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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend June 9, 2006 Rheana Laipply helped the Ashland girls to their best basketball season in school history. Fighting back Ashland ‘super senior’ Laipply overcomes debilitating disease to play sports for the Grizzlies and make it to graduation By DON HUNT Mail Tribune ASHLAND — Chronic Fatigue Syndrome took its best shot at Rheana Laipply. It zapped her energy. It made her body ache. It wrapped a fog around her brain so that she couldn’t think straight. It deprived her of her greatest passion — sports — and, ultimately, it knocked her out of school. During what would have been her sophomore and junior years at Ashland High, Laipply attended class a total of seven times. The debilitating disorder had Laipply on the ropes, but, as her basketball teammates will tell you, she is no ordinary fighter. Not even a torn knee ligament shortly after returning to the court in December 2004 could keep her down. Advertisement Tonight at 7 at the Band Shell in Lithia Park — one year after she was originally scheduled to graduate — Laipply will pick up her high school diploma. There won’t be a dry eye in sight. "I’ve been teaching for 16 years, and Rheana is my absolute favorite student," says Robin Hernandez, an English teacher at Ashland High who served as Laipply’s home tutor for a year. "She is not your ordinary teenager. She’s very mature, completely self-motivated and she has an incredible empathy towards others that you just don’t see in someone her age. "She’s dealt with so much adversity and yet it’s almost like she’s excelling because of it." AFTER SHARING A water bottle with a soccer teammate in April 2002, Laipply came down with mononucleosis. The disease, which like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome depletes the strength of its victims, normally takes three to four months to run its course. With the help of a tutor, Laipply made it through the rest of the school year and started classes the following September. But four days into what would have been her sophomore year she had to drop out. "I was tired all the time, my body ached and I couldn’t think straight," she says. "I figured I just had a severe case of mono." The mono finally went away, but the exhaustion didn’t. Another year went by. After visits to several doctors failed to identify another disease, Laipply was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in October 2003. Laipply’s mother has also suffered from the disorder — which has no known cause — for the past 10 years. "It got to the point where it was hard to get out of bed, take a shower, go for a walk," Laipply says. "Some days you feel better than others but it was like I had the flu for two years." "I watched a lot of TV and movies and read a lot, but after a while it gets depressing." A self-described sports junkie, the toughest part was not being on the soccer and softball fields or the basketball court. "Sports was my life," Laipply says. "Watching my friends and not being a part of it, that was tough." THE LAIPPLYS tried nearly every possible treatment to cure their daughter. Vitamins, herbal supplements, acupuncture, antidepressants. They drove her to a microbiologist in Palo Alto, Calif. They took her to an allergy specialist in Southern California. Was it a substance in their Ashland home that was the culprit? Nothing seemed to make Laipply feel better until she began taking an antiviral medicine called Acyclovere in the spring of 2004. "We don’t know if it was that medicine that helped or if it was just timing, but she seemed to get a lot better once she began taking it," says Gary Laipply, Rheana’s father. Rheana Laipply felt well enough to return to class in the fall of 2004 and resumed her basketball career a couple months later. She was out of shape and out of sync at first but, she says with a grin, "I’ve never had so much fun in my life." "You don’t realize how much you miss something like basketball, how much you miss your teammates, until it’s gone," she adds. Laipply, a 5-foot-8 wing known for her hustle and defense, was beginning to earn significant playing time when the unthinkable occurred at a tournament in Lake Oswego on Dec. 28, 2004: She tore an ACL in a knee after colliding with a player on the opposing team. "I went to pick up a loose ball and a girl hit me from the side," Laipply recalls. "I knew what happened. I could hear the pop." An MRI at a Lake Oswego hospital late that night confirmed the bad news: Laipply was out for the season. Coach Ken Lathen, who carried Laipply off the floor, nearly broke down in tears. "I drove to Portland that night, and let me tell you, that was a long drive," Gary Laipply says of the 300-mile trip. "After all she’d been through, and then to make a comeback, and then this ... our family was just stunned." ACL INJURIES usually take about nine months to recover from, but Laipply was in the office of Ashland physical therapist Mike Siegel nearly every day, undergoing relentless rehabilitation. "I was in there myself doing some rehab, and the therapist kept using Rheana as a benchmark for me to follow," Hernandez says. "She worked so hard to get back in shape so she could play again." By now, it was apparent that Laipply would need an extra year to graduate. She simply had missed too much class time. Her old classmates had come and gone, but Laipply had plenty of younger friends. And just being in school made her happy. "I’m a super senior," she would joke. Playing sports as a fifth-year senior was no lock, however. In fact, the Oregon School Activities Association — the state’s governing body for high school sports — initially turned down her hardship request. But Ashland High Athletic Director Karl Kemper appealed the ruling. The OSAA then met with Kemper and Gary and Rheana Laipply and ruled 10-0 in her favor. Laipply was a significant contributor to the Grizzlies’ hoop team last winter when it won the Southern Oregon Conference and placed fifth in the Class 4A state tournament — the highest in school history — and posted a 27-5 record. She was named the team’s most inspirational player. "Her mobility wasn’t quite the same because of the injury, but in many ways, she was the heart and soul of our team," says Lathen, the Grizzly coach. "I guarantee you she will be successful in whatever she does because of her courage, her personality and her overall abilities as a person." Laipply had so much fun in basketball that she gave softball a shot this spring. She hadn’t played that sport since she was in elementary school, but wound up starting in the outfield. "It was a totally different situation — we struggled as a team and had a bunch of young girls out there," Laipply says of her softball experience. "But I love being in a team atmosphere." And being healthy. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail Fighting back ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations --> online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Entertainment Guide --> Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisement s