A Closer Look - Season 2 (Katie Toman)
While trailing 4-2 in the final set against Flagler recently, junior Katie Toman was focused and she dropped back to serve. Her serves helped make the Saints out of position for the next point and after a point by her teammate, the score was tied at 4-4. Toman promptly served up a pair of aces en route to an 8-4 lead before the visitors could get another point on the board as the Pacers registered a 15-9 victory.
Big moments like the one that Toman recently experienced pale in comparison to other things she has faced in her life, which is why Toman thrives in tough situations.
The 5-4 junior defensive specialist and libero hails from Keenesburg, Colo. A happy-go-lucky personality, the standout volleyball player nearly had not only her dream of playing volleyball crushed, but she nearly lost her life prior to her senior year at Weld Central H.S.
The date, one she will always remember, was June 24, 2012. Toman spent the night with one of her friends and was heading home around 11 a.m., Sunday morning. Driving her Honda Civic, affectionately known as “Luna,” it seemed like any other day.
“I was driving East down the two-lane highway on the way to my house,” Toman said. “I was a mile or so away from my house when I went off the road on the shoulder a little bit. I overcorrected and the next thing I realized, I was facing west on the other side of the road. I was on the shoulder of the road, looked over, saw a fence and thought, ‘That’s not good.’”
Toman, to this day, says she doesn’t remember anything after that. However, reports state that her vehicle rolled between two and four times off the road. The car had extensive damage to it as the windshield was busted and the doors were jammed shut.
A lady who volunteered at Toman’s grade school was driving by and saw Toman walking around the car. Toman, who was wearing her seat belt, climbed through where the driver’s side window was. The lady who came across her called the volunteer fire department and the first to respond was my volleyball coach’s husband, Thomas.
“He laid me on the ground and asked a lot of questions that I answered,” Toman said. “I started talking about my friend and they started getting nervous. The friend I mentioned was a wrestler – one of Thomas’ student-athletes. Everyone started frantically looking for him, but the wrestler wasn’t there at all. In fact, Thomas called the student on the phone and he answered. That’s when they knew something wasn’t right with me after the accident.
“They called Flight For Life and I was flown to a hospital 45 minutes away. When I arrived, I had a broken bone in my face, I was bruised all over, had a bruise that covered from my shoulder down to my hand as well.”
Toman was in the hospital for a few days and they kept doing cat scans on her since she had a subdural hematoma. They had to make sure the bleeding had stopped. I was given a lot of pain medicine and the week after the accident.
“I was told I slept nearly 20 hours a day because of the injuries I sustained,” Toman stated. “They had me in a neck brace for a while as well.”
The wreck altered the course of her summer as she was supposed to go to the Junior Olympics with her club team over the July 4 week, but was unable to due to the injury.
Toman was unable to drive for months due to the pain medicine. She was also subject to more MRI’s to ensure that she was healing correctly.
Toman spent her summer recovering the rest of June, July and early August. Despite doctors being reluctant to allow her to play, she joined her team for the start of two-a-days.
“I was supposed to limit my physical activity, but there was no way I would not be with my teammates every step of the way during my senior season, including two-a-days.
“I was determined to play and I wanted to be on the court well before I was allowed to,” Toman stated. “It helped me recover faster. I worked through pain even more because I wanted to be there for my team. I was fortunate to come out of that situation as well as I did.”
Toman was fortunate to be alive and very easily could have lost her life, a limb or could have been injured bad enough to where she never played again. She was lucky to even play again.
“My advice to anyone is always focus on the road,” Toman said when asked about it. “Texting, reaching to turn the dial on the radio – nobody knows what is going to happen and I’ll never take it lightly again.”
Toman focuses solely on the road when driving. It is very similar to the way she is on the court – tunnel vision on what she can do correctly on the next play and how she can help her teammates out.
She has shined throughout her two-plus seasons as a member of the USC Aiken family. Toman has helped the team reach the PBC Conference Championship match as a freshman and helped the squad garner a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament as a junior. This year, she has the chance to establish numerous career bests for the Pacers.
It always seems as though Toman is undaunted in her approach to the game. She stays focused throughout, but then again, Toman’s eyes are always focused straight ahead.
