WASHINGTON —
There are some people you always enjoy being around. These are the people who smile and seem to find the best in every situation they find themseleves in.
In high school sports, there are a lot of thing that can keep student/athletes from smiling. The pressure to win, to find an edge, combined with grueling travel, short seasons and long practices, homework, expectations — both personal, parental and from the community, can all take their toll on 16 and 17 year-old.
However, there is one young lady I can always count on for a smile and a laugh, regardless of what was happening — WHS junior softball player Allexis Lemon.
Lexi competes as hard as anyone I know and her love of softball is evident to anyone who has even spent five minutes with her. However, she also has an infectious smile and positive attitude that is just as evident to anyone in the same amount of time. She is a young lady with a promising softball future ahead of her.
This year, like her first two as a Hatchet varsity pitcher, she was in the middle of another season of dominating area hitters, when she began to feel pain in her left (non-pitching) elbow last week.
Knowing something wasn’t right, she went to the hospital last Wednesday and it turned out to be blood clots that have had to be removed. She has had several surgeries in the last week and it looks like there will be several more to take care of what was causing the clots.
From talking to her grandfather, Hatchet softball coach Alan Lemon, the situation is serious enough to end her season and still has some significant risks, but hopefully will not be career-ending.
She is scheduled to be in the hospital for several more more days at Deaconess in Evansville. Alan Lemon said that she is in good spirits, and in spite not being able to play, she has received a lot support from family and friends.
The Lemon family are truly some of the “good guys” in both education, as well as high school sports. Alan is charge of the Twin Rivers automotive program, while his wife Candy teaches in the alternative education program.
Alan has had plenty of ups and downs as the only-ever softball coach at WHS, but he quickly mentioned how this puts things in perspective.
One wonders why things like this happen to folks like them, but then again after knowing Alan for more than 12 seasons, and Lexi for the last three, one also knows they are the type of people who will handle it — and probably with a smile.
State News
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Lexi Lemon T. Daniel Lancaster
Discussion
Making lemonade out of Lemons
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