Benet rallies around ex-Rosary star

Updated: July 5, 2011 11:06AM

There they were, the Benet softball players, on the largest stage of their young athletic lives at the Class 4A state tournament. The Redhawks were getting ready to play in the third-place game against New Trier June 11 in East Peoria.

At a time where softball should have been the No. 1 thing on their minds, someone most of them have never met was more important. That someone was Kylie Schalz, the former Rosary softball star whose corrective surgery for her scoliosis a couple days earlier took a turn for the worse and left her paralyzed from the middle of her chest to her toes.

Schalz, who was named The Beacon-News softball player of the year in 2008, just finished her junior year at Oakland University in Michigan. The mechanical engineering major, who started every game in the 2011 season, is a utility player for Oakland. Before the game against the Trevians, the Redwings used their eye black to put Schalz’ college number, 23, on their cheeks in her honor.

“It says a lot about the kids,” said Benet coach Jerry Schilf, whose Redwings ended up winning the third-place trophy after beating New Trier, 7-4. “Their focus was in the right direction. It’s just a game, but it was the biggest game of their lives. They knew there were things much more important.”

The Redwings heard about Schalz from Benet assistant coach Ray Makowski, who was a varsity softball assistant coach at Rosary when Schalz was a freshman and sophomore. Makowski got a phone call regarding what happened to Schalz on June 10 after Benet lost to Moline in the state semifinal game.

According to CaringBridge.org, the website that explains what happened to Schalz, during the surgery on June 8, the sensors in her legs stopped receiving a signal from her spinal cord. The doctor stopped the surgery and looked for any cuts to the spinal cord. There were no cuts. The surgery was halted and she was given an MRI that showed swelling in the spinal cord near the t4 vertebra.

After Makowski heard about what happened, he did not ask the Redwings to do anything to honor Schalz.

“They did this all on their own,” said Makowski, who also coached Schalz in past summer softball seasons. “They showed respect for me, Kylie and for each other. They dedicated the game to someone who may never play again.”

Benet first baseman Nora McGuire met Schalz once. McGuire’s younger sister, Maeve, never met her, but she did see her play once.

“When I met her, she was extremely nice,” Nora McGuire said of Schalz. “She was so nice to me. She’s tall, athletic and had everything going for her before this happened. It was an honor for us to honor her.”

“We saw how much it affected Coach Makowski, so we wanted to do something for him,” Maeve McGuire added. “When I saw (Schalz) play, she was awesome.”

When Bill Schalz, coach of the Rosary and Marmion varsity swim teams, found out what Benet did for his daughter, he sent an e-mail to Gary Goforth, the Redwings’ athletic director. The message let him know how much the teams’ gesture meant to him.

“It was so incredible to me what they did,” said Bill Schalz, who has never met Schilf. “It was so awe-inspiring. Wow. It’s amazing.”

Currently, Kylie Schalz is at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) where she has made tremendous strides in her recovery. She is able to respond to and read messages on the CaringBridge website, http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kylieschalz, that was set up for her by Bill and her mother, Robin. The site has been visited more than 5,000 times.

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