Becky Shaak
Becky Shaak is in her 6th season with the FISH
and she has an amazing story about perseverance and accomplishment we all need
to know.
Becky has always had some knee problems but she was not
ready for what her sophomore year in high school would bring. During a normal day in PE class Becky
dislocated her knee and in the process tearing off ligaments. This injury resulted in a surgery
during the month of August 2007.
The doctors scoped the knee and also went in and reattached tendons and
ligaments in the hope that the knee would some day be even stronger. Becky's favorite event was breaststroke
and she was told she would probably not be able to swim breaststroke
again.
After the surgery Becky had to use a brace and crutches for
two months and had to do physical therapy for a year after the injury. Becky
was able to start back in the pool for about a half an hour in January 2008 and
as times passed she was able to add five minutes to her practices, as she felt
able to. As Becky was continuing
with her short practices and physical therapy she was able to compete in PVS
Spring Championships and there seamed to be hope that she would be able to
regain full strength at some point.
As the summer of 2008 started Becky was reminded of her long
time goal of breaking her summer league team record in the Breaststroke. She had to watch as a teammate on the
summer team broke the record, the one Becky has planned to break. Seeing the record broken, Becky became
even more motivated to regain strength in her knee in hopes to break the new
record that summer. Just the fact
that Becky was now swimming Breaststroke was a miracle but this was not good
enough for her. She was able to
regain full strength and before the end of the summer she did break the
Breaststroke record for her summer team.
Becky is now back to full strength and because of all her
hard work her knee is stronger than it was before the injury. Becky is now in her Senior year at
Madison High School and she is swimming very well with the Incredible group
along with sometimes practicing with the Awesome group. Becky is also swimming with her High
School team and is planning to attend the State Championships at the end of the
season.
Becky will be graduating in the spring and attending Lake
Forest College in Chicago were she is looking forward to swimming for the
Foresters Swimming and Diving team and is planning to study Political Science. Becky's story should be motivation for
all of us to continue to work hard and keep our focus on our goals. Becky never let anyone tell her that
she "couldn't do it," and we should all take a lesson from her and her story.
