Junior Hitter's Spirit, Skill Give Lawton Lift
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
September 25, 2019
LAWTON — Olivia Cramer wears her friends proudly — on her leg.
When she is not wearing a blade to play volleyball or basketball, the Lawton High School junior wears a prosthetic, but it’s not just any leg.
“I’ve had pictures of my friends on it for a couple years, and there’s the homecoming court my freshman year, softball game, at work,” she said.
While the decoration of the prosthetic leg is a novelty, the need for the limb certainly isn’t.
Cramer was born with non-genetic proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD), a condition that has resulted in her right leg measuring inches shorter than her left.
It is an uncommon condition that affects about 1 in every 200,000 children, according to statistics from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The prosthetic leg assists with everyday life. But when it comes to athletics, she wears a blade, similar to those worn by runners.
“We call it my running blade,” Cramer said. “Mine is designed a little differently than an amputee because I still have my leg bones and foot.”
The custom-made blade, officially called the Freedom Innovations Catapult, is made of carbon fiber and has a rubber tread on the bottom so it will not damage the court.
“It’s about a two-week process and it was a little bit of a challenge to make,” said Tim Darling, a certified prosthetist at Hanger Clinic in Kalamazoo who fashioned the leg and blade.
He also was instrumental in adding the photos. “She provided the photos printed on a T-shirt and we used materials to reinforce it and then used an acrylic lamination,” Darling added.
Instead of Velcro straps to keep the leg attached, Cramer has two dials that tighten the leg.
“It has string made of Kevlar and you can tighten them so I don’t have to have straps covering my leg anymore,” she said. “Before, it was just Velcro and came loose a lot.”
Darling said it is a relatively new process for a prosthetic.
100 Percent
“Working with her is humbling,” Lawton volleyball coach Megan McCorry said. “When you see someone with a physical disability like that and you see that same person is also the most positive and most encouraging, it really makes you do a gut check.
“It gives you some perspective in life that what you have going on may not really be that bad, and you need to work harder at putting your best foot forward.”
Cramer was pulled up from junior varsity during the District last year and practiced but did not play.
This season, she sees court time and, “She’s honestly one of those kids that you can’t not have on your team,” McCorry said.
“I mean she is always 100-percent positive. She is going to be the loudest one on the court, loudest one on the bench. She’s always supporting her team, and she’s just so determined to get better individually and make her teammates better.”
Since she jumps off her stronger left leg, the blade does not give Cramer any advantage, but at least once caused a gaffe.
“During a match, my friend Madison Lawson and I were going for a block on the outside and we fought for the block and we came back down,” Cramer said. “Madison landed on my blade and snapped it.
“We didn’t know what happened at first because there was this huge (sound) right in the middle of the match and I was like, ‘What just happened?’ We even stopped playing because of it. I went to step and my leg didn’t spring like it usually does.”
The junior said her teammates are very supportive.
“She holds herself accountable for everything she does,” senior Gabi Martinez said. “Everything she does basically makes us realize she can do everything we can do. It doesn’t stop her from anything.
“We do watch out for her leg to make sure she doesn’t hurt it, but usually even if she falls down, she gets right back up and she’s usually the one picking everybody else up.”
Cramer’s mother, Megan Cramer, said when she was pregnant, her first ultrasound showed an abnormality in the leg, so she was prepared when Olivia was born.
When learning to walk, Olivia would walk on her short leg and balance on the knee of her good leg, her mother said.
As Olivia grew older, doctors gave her mother two choices: amputation or rotationplasty (fusing the knee on her shorter leg and rotating her foot around to where her knee joint would be). That new joint is where her prosthetic would have connected.
Her mother chose neither.
“I was a young mother, and I was scared to death and I was, ‘You’re not cutting her foot off,’” she said.
They visited several hospitals and finally went to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Chicago.
“That was the first place we went where they said let her be,” Megan said.
That is what her mother did.
“I am glad that they never had it amputated, and I never had rotationplasty,” Olivia Cramer said. “My condition is pretty rare, and because I didn’t do any of the amputation that makes me even more special than it already was, so I really appreciate it.”
She goes to the Shriners Hospital every six months for checkups and gets a new leg and blade when she outgrows the old ones.
Driving and Striving
Golf is Cramer’s true love, and she hopes to pursue it in college.
When playing, she wears her regular prosthetic, not the blade, and, last year, was captain of the school’s boys team (Lawton has no girls team).
She also played the Lakeshore Junior Golf Association tour during the summer, carrying a 12 handicap and winning the 16-18 girls division.
“Those accomplishments are all special, of course,” Lawton golf coach Barry Shanley said. “But what makes her truly remarkable is her spirit. If you didn't see her prosthetic, you would never know she even has one.
“For now it's actually an advantage for her college goal to play on a high school boys team. The boys play from the men's tees, which is the typical length for collegiate women, so college coaches know her scores now already match what length their own players are using.”
Shanley said the only way her prosthetic affects her swing is that her hip alignment can be a little unbalanced.
“Once she stops growing and her prosthetic is matched to her other leg permanently, there won't be any issue at all,” he said.
“Because it's difficult to keep them matched, which now can cause her some pain if she walks the typical 5.6 miles in 18 holes or the 2.8 miles for 9 holes, we wrote and received permission from the MHSAA to let her take a golf cart during matches.”
Right now, though, Cramer is focused on volleyball, with her team’s record 13-9 midway through the season. The Blue Devils will host an MHSAA Division 3 District beginning Nov. 4.
Other players on the volleyball team are senior Jessica Grear, juniors are Mackenzie Nickrent, Kiana Auton, Caitlen Romo, Josie Buchkowski, Wendy Guerra and Dezare’ Smith; and sophomores Sarah Dekoning and Lily Grear.
No matter the sport, Cramer said she follows her grandfather’s advice.
“My grandpa always has said, ‘Don’t ever say “can’t” in this household. That’s a word that’s not in our dictionary.’
“I guess that’s shaped me into who I am today, being able to persevere through all the difficulties, even though I like to think I have it just as fair as everybody else does, that we’re on an equal playing level.”
Cramer has one hope:
“I hope that if anybody sees this and is down in the dumps for any kind of condition they have, just persevere through it and prove to other people that you are better than they can ever think that you can be.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lawton’s Olivia Cramer loads for a kill attempt during a match this fall. (Middle top) Cramer’s prosthetic leg, front and back, and the blade she wears for sports. (Middle) From top left: Olivia Cramer, mother Megan Cramer, teammate Gabi Martinez and volleyball coach Megan McCorry. (Below) Cramer awaits the opponent’s serve. (Action photos by Gary Shook; prosthetic photos and head shots by Pam Shebest.)
Oakland Standing Tall Among State's Elite
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
October 11, 2018
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep capped the first fall volleyball season in MHSAA history in 2007 with a Class B championship – the first won in any class by an Oakland County high school. Bloomfield Hills Marian in Class A and Birmingham Roeper in Class D also reached Finals that fall.
Before that season, teams from the county had reached title matches just six times since 1975-76, when the MHSAA began sponsoring a postseason tournament for the sport. (Volleyball began as a winter sport and moved to fall for the 2007-08 school year.) But since Notre Dame won its 2007 title, Oakland County teams have won seven more MHSAA championships: Notre Dame Prep two more in Class B, Marian two in Class A, and Novi – led by 2017 Miss Volleyball Award winner Erin O’Leary – won the last three Class A titles.
Which leads us to this season. Of the 10 nominees for Miss Volleyball, an unprecedented five are from Oakland County: Lake Orion’s Paige Briggs, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Maddy Chinn and Natalie Risi, Bloomfield Hills Marian’s Madison Dowd and Troy’s Jessica Robinson. Of the top four vote-getters for last season’s award, three were from Oakland County.
Chinn and Risi’s coach, Betty Wroubel, who is third on the all-time list for coaching victories (1,422 before this season), said there are a number of reasons why teams in her county are competing at a higher level recently.
“For a long time the programs on the west side were way ahead of us,” Wroubel said. “Some of it is travel (teams). But much of it is competition. In July we do a camp to get the players in the area more involved. Marian led the way for so long, and others are catching up. Also, the kids are getting taller. They’re stronger. Schools in the area offer more conditioning for the players.”
Before this season, Notre Dame Prep had three past candidates for Miss Volleyball. In the fall of 2007, Molly (Coldren) Campbell finished second in the voting to Kyndra Abron of Livonia Churchill. Four years ago, Katherine Carlson became the first and only Notre Dame Prep player to win the award.
Wroubel said both Chinn and Risi stack up well when compared to the other fine players who have come through her program.
“(Maddy) has something going,” Wroubel said. “In those big moments, when your team needs it, she thrives. When the game is on the line, she’s there. She understands the game, like a coach does. What she’s improved on is hitting a variety of shots. She can put the ball down. Even as a freshman, she had that ability.”
At 6-foot-3, Chinn, an outside hitter, is a dominant player at the net. Risi’s versatility sets her apart from the competition. At 6 foot, she also is positioned as an outside hitter – and this season she’s also become one of the team’s top setters.
“Natalie is a calming force,” Wroubel said. “She could be a setter on any team. She’s quiet. You won’t notice her on the court sometimes. When you do take notice, you can’t take your eyes off of her. She’s so smooth.
“I feel bad that they’re in the same class. I don’t know who I’m going to vote for.”
Statistically, Chinn has impressed with 446 kills and 96 blocks. Risi has 140 aces with a .430 hitting percentage. Risi’s aces already make the MHSAA single-season record book list in that category, and Chinn is on pace to make the kills list.
Mayssa Cook is in her first season as head coach at Marian and her setter, Madison Dowd, is a nominee. Cook played volleyball at Dearborn High before graduating in 2003 and playing four years in college, the last two at Wayne State. Cook began coaching the freshmen team at Dearborn a year after graduating from high school. She built the program at Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard as she guided the Irish to a District title in 2013, her first season as head coach, and the school’s first Regional title the next season – before Gabriel Richard then won the Class B title in 2015 with a perfect 42-0 record. Cook (her maiden name is Bazzi) left Gabriel Richard after 2016 and took off from coaching as she gave birth to her first child.
Cook has seen the game change dramatically since the early 2000s. She was a three-sport athlete for the Pioneers, and even though she was a fine player, she said she’s not sure she would make varsity now with the skill set she possessed then.
“Look at the 10 nominees,” she said. “All 10 play travel. You don’t get to be a top-10 player by playing three months. I played three sports (in high school). I played travel soccer. I played travel volleyball but I didn’t play 11 months of volleyball.
“Ten years ago, many schools on this side of the state would go to the west side to get competition. It’s a lot more balanced now. There are still great teams over there, but we don’t have to travel three hours to play the good teams. We can go 10 minutes.”
Dowd, a four-year varsity player and a two-year captain, typifies a well-rounded student-athlete. She has a 4.2 grade-point average, and on the court not only is she a fine player but a valuable teammate. She has 808 assists and 217 digs, and her 1,531 assists as a junior rank ninth in MHSAA history.
“A lot of it has to do with her personality,” Cook said. “She’s not the loudest person on the court. She has a calming presence. She leads by example and is that player who makes her teammates better.”
Dowd has received a number of scholarship offers for volleyball but has yet to decide where she will go after this school year is done.
Over the years Marian has had a host of players nominated for Miss Volleyball, which was created in 2003. That season Erin Poglits was the first Marian player to make the list. Alexandra Cocklin was named Miss Volleyball in 2009 and her teammate, Rachel Charles, was second in the voting. The next season Marian’s Alexandra Lovell finished second and her teammate, Alessandra Dietz, was fourth. Before this season, somewhat surprisingly, the last Marian player to make the top 10 was Jessie Kopmeyer in 2013.
Jessica Robinson (6-2) from Troy and Paige Briggs (5-10) from Lake Orion also are accomplished outside hitters.
Robinson is the first player from Troy to be a nominee and entering this season she had 1,174 kills and 588 digs for her career. She had 740 kills as a junior to rank among the most successful single-season hitters in state volleyball history.
“In college (Robinson has committed to University of Michigan), she’ll be a middle hitter,” said Troy coach Tom Vigilant. “But for us, we have her on the outside. She plays all around. If I need an attacker on the back, I can go to her. But she does what she does best, and that’s at the net.”
Lake Orion’s only other nominee, Courtney Wightman, came in 2015. Lake Orion is one of those Oakland County programs that has made significant strides in the past decade. Its 2011 team reached the Class A Final before losing to Rockford.
Briggs suffered a back injury last season, which limited her effectiveness. Lake Orion coach Tony Scavarda said she has fully recovered and helped make the Dragons one of the top teams in the county.
“She’s made a huge impact for us,” he said. “She passes from the back row, plays good defense and she’s got good leaping ability. She does everything well. At 5-10, she jumps really well and is smart with the ball. We have other players her size who can’t do what she does.”
Briggs is close behind Chinn with 444 kills and is among the leaders in digs with 340. She’s also on pace to make the single-season kills record book list.
Lake Orion lost to Clarkston in the District last season, but with a healthy Briggs the Dragons are off to a 41-4 start and looking for their first District title since 2015.
Scavarda, in his fifth season as head coach, said it is a bit surprising to have five players from the same county in the running for Miss Volleyball, but adds that it is another indication of how strong the level of play has been in Oakland County over the last decade.
“Oakland County is always pretty strong,” he said. “Clarkston is always good, and they might be a little down this season but not by much. Marian and (Farmington Hills) Mercy are always good, too.”
Tom Markowski is a contributing writer for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Oakland County’s five Miss Volleyball candidates, from left: Lake Orion’s Paige Briggs, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Maddy Chinn, Bloomfield Hills Marian’s Madison Dowd, Notre Dame Prep’s Natalie Risi and Troy’s Jessica Robinson. (Middle) Head shots: Chinn and Risi, Dowd, Robinson and Briggs. (Robinson action photo courtesy of C&G Newspapers; Briggs action photo courtesy of State Champs! Sports Network).