Byline: Steve Mims The Register-Guard
If you go to the Midwestern League girls district tennis tournament today at Thurston High, take a long look at Sami Hunt.
Don't sneak a peek at the Marshfield senior, then look away like so many awkward observers. She will catch you as she takes the court with a prosthesis on her left foot and lower leg.
'People look and then look again because they don't want to stare,' Hunt said. 'They look out of the corner of their eyes or they try to sneak it because they don't want to be rude, but I know when people are looking at it, and it's fine. It doesn't bother me anymore because it's been that way my whole life.'
Look closely at Hunt and you will see a three-sport athlete who had her foot amputated when she was 5 years old, but has become one of the top tennis players in the league during only her third year playing the sport.
You will also see a girl who has moved regularly because her father is in the Coast Guard but has become the unquestioned captain of the Pirates despite arriving in Coos Bay late in her freshman year.
'She's a natural leader,' said Marshfield coach Aron Boesl, who doubles as the supervisor of radiology and medical imaging at Bay Area Hospital. 'She thinks three hours ahead of me. She is the authority out there, setting the pace. Without a doubt, she is the hardest worker on the team.'
That's the way it has always had to be for Hunt.
'I've always had the motto to be who you want to be and don't let things stop you from doing what you want to do,' Hunt said. 'I've gone through a huge surgery, and people think I can't do something because I don't have two feet. People think it is a disadvantage and say 'Oh, you're an inspiration' and stuff, but I don't think of it like that. I feel like it's normal.'
Hunt was born without a fibula in her left leg and wore a brace, then a cast, and also tried putting lifts in her shoes because her legs were different lengths before her leg was amputated during the summer after kindergarten.
'The doctors told us there was no guarantee that she would be able to run like other children,' said her mother, Tiffany.
Six weeks after the surgery, Hunt went to have her cast taken off when her prosthetist told the family that she would probably not remember how to walk again.
'Then all of a sudden, they rolled a soccer ball to me and I just kicked it and started walking again,' Hunt said.
Adrian Hunt, Sami's father, is a boat driver in the Coast Guard, so the family gets stationed in new cities every few years. Sami was born in North Carolina and also lived in Washington and Michigan, and next month the family will move to Charleston, S.C. Sami will go with them to attend Charleston Southern University, where she is considering playing tennis, soccer or volleyball.
Soccer was Hunt's favorite sport before the surgery and continued to be until she started playing volleyball as a sophomore. That was also the year she began to play tennis, beginning on the No. 3 doubles team before moving up to No. 2 last year.
She is No. 2 doubles again this year with a new partner, Amber Owen, and they are 7-2 this year.
The pair is not seeded entering districts this morning at Thurston, but they are a contender to reach Friday's semifinals at Eugene Swim & Tennis Club, which would earn them a trip to the Class 5A state tournament, held next week in Beaverton.
'Tennis was totally new my sophomore year, and I didn't like it at first because it is a sport you have to hit a lot of balls to be any good at, but I started liking it after the first week and it stuck on me,' she said. 'I have been playing sports my whole life and I think tennis has just grown on me. It doesn't hurt when I play.'
Sometimes when she is playing tennis, Hunt startles people when she announces she broke her toe.
'They say 'What?' and I say that it is just a prosthetic, so don't worry,' she said.
There were some not-so-funny moments growing up when kids asked her questions, like whether a shark ate her leg. She has had nothing like that since moving to the Oregon Coast.
In fact, when she points out to people that she has only one foot, she usually gets looks of disbelief even from close friends who have forgotten because she lives such a normal life.
'I didn't even notice at first because she is so athletic,' said Boesl. 'She had a little bit of a limp and I thought it was a bad knee or something, and then she said she has no left foot. She never talks about it; it is so part of her life. Kids knock on it and she laughs. There is not an issue of insecurity at all.'
Stories like that are what Hunt's parents dreamed of hearing during the first few years of her life.
'Her dad has been in the military her whole life, so she has done a lot of moving and adapted well,' Tiffany Hunt said. 'I think that self-confidence has been good for her, she can get right back up and keep going. She's never shied away from anything. She goes out there and does what she wants.'
Hunt rides motorcycles, and she's involved with organizing the senior prom and was planning to participate in the Miss Coos County pageant before the news of her family's move made her drop out of that competition.
'I don't think my leg holds me back from doing anything,' Hunt said. 'If it does, it is just a challenge. I want to be as good as anyone else.'
She plans to spread that message to other kids going through the uncertainty of losing a limb.
'I've thought about being a person that kids talk to after getting surgeries,' she said. 'I think that would be cool because I have been through it. I remember after my surgery I went to a counselor and the lady sat in a room and played games with me. She took my thoughts off the whole surgery and that was really nice. I'd like to do that for someone.'
MIDWESTERN LEAGUE TENNIS
Top seeds for district tournaments beginning at 9 a.m. today. Girls play at Thurston High School and boys at Ashland High School through quarterfinals today before semifinals and finals Friday at Eugene Swim and Tennis Club beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Boys singles seeds
1. Neu Nipatasaj, Marist. 2. Jon Massie, Marshfield. 3. Rasmus Alstermark, Springfield. 4. Max Burt, Ashland.
Boys doubles seeds
1. Josh Harris and Grant Kahn, Ashland. 2. Brett Bell and Zach Konnie, Churchill. 3. Ian Murray and Carl Gorbett, Ashland. 4. Chris Bolen and Austin Stricker, Willamette.
Girls singles seeds
1. Brittany Banna, Churchill. 2. Haley Marsh, Marist. 3. Hailey Meekins, Springfield. 4. Laurel Sager, Ashland.
Girls doubles seeds
1. Hannah Greenberg and River Davis, Ashland. 2. Heidi Boesl and Brittney Wilson, Marshfield. 3. Nicole Adkisson and Julia Barbarski, Churchill. 4. Madison Penn and Lauren Sibole, Marist.
