Every year, athletes who have to overcome obstacles out of their control find ways to persevere.
Whether it be through injury or personal hardship in their lives, the Tom Leach All-Resilient team has been recognizing those Kentucky high school student-athletes for over a decade now.
This year the All-Resilient team recognized 13 student-athletes, one of them being Beechwood’s Hayden Ritter. Ritter, a senior for the Tigers’ girls basketball team, played in all 26 games for Beechwood this season despite a major injury setback her junior season. Ritter scored 3.4 points per game, led the team in 3-point percentage and was second in rebounding with 5.8 rebounds per game.
Here’s the write-up on Ritter from the Tom Leach All-Resilient team website:
Hayden was on track for a breakout junior season at Beechwood High School when a torn ACL in a knee sent her to the sidelines for a lengthy and challenging rehab assignment. To strengthen her knee, doctors had to harvest extra tissue from her quad tendon and that left her right quad with an 80 percent reduction in strength, meaning she would have to completely rebuild that muscle while also rehabbing the knee. There were setbacks along the way, but Hayden made it back to the court for her senior season, albeit with a full brace on that injured leg. Hayden became the Tigers’ best on-ball defender, frequently led the team in rebounding, paced her team’s training in sprints and was chosen co-captain by her teammates. And when the injury derailed her soccer participation, Hayden became a manager for the boys’ team. Along the way, Hayden maintained straight A’s in the classroom.
Ritter and the other 12 student-athletes recognized to the All-Resilient team were recognized at the Kentucky Athletic Administrators Association Awards Banquet in late April.
