In April, we posted a Recruit Profile of Bradie Fillmore, a talented 2016 pitcher/infielder from Eagle, Idaho who committed to the Cal Bears last summer.

She was having an outstanding season in the circle and at shortstop despite lingering and alarming problems with her pitching arm.  Then, she got the news that no player is ever prepared to hear—“Your athletic career may be in jeopardy.”

Not only that, but Endie and her teammates—both club and high school—had to deal with unexpected issues involving beloved coaches.

Here is the dramatic story told by her mother, Endi, of Bradie’s roller-coaster season which — spoiler alert! — has ended on at least one very positive note…

 

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We have officially dubbed this season “The Season of Adversity.”

Bradie sat out December and January doing physical therapy for what doctors in Idaho thought was thoracic outlet syndrome.  We were pretty scared since that is a serious condition even though doctors thought it could be cleared up with therapy and no surgery.

She worked back slowly to pitch for the high school season but was quickly feeling numbness, tingling and had swelling in her pitching arm.  She tried pitching minimal innings but was moved to short stop where her symptoms were not as severe.

Also, her high school coach, Doug Corta, who is a family friend and was her coach when Bradie was an 11 year old, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor the week of tryouts and was coming out of surgery during the opening game of the season.

He has been able to attend games and most practices as the team rallies around him and he is presently halfway through chemotherapy and radiation.  Teams from across our valley have held fundraisers, brought in meals and worn “Team Corta” bracelets in support of our coach.

On April 5, Assistant Coach Danny Greenberg of Bradie’s travel team, the Washington Ladyhawks 18 Gold, passed away suddenly from a heart attack.  He was a bigger-than-life teddy bear-type who made Bradie and every other girl on their team feel confident, relaxed and find humor in every situation.

It was, and is, a huge loss we’re still dealing with.

Bradie remained positive for weeks about physical therapy and returning to pitch, but after several more tests the doctors in Idaho felt like she had thoracic outlet–a rare condition that involves pain in the neck and shoulder, numbness and tingling of the fingers and a weak grip–and were concerned that it was vascular and was possibly compromising blood flow to her arm which is a serious diagnosis.

Because of Bradie’s age and high level of activity they felt like it was in her best interest to be referred to a specialist.

Dr. Robert Thompson of Barnes Jewish Hospital in St Louis, Mo., is a leader in both research and treatment of thoracic outlet.  We were referred to him on Monday, April 21 and all of Bradie’s films and studies were sent to his office.

We called that afternoon and he suggested that Bradie stop playing immediately and come see him—we were in Dr. Thompson’s office the next day.

His office is filled with sports memorabilia: pictures of mountain climbers, ballet stars, Major League Baseball jerseys signed by grateful patients and even a New Jersey Pride jersey.  We knew right away we were in good hands.

After a few tests he amazed us with the words, “Bradie hit the lottery.”  She did not have thoracic outlet, but a compression of her brachial plexus that was mimicking symptoms of thoracic outlet.

Rather than having a rib removed which is done to relieve true thoracic outlet, Bradie would need a small incision to her pectoralis minor, which takes only minutes, and the recovery is much quicker. Releasing the pectoralis minor removes the pressure on the brachial plexus which was causing numbness, weakness and swelling.

After a few more tests Bradie had surgery in Missouri and flew home to watch her team’s last two weeks of high school ball from the dugout.

At Bradie’s three week check-up, the doctor was shocked at her progress and cleared Bradie to hit but advised her to move at a slower pace when working back to throwing and pitching.

Her high school team had made the state play-offs so she climbed on a plane in St. Louis early Friday morning May 16—a week ago today!— and landed in Boise at 10:30am.

She had packed her uniform (just in case) and dressed in the car on the way to the field for an 11 am game.  Thankfully, play had been delayed and she had about 10 minutes to take a few swings before joining her team.

After three weeks off, Bradie went 4-for-5 at the plate and had four RBI to help her team win its first state playoff game.

She ended the regular season with a .655 batting average and a 1.163 slugging percentage.

Her team has been so supportive of each other this year and all have been willing to fill in and step up when things did not go as planned.

At Eagle High School’s softball banquet Tuesday night, Bradie received the varsity’ team’s Most Valuable Player award, earned an All-Conference Academic award and also found out that she had earned 1st Team All Conference (Infield) honors for her season at shortstop.

This season definitely had some rough patches, but we have learned that softball is truly a huge family of people that come together to help no matter what the situation is!

— Endi Fillmore