In volleyball terms, Katie Clemens' life was at match point - for the other side.

After a terrible car crash in February, the Warsaw High School junior and middle blocker on the Tiger volleyball team was just an eyelash away from the end of her volleyball career, possibly her life.

Nine months after that fateful Feb. 3 morning, Clemens has rallied not only back physically and mentally, she is also doing what she loves to do and is a key component of Warsaw's volleyball team that will be taking part in the Huntington Regional Saturday.

It was volleyball that helped inspire her to work hard in her rehabilitation from the accident and make the full recovery.

"It (volleyball) is something that helped me come back 100 percent," Clemens said. "It is something I have worked toward. I don't know where I would be if I couldn't have played volleyball because then I wouldn't have had to come back 100 percent. I just worked for it and got it. I played volleyball all my life, and it was like my whole life was falling in front of me.

"When I was in the hospital, my parents had to prepare me and say that I couldn't play volleyball anymore," she said. "Coach (Penny) Salm came and gave me a volleyball sign, and I thought I might not be able to be on this team again. I thought; What am I going to do? I have played volleyball for nine years. It is different to think they may not be able to do something you have done all your life."

After the accident, Clemens spent two weeks at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne working with occupational therapists and another month at Kosciusko Community Hospital with physical therapists. The whole process was tough for Clemens, but worthwhile. A starter last year as a sophomore, Clemens was determined to return to her position in the middle of the Tigers' front line.

"Right when I came out of the coma, I couldn't move my right arm or my right leg," she said. "And then they tried to make me write my name, and that was really hard. But I have overcome it. When I got to be in my house and go up and down my own stairs, that was a lot, being in your own environment."

By midsummer, Clemens was physically able to play volleyball and went to an elite varsity camp in Michigan, but her timing was still somewhat off.

"Getting back into the groove was difficult," she said. "The conditioning was fine. But I went to volleyball camp in Michigan (in July), and I could do things, but I wasn't as good as I could have been. And that bothered me. I thought; What if I have to relearn all this stuff?"

Clemens suffered head and internal injuries in the accident. The use of a seat belt and airbags helped save her life. Clemens remained in a coma for eight weeks and was told she had some brain swelling and could take a year to totally recover from that. Outside of some aches from scars, Clemens reports no ill effects from the accident.

"I don't notice any problems now, but it was hard," she said. "I am at least back and maybe a little beyond. I am hitting a lot more in the middle and I am blocking better. I am back all the way, there is no doubt in my mind."

The mental scars remain, but the accident also provided Clemens with a constant reminder of how life should be and how it should be cherished.

"You realize you have to do the best you can all the time because tomorrow there may not be another chance," Clemens said. "You have to try 100 percent today because you might not have a tomorrow.

"It is a big turning point in my life," she said. "It really made me slow down and think about stuff before I did it. I could have died and that is a big thing for me. I think about stuff before I do it now. It is sad to say that kind of experience made me happen to think that. It has changed my life in little ways. You don't have to hurry to get there a few seconds earlier."

The accident also changed her driving habits.

"People ask me if I am scared to drive, but I am not because I don't remember it," she said. "I am scared somewhat to speed or go around corners, and I always buckle up."

A few months after the accident, Salm left the Tiger program after nearly a decade to move to Oregon and coach high school volleyball. New coach Jamie Byron entered the program almost at the last minute and didn't have the knowlege of the accident beforehand. She learned of it later, but said it didn't affect her evaluation of Clemens as a player.

"I was aware that she had been in the accident the previous spring, but to me she was another player," Byron said. "I wasn't really aware of her style of play before the accident. We just went from there. It was just like the other girls, I couldn't base anything on previous knowledge of them. I just wanted them to show what they had from the very beginning."

Byron noticed that Clemens had some things to work on, but no more than any other high school junior playing volleyball.

"Katie has worked hard," Byron said. "And from what I have heard, she has to really struggle to regain what she has lost. She has had to improve in a lot of areas, especially her overall aggressiveness. She is really aggressive right now. At the beginning, her footwork wasn't fantastic, but now she is driving for every ball."

Despite the fact that Byron wasn't around right after the accident, Clemens said she has still gotten a lot of support from the Warsaw coaching staff.

"When Coach Byron and Coach Dave (Schwalb) came in, they saw the pictures, and they were 'how did you live through that?'" Clemens said. "They have been there for me if I would have had anything emotionally wrong with me. That has been important to me." [[In-content Ad]]