Her body needed a break, but her mind wouldn’t listen.
Mind over matter?
For years, it had worked out exactly that way for former Kent-Meridian High multi-sport star Melanie Vertrees. From gymnastics to swimming, volleyball to basketball, cross country to track, Vertrees did it all growing up, and while attending the East Hill school.
What she didn’t do, however, was ever take time off. From one sport to the next always was Vertrees’ mantra, all the while posting spectacular grades in the classroom.
This past March, however, it caught up to the Kent Reporter’s 2009 Female Athlete of the Year. Vertrees didn’t hit a mental wall during her first year competing on the University of Oregon track team, but a physical stumbling block. One that wiped away her outdoor track campaign, and which could hamper the upcoming indoor season as well. After competing several weeks with pain in her lower back, Vertrees was diagnosed with a muscle strain.
The injury, however, proved to be more serious.
“I took two weeks off, got back into it and it wasn’t any better,” explained Vertrees, who specializes in the high jump, but had blossomed into one of the state’s premier heptathletes before graduating from K-M. “It didn’t hurt until I actually did something. And then it was breathtaking pain.”
An MRI in April revealed the “breathtaking pain” was more than just a muscle strain, but rather a stress fracture in the lower back. A stress fracture that was ultimately caused by “overtraining” and a lack of “nutrients in the body,” Vertrees said.
The remedy?
The one thing Vertrees always has been incapable of accomplishing — rest.
Three months of it to be precise.
“It was really frustrating,” explained the 19-year-old Kent native, who was given a redshirt for the outdoor season. “I couldn’t do anything for three months. It’s your back and you use it for every single thing. Never having an injury in my life … it was tough. It was really mentally tough to not have endorphins every day.”
Vertrees’ determination is nothing new to Kent-Meridian track coach Ernie Ammons.
“She has a competitiveness and a drive to be the best,” he said. “She has never settled for anything but No. 1.”
That being the case, Vertrees was humbled somewhat at the University of Oregon, one of the nation’s top — if not the top — programs. Despite competing at Class 4A Kent-Meridian and in one of the most talent-laden leagues in the state in the SPSL, Vertrees always had been included among the top-tier of track athletes in Washington. She was essentially one of the best of the best.
On the turf of Heyward Field, however, everybody in the green and gold is among the best-of-the-best. And Vertrees learned rather quickly that she would not step in and dominate as though she was still in high school.
“(My freshman year was) a big transition year. It was been tough to say the least,” said Vertrees, who qualified for state in four events her senior year and went on to take a silver in the high jump with a mark of 5 feet, 8 inches. “It’s just kind of like going from a big fish in a small pond to a little fish in a big pond. (Some friends) Call me tadpole. I was a freshman coming in at 18 and everyone else is 20, 21, 22. Not only are they chronologically older than me, but athletically. That was the biggest and hardest thing, coming to a school where everybody is a world-record holder.”
Vertrees, who is on a 70-percent scholarship, entertained the thought of transferring to another school.
Instead, however, Vertrees’ resolve has been strengthened. Her determination never stronger.
She was able to return to light training during the final month of summer and hopes to be ready for the indoor season, which begins in January. Vertrees also is considering easing back into the heptathlon (hurdles, high jump, shot put, 100, 200, javelin, and long jump) and focusing more of her attention on the high jump once she’s able to go full throttle.
For the time being, however, Vertrees doesn’t want to move too fast and risk re-injuring her back.
“It’s going to be tough,” said Vertrees, who has never been the type to take it easy in any athletic endeavor. “First things first, I want to get my feet underneath me.”
Which goes to show that, unlike a year ago, Vertrees’ mind is now listening to her body.
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