Have you had to endure some pain to compete in your sport? How much and how often did it hurt? How would you handle daily, intense pain and would you endure it for four solid years? I watched the toughest girl on the planet do just that as she played her heart out.
Wendy Goodman (Bauersachs) was a basketball player at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale from 2001 through 2005 and she played through pain every day, all day. She has a hereditary condition which makes her bones brittle and subject to stress fractures. It also is quite painful. Running up and down a basketball floor only adds to the stress and pounds the joints with every stride.
Early in her days at SIU the training staff tried everything they could think of to treat the condition and minimize the pain. They tried special shoes, socks, treatments and more. Finally the doctor told her the choice was to play with pain or don’t play at all. She decided to play and became a leader for her team throughout her career.
In her condition, the pain was a constant presence. It didn’t simply visit her when on the floor, it was there as she walked to class as she sat on the team bus traveling home with ice bags strapped to her shins and every night as she would try to sleep.
Wendy, along with her roommate and best friend, Danette Jones (Wolfe), were inspirational leaders for the Basketball Salukis. Her sacrificial love for the game of basketball, for her teammates and for her Lord won the hearts of many. Not long after graduation, that loving heart attracted Tim Bauersachs and they are now blissfully married with a daughter and another baby on the way. The toughest girl on the planet is now a mommy and a pastor’s wife.
Wendy’s example of love, sacrifice and toughness is a constant challenge to me and to all who witnessed her playing career. She helps us each to play our hearts out.
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