The San Matean

Issue date: 11/13/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Ashley Beard Beard (top center) with CSM teammates

Ashley Beard, a freshman basketball player for CSM, gambled her leg to become the athlete she is.

"To prove to my doctor that I didn't need a second [anterior cruciate ligament] surgery, I hiked up Half Dome in Yosemite with my leg brace on and took a picture of myself pointing at my cast."

The summer before her sophomore year of high school, Beard was in Costa Rica with a few classmates helping to save turtles and plant trees.† During her fifth day there, she joined in on a game of soccer with a few of the locals on the beach, and tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

The tear forced her to get an ACL replacement surgery and shortly after she suffered a brutal staph infection that damaged the replaced ACL, forcing her to get yet another surgery.

Her infection was so severe that Beard ran the risk of losing her leg altogether. Unable to accept the estimated six-month recovery, Beard decided to try and persuade her doctor by hiking Half Dome.

Nonetheless her attempt to persuade her doctor did not work. Without the second surgery she would need a full knee replacement by the age of 20.

As a result of the surgery, Beard was unable to play basketball her junior year in high school, and recovered just two weeks shy of a traveling team.

Beard has been involved in countless sports and activities for much of her life. Playing every sport, even a year of flag football, Beard is a devoted athlete who is now going into her seventh year as a basketball player.

Much of her success in this sport is due to her own personal drive and her mother's guidance. Beard's mother forced her to participate in T-ball, opening the world of sports up to her.

She has been playing sports ever since. Not only has she been playing sports, she was class president during sophomore, junior and senior years of high school, and was even involved in a small youth group.

Beard feels that her mother forced her to be active to keep her out of trouble. "When I was so busy I didn't have time to do anything wrong. It was her way of keeping me out of trouble," said Beard.

Beard now looks to her mother as a hero, along with Kobe Bryant.

However Beard's achievements in basketball have been self-initiated, in large part. Through middle school and high school, Beard claims that the coaches did not measure up.

Continued...

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