West Fork's Quinton Back On Court, Headed For State

STAFF PHOTO Michael Woods @NWAMICHAELW West Fork senior Kara Quinton celebrates with her team after hitting the game winning free throw against the Danville Lady Little Johns in overtime during Friday night's playoff game in the girls 3A Region 1 Tournament at Elkins High School.
STAFF PHOTO Michael Woods @NWAMICHAELW West Fork senior Kara Quinton celebrates with her team after hitting the game winning free throw against the Danville Lady Little Johns in overtime during Friday night's playoff game in the girls 3A Region 1 Tournament at Elkins High School.

— The scar on Kara Quinton's forehead is faint, barely visible beneath her brunette hair.

The body brace she wore for almost three months sits in a corner of her home in West Fork, a constant reminder of a horrific car accident in October.

She'd like to toss it out, but understands that without it, she wouldn't have been running up and down the basketball court three months later.

"It's sitting in our house right now," Quinton said last week. "I wish I could throw it away, but it was expensive. I hated that thing. I mean I'm glad it made me better, but I hated that neck brace."

During Friday night's Class 3A Region I game against Danville, Quinton stood at the free throw line. The game was tied 32-32.

The Lady Tigers, after a slow start to the season, were on the brink of advancing to the regional championship game. And Quinton could make that happen.

She dribbled a couple of times and put up the shot.

On Oct. 26, no one would have guessed she would be in this position. That she was alive was miracle enough.

LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

Quinton celebrated her 18th birthday that day. She finished basketball practice earlier and was a passenger in a four-door Jeep with three friends when the accident happened on a stretch of Highway 62 between Farmington and Prairie Grove.

She and a friend were in the back seat when the vehicle rolled several times. She and the other backseat passenger were the most seriously injured.

Both suffered broken necks.

Quinton suffered a large gash on her head that required 37 stitches. Her friend suffered a broken jaw and an ear was severed. They both also had severe back injuries.

"We were both wearing seat belts, so we weren't ejected," Quinton said. "I knew we were hurt pretty bad, but I didn't realize how bad it was."

She spent three days in intensive care and several more days in the hospital before she was released with a body brace that ran from her waist to her neck.

West Fork girls basketball coach Rodney Selph got the call shortly after the accident. His daughter, Kaden, and Quinton have been best friends since they were in the fifth grade.

"She's like another daughter to us," Selph said of Quinton. "It was a tough blow to all of us, but it hit Kaden real hard to see her best friend like that. Actually Kaden had the opportunity to go with them and decided to stay home. That even made it a little tougher when you think of the possibilities."

While Quinton's injuries were significant, she said she never suffered any paralysis. The severity of the accident and her brush with death didn't actually sink in until she was home a few days later.

"I didn't see what the Jeep looked like until a couple of days after," she said. "Someone showed me a picture of it, and I was just like, 'Oh my gosh.' After seeing that Jeep, and realizing what happened, it just sunk in how blessed I was to be alive.

"Some people don't get out of wrecks like that alive. A lot of people would not consider breaking your back and your neck lucky, but I do."

RIVALRY PUSHED ASIDE

Quinton said she doesn't remember a lot from her days in the hospital. But she does remember at least one group of visitors -- the Greenland girls basketball team.

West Fork and Greenland are bitter rivals and have been for decades. Just a few miles separate the two western Washington County towns, and their girls basketball teams have staged some epic battles.

It starts when they are just youngsters, and it only gets bigger as the games carry on more importance.

Word of Quinton's accident spread quickly through the communities and on social media. Anna Rogers, the veteran leader of Greenland's championship teams, has battled Quinton many times on the court. It was Rogers who rallied her team to come to the aid of a fallen rival, said Lady Pirates coach Alan Barton.

"Anna just asked what can we do," Barton said. "She said I want to go to the hospital and take some teammates. It was very emotional for Kara and these girls. I think she was shocked. She said, 'Coach B, that means a lot to me that you guys care about me.' We're all a basketball family. With kids today and social media, these kids all know each other away from the court. We're rivals, but we all travel the same path."

Other rivals followed suit, proving there's more to life than a basketball game.

A FAST HEALER

Quinton said the brace was a huge hassle, but without it, her healing process would not have been possible. As the calendar moved past Thanksgiving and Christmas, she showed remarkable progress in overcoming her injuries.

But she still held little hope that she would see the court as a senior.

"Me and my dad were talking, and I was saying, 'You know, this is my senior year. Now I'm probably not going to be able to play basketball this year,'" she said.

"At one point, we weren't real sure how bad my back and neck injuries were. And I had to wear this brace for like three months. And I wasn't sure how long they were going to tell me I had to be in that."

As January approached, doctors told Quinton's family the healing process was moving more rapid than they anticipated and a full recovery was near. They also told her she could slowly resume normal activities.

Was a return to basketball possible?

"They just said at the time it was healing up well and I could try to start doing what I was doing," she said.

Selph said when the team heard Quinton could resume basketball, the emotions were almost overwhelming.

"We were ecstatic for her," he said. "She had worked so hard in the summer and it was her senior year, and just the thought of her not getting to play with Kaden -- or all of the seniors -- was tough.

"So when she said the doctor gave her a chance to maybe come back, it was just a great feeling for her, for our team, for her parents, for everybody."

Quinton took her return gradual at first, riding a stationary bike and slowly working her way back into shape.

She did not return to the court until January, when the Lady Tigers made a trip to Elkins, another longtime rival.

When Quinton entered the game, fans on both sides of the court rose to their feet, showering her with cheers.

"It was hard not playing, but I was glad to be there with my team," she said. "About two to three weeks before I got my neck brace off, they told me I could go back and slowly do what I was doing before, which was a miracle because most people, when they break their necks, they can't ..."

Quinton's voice trailed off as the emotion of her ordeal came flooding back.

QUEEN FOR A DAY

Quinton's first home game was a Color's Day clash with Greenland. And the event could not have been scripted any better.

She was crowned Color's Day queen, an honor many girls dream about.

And her Lady Tigers stunned the two-time defending Class 3A state champions.

"It was awesome," she said. "It was just a great day, great atmosphere here. It was a magical night."

The Lady Tigers used that win as a springboard to a strong finish to the season. West Fork (14-12) won its opening-round game of the regional tournament, punching its ticket to this week's state tournament in Charleston.

But Quinton and her teammates were playing for as high a seed as possible at the state tournament, and her free throw in a tie game with Danville was crucial.

"She's worked her way back," Selph said. "She's back in the starting lineup for us, and she's been an integral part of our team. She's hit some big shots for us. She also just brings a kind of defensive toughness for us."

MORE THAN A GAME

Selph has tried his best to keep basketball and life in perspective.

As a longtime coach, he admits sometimes it's hard not to get so focused on the games that you forget they are just that -- games. Quinton's accident brought that home to him.

"When it all happened, basketball was the least of our concerns," Selph said. "When I first saw her, I can't even describe when we walked into ICU and saw her. How painful it was to see her in that state.

"But to have her back now and being part of the team, a contributor. We just want to see how long we can make this last, just see how many games we can get her. We want her to play as many as she can and get some of those back."

Quinton said she and her future roommate at Arkansas, the same girl in the backseat the night of the wreck, have talked about getting a photo of the mangled Jeep framed to hang in their dorm room to serve as a constant reminder of that October night.

She knows her basketball career soon will be over, whether it's after winning a state championship or before.

Selph said there's a lot more than just basketball ahead for Quinton.

"She's going to do big things when she leaves here and goes to college," he said. "She's going to do something special."

As her free throw swished through the net in West Fork's 33-32 win, the emotion of the shot, the injury, everything poured over her.

She was mobbed by teammates celebrating the Lady Tigers' trip to the championship game.

Quinton was back.

NW News on 03/04/2014

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