SHALLOWATER — Emie Lusk didn’t know what to think when she got the news.
Her parents and brother were involved in a head-on collision on the rural West Texas roads heading home from watching Lusk and Shallowater girls basketball play in the state championship.
“I got the call, and it’s just like my world flipped upside down,” Lusk said, “because I didn’t know what (their conditions) were like. Because they didn’t really give me any details.”
The details proved to be a laundry list of injuries, particularly for Emie’s dad. Jay Lusk underwent emergency surgery to repair a baseball-sized tear in his diaphragm, collapsed lung and placement of his liver and gallbladder. He also fractured a vertebrae and had a brain bleed.
Jay Lusk spent about a week at a San Angelo hospital after the March 6 crash north of Eden. His wife, L.J., broke her sternum, wrist and multiple ribs. Cooper, Emie’s older brother, is seeking evaluation for a knee injury.
All the while, track season was moving along in the background.
Emie Lusk faced an uphill climb as it was because of basketball’s extended season. Tack on the emotional toll and the frustration was impossible to hide.
That’s part of why Shallowater track coach Bubba Wallace views the 1,600-meter relay’s latest feat as one of the greatest. The Fillies qualified for this week’s UIL state meet for the sixth year in a row behind Lusk’s anchor leg. The lone senior of the bunch, Lusk crossed the regional finish line in position to erase any early-season doubts.
“Emmy, early on, it was hard. I could see it on her, and it was stressful on her,” Wallace said. “She just wanted to do so good because she wanted to be a fighter.”
Shallowater’s second-place finish at the Region I-3A meet was the continuation of growth for Lusk, Alyvia Holcomb, Kamryn Ledbetter and Alexa Welch. The group hasn’t had long together. Ledbetter and Lusk came over from basketball in early March, about a month before the postseason.
“It’s kind of scary at first,” Ledbetter said, “because some other girls got more workouts than we did. But having somebody else that did basketball with me, we kind of pushed each other to get better.”
Even then the final piece wasn’t in place. Welch was inserted at first leg when the Fillies competed at the Texas Relays in early April. The group has been set ever since.
Welch said the competition has strengthened their sister-like bond.
“When it really came down to the point where meets started getting serious, we all just bonded,” Welch said. “We’ve just gotten really close because of track.”
Shallowater clocked in at 4 minutes, 2.35 seconds at regionals for the seventh seed entering Thursday’s race. The Fillies have ended every season since 2021 at Mike A. Myers Stadium, and keeping up that streak was a motivating factor. Three of the girls were chasing their first trip as part of the relay.
“Oh, I was so nervous,” Holcomb said. “Knowing that they’ve been to state five years in a row, I knew that there was so much I had to do to be able to help them go back. It was kind of stressful, but it’s gotten a lot better, and I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with them.”
Holcomb carried the additional nerves of being a freshman. Ledbetter and Welch are sophomores, then there’s the mother hen. Lusk ran on the previous two state relays and was an alternate as a freshman. She’s played a vital role imparting wisdom of experience on the younger ones.
“Whatever (Lusk) says to do, we’re like, OK, she knows what she’s doing,” Holcomb said. “She just helps us stay calm and knowing that it’s all going to be OK and she’s done it so many times.”
Lusk said she learned how to lead from former relay mates, such as Maggie Grimes and Makki Hart. All Lusk wanted to do was continue the tradition and end things in Austin again.
When that was accomplished, it felt as good as ever.
“Every single time I’ve made it to state it’s the exact same feeling,” Lusk said. “It’s not like it’s any difference or anything, even though I’ve gone before. It’s just like I’m doing it again for the first time. It’s so cool, especially getting to do it with a whole new group.”
This one will always stick out to Wallace, though.
“With the short season, with basketball playing as long as it did, then you had the stuff that went on in our community,” Wallace said, “I just told my wife, man, if we can make it back, this might be the best coaching job that I’ve done. Because it’s not been easy.”
The Shallowater community rallied around the Lusks following the crash. Emie said the support was endless. Along with playoff runs in baseball and softball, the mile relay’s success has been a source of positivity during the town’s dark times.
It’s certainly been fulfilling for Jay Lusk, who will watch his little girl finish her career on the grandest stage.
“We’re so proud of her and the girls,” Jay Lusk said. “I was standing down there by the finish line (at regionals) like, ‘Please qualify.’ That’s what I kept saying. They did, and just made my day. It’s just such a bright spot for us.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Shallowater’s Emie Lusk leads relay to state 2 months after family crash
Reporting by Stephen Garcia, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
