Freshman battles injury, plans return

Freshman Katie Pollom plays the waiting game. By now, she's an unruffled pro. She waits. She watches. She anticipates the day she'll be able to step onto the volleyball court.\nIf good things indeed come to those who wait, Pollom will have waited long enough -- more than a year. Doctors discovered a stress fracture in Pollom's back last winter, but she was able to practice for coach Katie Weismiller until mid-August. Then came word she had to wait, play it safe, for four months.\nSo, she sat, waiting for those good things to shuffle her way and watching her teammates trudge through the Big Ten season. \nPollom said she'll be back. She beams with confidence in a back brace she wears nonstop -- to bed, to class, to practice; everywhere but the shower. \nThe brace wraps around her torso and climbs up her back, seemingly holding her in one piece. It's clunky, molded plastic that velcros across her stomach. A bone-growth stimulator the size of a battery clings to the brace's front to aid healing. It appears as if Pollom's back would buckle and crumble to bits and pieces if the brace ever came off. But it's what gives her hope as she waits. \nPollom said she has patience; you need that when you're forced to sit out an entire volleyball season after you expected to shine. Patience keeps her mind from hating her plagued back, which has limited her to plopping down on the sidelines during practice after practice, game after game, merely waiting. Waiting for a stress-fractured back to heal or for the constant pain to subside.\nThe pain has taken a reprieve because of her brace, Pollum said, and the 6-foot-3-inch middle blocker is scheduled to undergo an MRI sometime within the next few weeks. Should she be able to bust out of the brace, she'll be able to play.\n"Even if I'm not sure if I can play, I just want to be pain free," she said as she lifted her gray sweatshirt, revealing and adjusting a section of the white, stiff brace. "I don't know if I'll play right away when I get the brace off, but they're going to try to wean me out of it. I have another, softer brace I can use."\nShe said she hopes to be able to use that softer, more flexible brace. She'll finish the 2000 season redshirting but has her sights set on next fall. \nFor now, she helps in any way she can with practice. She even spent one afternoon sprawled out on the practice floor, scribbling addresses on envelopes Weismiller needed to send. She still travels with the team and welcomes the opportunity she has in Bloomington. She turned down offers from Miami (Ohio) and Purdue to come to IU.\n"She's a huge part of this team," Weismiller said. "Her attitude is unbelievable. She's all positive. We just keep our fingers crossed that she'll be able to come back."\nWeismiller knew of Pollom's injury when she recruited her, but says that had no affect the process. After all, Pollom grappled with pain and braces to help lead Cathedral High School in Indianapolis to two state championships, leading the Irish in kills her senior season. A four-year starter, she was named an Indiana All-Star as a senior and holds the school record for hitting percentage in a season (.502). \nThe braces didn't slow her down at Cathedral, or before. Pollom suffers from scoliosis and has been in and out of braces since fourth grade. She said she doesn't know what caused her tumultuous back problems, but suspects it could be volleyball, scoliosis or a 1999 car accident.\nBy now, though, she's become accustomed to the braces. What she hasn't adjusted to is the watching from the sidelines -- where she can't muster a block or hammer a kill. That, she said, is the worst part. She turns to teammates and coaches for support. Her skills, Weismiller said, would add to the Hoosiers' depth, something the squad, losers of five straight conference contests, could use. \n"I've learned a lot about being patient," Pollom said. "I know I'll be back someday, but now, I have to fill the role that I can. The first home game made me want to get back to play, but it's frustrating, because there's nothing I can do."\nShe continues lifting weights and spending hours on a stepper each week so when she does return, she'll be strong. But her strength is elementary until she's cleared to step back onto the court. And that won't happen until the doctor approves. No matter how hard she works, how much sweat soaks her red, curly hair, it's doctors, a brace and a bone-growth stimulator that determine when she can return, if at all. \n"I don't know how she does it," senior outside hitter Amanda Welter said. "I had to sit out practice for the first time, and I told her it was killing me. I give her all the credit in the world for being able to do it."\nA nagging sore back forced Welter, who could recall missing only a couple athletic contests or practices before this fall, to rest earlier this season. Pollom was there to offer her support and help Welter figure out just how to sit out and feel satisfied. \nBut Pollom isn't satisfied. Welter admits it is a toss-up whether or not Pollom will return. Weismiller says if anybody can do it, it will be Pollom. The fiercest opinion stems from Pollom, who said she does not let the thought of not playing again cross her mind. Her four-month hiatus ends around Thanksgiving. \n"I'll deal with (not playing) if that situation comes along," Pollom said. "I can't imagine not playing. I'd rather play with pain than not play at all. I believe I'll get better."\nUntil then, she waits.