By Chris Megginson

Nearly nine months ago, University of West Alabama women's basketball player Fannasy Garrett-Hammett was told she'd never walk again and would surely never play sports. She has since made it her mission to prove that wrong.

Early on April 8, UWA Coach Rusty Cram was woken by a phone call from Fannasy's father, Vacher Hammett.

"It's that dreaded phone call that every coach in America, just like every parent, doesn't want to hear in the wee hours of the morning that one of your athletes has been involved in a wreck," Cram said.

Cram said the call set off a series of questions, "Was she going to live? Was she going to be paralyzed? What can we do to help? … Basketball certainly wasn't an issue at that point."

Around 1 a.m. that morning, Fannasy and a friend were traveling through the Selma, Alabama area on their way back to Livingston from her home in LaGrange, Georgia. Fannasy, who had gone home for her sister, Tazsa Garrett-Hammett's senior prom, was asleep in the passenger seat with her friend driving. She remembers waking to the sound of the tires drifting off the pavement. Her friend was asleep at the wheel. She woke him, and he overcorrected the wheel. The car flipped, and then flipped again, ejecting Fannasy into the muddy median, before flipping a third time.

Fannasy was conscious. There was no pain, only freezing cold. She first dismissed it as laying in mud and wet grass, but then realized she could not feel her legs.

"If I hadn't looked down, I wouldn't have known I had legs," she said.

Her friend was able to move and found her. He searched for something to warm her and found her white prom dress. Laying in the mud, Fannasy told him she'd rather be cold than get her dress dirty, an early sign that her focus would remain on things other than her injury. He covered her anyway. Moments later, a car stopped to help call for help, and then a second car stopped to help. It was a preacher and his wife, who spent time praying with her and provided warm blankets.

When the ambulance arrived, she was loaded on a backboard and felt the worst pain she says she's ever felt. She still could not feel her legs and was asking for something warmer. Covered by five blankets, it was clear she needed an air evacuation by helicopter was ordered. Entering a helicopter for the first time in her life, once again, Fannasy focused on life outside of her injury as she tried to see the aerial view. 

"This was a once in a lifetime thing I wanted to look out this window and try to see something," she said.

After what seemed like a long flight, they arrived at UAB Hospital in Birmingham.

At home, Tazsa was also wakened by a phone call at 3 a.m. by her parents that her sister was in an accident and that they were on the way to Birmingham. They did not know the severity at the time, but by 8 a.m., she received a message to get her younger siblings and grandmother and go to Birmingham to meet their aunt. When she arrived at UAB, her aunt's eyes were red from crying. She informed Tazsa of the doctor's news that had been delivered earlier in the morning – a broken spine with paralysis from the waist down.

"I was thinking this is what happens in the movies. I didn't believe it at the time. I started crying," Tazsa said.

The parents gathered their children in a room and told them all they knew. It would be another four hours before the family could see her again in the ICU, post-surgery.

Within the first 48 hours in ICU, Fannasy regained feeling, having movement in her upper thigh.

The Rebound

Fannasy remained in the hospital for a month with her coaches and teammates visiting as often as they could and continuing to text and call.

"Here at UWA, we're a family. They came to see me almost every week," Fannasy said. "Coach Cram, even when he didn't know the outcome, he believed in me. That spoke volumes to me and my sister when he decided to buy in."

In May, Fannasy moved to UAB's Spain Rehabilitation Center for two weeks before returning home to LaGrange. While at Spain Rehab, she went from only being able to stand for five seconds to strengthening her core and learning to crawl, and then walk all over again. She said it was as if she was an 18-month-old.

"I was walking like a penguin," she said.

On May 27, she arrived at Tazsa's graduation in a wheel chair. Wearing a back brace over her dress and braces on both legs from the knee to the ankle, Fannasy stood out of the chair and walked a short distance to her sister for a photo. It was the first time Tazsa had seen her walk unassisted.

"My goal was to surprise my sister, and I think I did a good job, because she was freaking out," Fannasy said.

It was only the beginning of what became a summer of intense two-a-day training with her mother, Tessica Garrett, being her "general."

"My mom told me, 'don't fear. You fall when you fear.' That's basically my motto right now. When I fear, I fall. I'm trusting God the whole way," Fannasy said.

Fannasy, who turned 20 in December, is now back at UWA taking classes, with the goal of returning to the Tigers' roster in 2018-19.

She said each doctor's visit has been a positive as her medical team, which is amazed at her improvement. She went from someone who should never be able to use the bathroom on her own to walking now only with shin-high braces. She is jogging and can run 100 meters in 20 seconds, but is not quite able to sprint or do ladder work or quick steps to improve her agility.

"I want to get back on the court to motivate myself, to know I have something to look forward to," Fannasy said. "I'm eager to get back out there. I'm not very fond of watching, but I'm learning a lot by watching."

The End Game

Tasza joined her sister at UWA in August, accepting an offer she received in September 2016, after seeing how her future teammates and coaches treated her sister. She said Fannasy's drive to play again is an inspiration.

"I do love the game, but I love playing it with her, because she's what makes me go, even cheering from the sideline," Tazsa said. "When she said she would play again, I had to believe it myself."

One example is Tazsa's performance in a Dec. 13 win over Miles College. In the first half, Tazsa shot 1-for-6 from the floor with UWA trailing 36-32. In the second half, though, she went off for 17 points to lead the Tigers with 20 points en route to a win. She credits Fannasy for getting her out of the first-half funk.

"I'm really hard on her, because she doesn't really know her capabilities yet," Fannasy said.

Over the next two games, Tazsa set career highs in five statistical categories against Gulf South Conference competition to earn her fourth GSC Freshman of the Week honor.

Cram says the dynamic between the two sisters is comical at times.

"If Tazsa has a good game or a great practice, Fannasy is always there telling her she could have done better. That's pretty comical to me," said Cram. "Fannasy is her biggest fan, but at the same time she wishes she was out there with her. I think it eats at her."

The two have always been teammates, including a perfect 30-0 season and Alabama Independent School Association (AISA) girls' basketball state title in 2015-16 for Springwood School in Lanett, Alabama. Two months into Fannasy's freshman season as a UWA Tiger in 2016, Cram offered Tazsa an opportunity to sign early. It was one of the first of many offers for the 5-foot-11 guard, who compiled more than 2,000 points in her high school career and was named the 2017 AISA Player of the Year.

While the two are unable to be on the same court this season, Fannasy continues to believe it will happen in the future.

Cram says when looking back at the past nine months of Fannasy's recovery, "you're left scratching your head and think, 'this is unbelievable.'"

"To see her come through that process, to watch the labor that she'd have to do just to walk a few feet was pretty incredible," Cram said. "I guess we never lost hope with her because of the way she took it head on. She never lost her sense of humor, or if she did, she didn't show it. She basically motivated the people around her as she was going through the process, as opposed to the other way around, like you'd expect."

Fannasy says she's never asked "why me," not even when laying in the bed and told she'd never walk again.

"I don't know how I'm still here. I'm beyond blessed," she said. "To think about where I was and how I couldn't do anything by myself, to see how far I've come, I'm ecstatic about my recovery and to be able to recover."

There's still a long road ahead for Fannasy's return, but Cram says he will continue to provide encouragement, both for workouts and he recognizes there's still a ways to go. He says he wants to continue to encourage her belief that she'll play again, but also encourage the academic side to make sure she's eligible should her body be ready.

"We'll take it year-by-year, but we will stay with her for that education regardless of whether she'll ever pick up a basketball or not," Cram said. "She's the type of kid you cannot tell her no, because if she believes it, she's going to make every effort to make it happen."

Follow Megginson on Twitter @jcmeggs. Email comments to megginsonjc@gmail.com.

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