Armorel-Whitney Wagganer

Ever since I was a baby, my family and I lived in Blytheville, Arkansas. My brother since kindergarten went to Armorel. Armorel is a tiny school. He had about thirty-five people in his class in total. The school only had one hallway with maybe thirty classrooms. I went to Armorel from kindergarten to eighth grade. I moved the summer before my ninth grade year. Over my years at Armorel, I had good friends. They still, to this day are very good friends, we just don’t see or talk to each other a lot. Their names are Blaine McCormick, Olivia Myers, Matt Wyatt, Jonathan Willard, Emma Haskins, Wesley Walls, Kelsey Brooks, and Andrea FitzPatrick. Kelsey was two years older than me, but we had been friends forever because our brothers played baseball together. Olivia and Wesley were two years younger than me, Matt, Jonathan, Blaine, Andrea, and Emma. All of us are twenty-eighteen graduates. As a girl who loved basketball, even in my younger years, every day from fourth to sixth grade at recess me and all the guys would always play pick-up basketball games. Those were so intense we lost friendships over them until the next day when we would re-pick teams and play again. Once we all got into seventh grade, we were even closer than we ever were in elementary. We went to the movies more, went out and ate more, or even just hand out at everyone’s houses then. We would ride around on four-wheelers or they would come to my house and we would swim our lives away. Usually, we couldn’t drive these places yet, so we would have our parents take us everywhere. I am sure we annoyed them, but they knew we should have a childhood and hand out with each other a lot. Before I moved, all my friends and I made a pack to have the best summer of our lives. That way we could die with memories and we’d never forget our laughs, cries, or laughing until we cried of that year. I am very glad I grew up with those people, I don’t know what I would do without our memories.

Me-Whitney Wagganer

My name is Whitney Wagganer. I am sixteen years old. I was born in Blytheville, Arkansas. I love to travel because I do a lot of it. I've been to Paris, Germany, Switzerland, Las Vegas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, England, and Texas. I've rode in thirteen planes. I've always had a passion for sports. Over the past sixteen years, I've played softball, soccer, ran track, cheered, and played basketball. I played softball for twelve years, played soccer for three years, ran track for three, cheered on a team for two years, and played basketball eight years and still counting. Over the past four years, I went to four different schools. The schools I've been to are Armorel, Brookland, Valley View, and Riverside. I went to Armorel from kindergarten until eighth grade. Then I went to Brookland for one year and I absolutely loved it. I made a lot of great friends at Brookland, that I am still friends with today. Their names are Ally Loflin, Emily Skaggs, Maddy Minton, Braxton Haff, Keiston Belle, Douglas Fenimore, and Bethany Colbert. After a bunch of different things happened, I left after my freshmen year. After I had left Brookland, I went to Valley View for two weeks and hated it. Then I left and ended up at Riverside. I have a wonderful family. I have a brother, Tyler, who is twenty-one. My mom and dad who  are very supportive of me. I also have amazing friends. Luckily for me, most of my best friends are who I get to call teammates. Their names are Hattie Milligan, Haven Robertson, Lotti Hoffman, Mallory Felton, and Brittney Sain. My other best friends who are not on the team, are Braden Overman, Wesley Jordan, Zorey Chipman, Madison Thomas, Jon Milligan, and Karlee Sanders. My absolute best friend though, is my mom. She is the kindest, funniest, best all around person you'd ever meet in your entire life. In my free time, if I'm not in the gym, I like to shop, get pedicures, and go to the salon. I enjoy being a girl on my off days, rather than being a sweaty girl who shoots or lifts weights. I'm active in my youth group, the Movement.

Las Vegas- Whitney Wagganer

When most people think of Las Vegas, they think about either gamblers or drinking and partying. Las Vegas, yes is known for that, but the location is more than just that. Las Vegas is one of Nevada's main tourist attraction. It has bright lights that light up the night like stars. Las Vegas has The Strip full of hotels, restaurants, and stores. The Strip is two miles long. One of the places on the Strip, is "New York, New York." This Casino is modeled to look like New York, City. It has a remodel, of the Statue of Liberty. Also, New York, New York, has the Hersey's Chocolate store inside it, which is two stories high. New York, New York also has a roller coaster that looks like taxi cab. The roller coaster goes up as tall as the Statue of Liberty. It goes around and upside down, and even goes through the casino! I rode it twice. Down a couple of casinos to the right, was the Mandala Bay. In this casino they put on a Michael Jackson Cirque du Soliel show. The show was about four kids trying to get Michael's sunglasses, shoes, glove, and hat he used to perform in. They played all his songs like Billie Jean, Dirty Dianna, and Man in the Mirror. When the end was coming near of the show, the directors of the show, made a hologram of Michael Jackson and all dancers "danced" with him. They all danced to Man in the Mirror. Another casino, all the way down the strip, was called the Stratosphere. This casino was all about going up. There were three rides on there. One was bungy jumping off the side of the building. The jump was eight-hundred and fifty-five feet. I jumped and I was scared for my life. After I had gone, my dad did and he had a crash landing, he was okay after, he just didn't land on his feet. My mom who was very scared stayed on the ground with her uncle, who drove from California, and recorded both of us jumping off the building.

The Comeback part two - Whitney Wagganer

After seven long, miserable months and twenty-nine days, Whitney went to doctor on February first and got the best news of her entire life. Doctor Azar said Whitney no longer needed to come see him and that she was ready to play. Whitney had mixed feelings about the news. When she heard the doctor say she was ready to play, she thought he meant, the next day. Instead, he meant, that she could play without a lot of cutting or physical contact. He actually meant that when AAU starts, in April, she would  be at one-hundred precent. Whitney was so excited she texted people that had not spoken to hear in millions of years. Once Whitney got to practice the next day, she had to run eleven sprints. She was beyond tired after the first down and back. She knew it wasn't going to be easy, but also knew that it was going to be worth it. April ninth came around, first game of the AAU season, Whitney knew it was go time. When she got out there, she didn't feel any different, as if she had been playing since last April. Anyone could tell Whitney was completely out of shape, though. All the other girls were out running her, out scoring her, and out hustling her. Whitney knew that she'd be a little rusty when she first came back, and she was so happy that her teammates, Hattie Milligan, Haven Robertson, Brittney Sain, Lotti Hoffman, Bailey Fisher, and Mallory Felton, and coach, Coach Hoffman, had faith in her to still let her get to play the game she was completely in love with. All the parents came up to her and told her that they were so happy to see her out there playing again. She was getting text messages all day saying "Glad to have you back out there Whit!!" The messages made Whitney feel so good inside. All day she couldn't stop smiling, even though she was very exhausted, she couldn't be happier to be back on the court with her friends and playing for her favorite coach in the entire world.

The Comeback- Whitney Wagganer

After a week of not walking, no putting pressure on her leg, and not showering, Whitney went back to her doctor, Doctor Azar. He told Whitney she could start walking again and start doing physical therapy to make her quadricep strong again. He said it would take a lot of time and patience to get used to everything again. Whitney started doing physical therapy. When she first started doing therapy, she couldn't even lift her left leg. The doctor said it's because her leg was "still asleep." One day in physical therapy, after weeks of doing it, Whitney was very determined to lift her leg. Then she did it. She was so excited and very proud of the process she had made in just weeks. Whitney knew, anything was possible at this point. A couple more weeks went by, and Whitney went back to the doctor. He told her, she didn't have to use the crutches anymore and that she could stop wearing the brace, but she still had to wear it to sleep to keep her extension from being anything less than one-hundred and eighty degrees. Whitney then got released to start doing squats and working on getting her full range of motion. Once Whitney started getting more and more physically active again, she went to the gym and shot baskets with the Riverside Lady Rebels. The coach, Spencer Hoffman, only allowed her to shoot baskets from below the free throw line. Whitney would get very discouraged with him because she wanted to be like the rest of the girls like Hattie Milligan, Haven Robertson, Brittney Sain, and Lotti Hoffman and shoot from farther distances. Spencer Hoffman made her realize, after talking with her, that Whitney can't do those things because her leg was not ready. She wanted to be ready so bad. She knew she couldn't over push her self because she didn't want to go back to square one. She cried her self to sleep many nights. She even got frustrated with herself because couldn't do many things she loved, like swimming, running, or even track anymore.

Surgery Day- Whitney Wagganer

   June second was the day that changed Whitney's life forever. She had surgery on her knee. It was the first time she had done anything like that before. She had to sit in the waiting room, what felt like for hours, but was only a matter of minutes. When she got there, they gave her a wrist band with her name, birthday, phone number, and parents number. They called her back to get her prep for surgery. She had to remove all her clothing. They gave her a gown and socks to wear during the surgery. She got an IV and had to get a pulse ox. She was very nervous, but she knew she was in good hands. Her nurse was very kind to her. Her nurse's name was Becky. Becky gave Whitney some medicine to make her drowsy, so when she went back to surgery she'd be out in no time. While Whitney was under medication, she started working on her shooting form. Clearly only basketball was going through her head. Once she got back into surgery, Whitney had an anesthesiologist, named Hunter. Whitney found him to be very attractive. Hunter was in his like mid twenties. Once Whitney got out of surgery, she got to post op and was still hooked up to millions of machines. Once nurse Becky came in, she discharged Whitney to go home. Once Whitney was in the car, she had pillows under her left leg and was starving. Whitney's parents then stopped at Chick-fil-A, in Germantown, Tennessee and got her a kids meal, four count. Whitney fell asleep eating the food and slept the whole way home to her house in Blytheville, Arkansas.She slept all the rest of the day until the next day when woke up in pain and took Percocets to stop the pain. Whitney went back to her other house in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Whitney had three visitors that day, Braxton Haff from Brookland, Arkansas, Lotti Hoffman from Marmaduke, Arkansas, and Drew Robbins from Blytheville, Arkansas. They all brought Whitney gifts. Whitney doesn't really anything, but she had parents tell her everything and has videos of the whole day.

ACL Tear - Whitney Wagganer

    

One beautiful spring morning in April, the Arkansas Hoopsters went to Atlanta, Georgia to play basketball in an NCAA event. We were down two, with eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds left to go in the second half of the game. The Lady Trojans, from St. Louis were trying to hold the ball and trying to keep the Hoopsters from scoring, because they knew once the Hoopsters started scoring, they would lose. Haven Robertson, guarding the point guard at the moment, was at the top of the key, playing the best defense in her entire life. Whitney was in help side guarding the ball and her man. Over hearing her coaches, Coach Ricky and Coach Crockett, screaming at her “GO TRAP THE BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”, she did. Then a terrible accident happened.

Whitney, jumped up and the point guard from the Lady Trojans went to pass the ball to the girl Whitney was guarding in help side. As the point guard from their team passed the ball, the point guard’s right knee, kneed Whitney’s left outer knee and her ACL popped. At the moment, she did not know what had popped, all she knew was the she screamed and cried like she was murdered. Reagan Dodd, her teammate ran over to her as she was on the ground to make sure she was okay. The coaches also ran over there as she laid screaming her lungs out because she was in so much pain. Coach Crockett finally got her to stop screaming and crying then carried her back to the bench and sat her down. Everyone tried to make Whitney leave the game, but she wanted to stick around and watched how it ended. All the Hoopster moms, got Whitney ice, Ibuprofen, and lots of support that everything was going to be okay. After the Hoopsters had won the game, Whitney, her aunt and uncle, and mother and father drove over to another gym to see a personal trainer. The trainer said her knee was a lot looser than it needed to be. The next day, Whitney and her family drove to Memphis to see Dr. Fredrick Azar and he said Whitney had torn her ACL.