective as she settled in as a de facto extension of the coaching staff.
“Honestly, I think I’m better than I was before I tore my ACL,” Hill observed. “It was kind of a blessing in disguise.”
As for the most recent hurdle she’s had to overcome, Hill recounted a bit of advice she received during her second hospital stay.
“The person who gave me my blood patch gave me an inspirational speech while he was sitting with me afterwards,” she said. “He was like, ‘These things aren’t happening to you. They’re happening for you.’ I really thought about that and all these things that have happened to me recently, it’s given me a new path. So that’s how I’ve been approaching it. They’re helping me instead of pushing me back.”
Indiana Juniors lose to Kentucky Juniors in exhibition opener.
McCutcheon’s Lillie Graves notched 13 points on 50% shooting and Hammond Morton’s Kylah ‘KP’ Patterson clocked a double-double with 11 points and a team-high 16 rebounds, but it was not enough for the Indiana Juniors, who fell to the Kentucky Juniors, 75-67.
Graves added four rebounds and four steals to her line, while Patterson notched a couple steals, two blocks and three assists for Indiana, which was unable to overcome a 39-29 halftime deficit.
Greensburg’s Claire Larrison rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points, plus five rebounds and a steal.
Pendleton Heights’ Adah Hupfer notched six points, eight rebounds and three steals, while Charlestown’s Chesney Jackson, Gibson Southern’s Paige Schnaus and Pike’s Saniya Smith all logged five points.
The Indiana Juniors shot just 31% from the field, but totaled 49 rebounds.
Kentucky Juniors 75, Indiana Juniors 67
Indiana Juniors 14 15 17 21 — 67
Kentucky Juniors 18 21 16 20 — 75
Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Junior All-Star Kendal Hill on ‘new path’ after overcoming ACL tear, health scare
Reporting by Brian Haenchen, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
