Dani Rae Loughheed could do it all as she was considered one of the top young softball players in the nation in 2006: the Arizona star outfielder and pitcher had a 4.0 GPA and a softball scholarship from Arizona State under her belt when severe headaches during the summer led to dreadful news: she had a brain tumor.

Click here to read “Dani Rae’s toughest test – Part I”

After a 6 1/2 hour operation, her health worsened and we pick up the story after Dani had gone to hospital for the fifth time in roughly two months. Only four hours after being released earlier in the day after one hospital visit, the teen was rushed back with a 104 degree temperature.

“That was the worst I’d ever been,” Dani Rae would later say, her voice tailing off. “I was thinking, ‘I’m going to die.’”

---

Recovery and a Return to School

Finally checked in and after another cat scan—“they knew me by first name by then,” Dani Rae cracked—she was diagnosed with Post Op Bacterial Meningitis. Given antibiotics via an IV, Lougheed says she could feel the healing begin almost immediately.

“I could tell I was starting to get better,” she recalls. “I could feel it in my back and kidneys, like they were getting stronger.”

Finally, on September 20 she was released for the final time. Her nightmarish ordeal, which included 40 days in the hospital over a three-month span, began to pass. Her Aunt Lori Ann, herself an ICU nurse in Pennsylvania, flew to Arizona to assist in Dani Rae’s recovery.

However, while the worst of the extreme nausea and headaches was behind her, the senior still had a lot of recovery work to do.

To help her gain weight, she was put on steroids which helped reduce and relieve swelling and pain, but also came with the side effects of irritability, weight gain and puffiness. Simultaneously, the athlete had to begin physical therapy to regain her balance and coordination, which were also impaired from the brain trauma.

“One of my first appointments,” she remembers of her physical therapy, which began in September, “I had to put marbles into a cup and it was extremely hard to do even that. I was very frustrated.”

Another exercise saw her physical therapist, Chris O’Donnell, putting a number pad on the floor and the patient had to step on the numbers one through nine.

“It’d take me a long time to take even one step,” Dani Rae remembers.

Meanwhile, after missing the first nine weeks of her senior year, Lougheed was ready to get back to her school life.

And there, on the Scottsdale Christian Academy campus where, according to Dani Rae, “Someone sneezes on one side of the campus and someone on the other side says ‘God Bless You,’” several wonderful and touching events occurred.

Classmates had already been praying for their star athlete and friends had made dinner for her siblings when the medical situations became too hectic.

Shortly after returning back to classes, Lougheed was nominated for Homecoming Queen and then, before more than a few teary eyes, her name was announced—Dani Rae had won.

“It was so cool to be nominated,” she says gratefully, “and the best part was I got to tell my story at a huge Mass, how God had impacted me and how I was so grateful for all the support of everyone.”

The three previous autumns, Lougheed had played on the varsity volleyball team. It was clear her senior campaign was all but wiped out, but Head Coach Linda Rodl surprised Dani Rae when she awarded her a letter and said, “You’ve worked so hard, you’ll always be part of this team.”

Poignantly, when the team went to the state title game, Coach Rodl offered to let the senior get on the floor and serve one point to allow her to be part of the championship action. Lougheed was too weak at the time to take part, but the gesture alone meant volumes to the recovering athlete.

***

Softball Support

Then there were her softball coaches.

The family remembers clearly that first phone call to tell Arizona State’s staff… How would they react? Would they pull the scholarship so it could go to a healthy, deserving athlete? Understandably, the fears behind the initial call to Head Coach Clint Myers were nerve-wracking.

“Coach Myers was so wonderful, he put my Mom in tears,” an appreciative Dani Rae begins. “He told us that they would honor the scholarship and would never take it away, that ‘she’s part of our family now.’”

“He contacted us every day when he could, be it by text message or e-mail, to check in and see how we were doing. Coach Myers said, ‘If you need me to be there or if I can do anything, let me know what I can do.’”

Blaize Gatti, head coach of the Arizona Hotshots, was just a year removed from playing in the 18-U Gold national championship game when he first learned of Dani Rae’s situation.

“I received a phone call this fall from Coach Wagner at ASU,” Gatti begins. “We spoke for a while about Dani Rae and her surgery. Our team had just returned from Nationals, and we were just about to start our tryout process.

“I wasn’t sure what we could do at that time to help Dani Rae—she had just been released from the hospital a week or so before. I told Coach Wagner that I would meet with the family and see if I could do anything to help her recovery. I had only known Dani Rae in the past from coaching against her in high school and watching her play on opposing club teams, so I was aware of her athletic abilities.

“I wasn’t sure at the time what to expect. It was very apparent upon our first meeting that Dani Rae was in a very fragile state of health. She had a difficult time walking and at that time could not stand for very long.

“After a few minutes, it was easy to see that Dani Rae was still in a lot of pain. What really made me want to help her was her obvious determination to play softball again. She told me that she wanted to possibly play high school ball, but she was determined to play for the Arizona Hotshots and then move on to ASU.

At that time I thought she was just setting a goal for herself that was unlikely to be achieved, but Dani Rae immediately grabbed hold of my heart. I could see that she was fighting back the pain just to talk to me and still managed to have a sense of humor about the situation. I was immediately hooked… I became a Dani Rae fan.”

***

Now (2006)… and the Future

Today, the senior says she’s recovered “50 percent physically and 98 percent mentally. At first, I couldn’t concentrate in one area for very long and I would forget a lot, but that’s coming around.”

She continues to go to physical therapy three times a week and is driven to get back into softball shape. Three weeks ago, she went to her first official Hotshots practice and, although she admits there’s a long ways to go, “was surprised at the progress I have made.”

“She did what she could to just walk around and talk to the girls without getting exhausted,” adds Coach Gatti. “As the weeks have gone by, Dani Rae continues to push herself. She started swinging a bat again, attended her first active practice and completed all of the drills except the conditioning. Since that day, we have had a few hitting lessons together and it seems as though Dani Rae is well on her way to achieving her goals.”

The steroids she took when she lost 30 pounds caused her to gain 50 pounds, but she’s lost the extra 20 (“mostly water retention”) and is back to her normal frame of 5-foot-9, 150 pounds.

“It’s not easy,” Lougheed concedes. “I’ll take one step forward and two back, but for the most part I’ve learned how to push and listen to myself so I can keep doing a little more, right up to the point of exhaustion.”

Talk to Dani Rae today and you’re drawn in by her vibrancy, by her radiance. It’s as if she’s George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” and, with a renewed appreciation for her own life and surrounding support system, she’s bouncing with giddy happiness and joy.

The teenager’s voice bubbles with excitement for the obvious—family, friends, classmates, teammates and coaches—but also for her renewed love of softball.

“Not many know this,” she reveals, “but every January or February I’d get to the point where I’d say, ‘I’m done with softball, I’m worn out and don’t want to do this… I want to be with my friends.’ My parents would say, ‘You can’t quit now, just finish the year.’ and after the year was done I’d say, ‘I want to play one more year.’”

“But now,” Dani Rae continues, “after all I’ve been through, it’s really given me an appreciation for the sport. For a long time this year I couldn’t even pick up a softball and bat and having not been part of it for six months has about killed me.”

Indeed, it was a roller coaster of a year for the Lougheed family. Still, Dani Rae’s mother looked at the positive side when she made a list recapping the blessing the athlete and her family received in the last half of 2006:

Top 10 Reasons to be Thankful

1. tumor found early
2. Barrow Neurological Institute
3. neurosurgeon (Dr. Robert Spetzler) world renowned
4. tumor benign
5. no rejection of mesh
6. no removal of thigh muscle
7. no shunt
8. nurses
9. health insurance
10. … and Dani Rae, for her faith, strength, courage, humor, love and not giving up.

Adds Blaize Gatti, “Dani Rae is one of those rare people that you meet in your life who doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit. Even though she has a long way to go, I know in my heart that she will meet and exceed every one of her goals. I am proud that Dani Rae has allowed me to be part of her life.”

Fortunately, it’s infrequent that one so young has to look mortality in the eye and face the possibility of death, be it that of a loved one or even oneself. Lougheed is candid and surprisingly calm about having been forced to face her own vulnerability.

“I remember one time when the surgeon came in and I was so tired and told him and my Mom, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ My Mom broke down crying and the doctor put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘You’ll be fine.’”

“It was excruciatingly hard in the moment sometimes, but honestly, I never thought about death at all. People are surprised to hear that, but I never had a reason to be upset. It happened for a reason and I felt comfortable with the surgeons and what they were doing.

“I’m not afraid of death. I know I’ll be with the Lord, and yet I feel for my family and friends who would have to have dealt with it. I feel for them, but I could handle it.

“Before, my life was all about sports and being in shape. Now, it’s all about my family and friends—this whole thing has changed my perspective. Take softball, for example. I love it, but it’s a hobby… my family, though, will always be there for me.

Finally, and in her refreshingly positive way, Dani Rae thinks she was given this year’s trials to help others.

“I believe I’m alive to share my story, to be an inspiration to those who might be struggling or not be able to find a positive outlook in what they’re going through. I hope they can see God through me and I can help others see that, no matter how bad things look, there’s always hope and with love you can overcome anything.”

---

Epilogue:

Dani Rae would go on to Arizona State and play from 2008 to 2011 and be part of two National Championship teams her freshman and senior years although injuries derailed much of her career.

Still, she got to play next to All-Americans like Dallas Escobedo and Katelyn Boyd and play for Hall of Fame coach Clint Myers, now at Auburn.

This week, Dani is in Hawaii on her honeymoon after getting married March 28 to Zane Holley, a former Marine who served in Afghanistan.

The happy newlyweds live in Mansfield, Texas, where they just recently bought a house.

“Dani has had quite the life after softball,” her mother, Carey Moxley, told Full Count Softball last night. “ She met Zane while visiting her sister, Shalyn, and her husband Cody in Texas. Zane is one of Cody’s best friends and was their roommate.”

“They (Dani and Zane) hit it off and started doing the long distance dating. Next thing you know, she moves to Texas to be with the love of her life.”

Dani is working for a company that sells pharmaceuticals for dermatologists.

“She has turned into quite the country/backwoods woman,” laughs her mother. “She fishes and hunts and is quite a good shot too for never hunting before meeting Zane.”