Softball: Briar Woods Emilie Ball Called Cancer a "Curve Ball" but She Beat the Odds to Play Her Senior Season

 (May 27, 2013) - Last October Briar Woods High School senior Emilie Ball had her world turned upside down overnight. Even though she didn't have any symptoms or illness, a relative noticed a lump and encouraged her to have it checked out. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer.

"It came out of the blue ... it was a curve ball, definitely," said Ball.

And her first thought was: "I won't be able to play softball my senior year."

"It was absolutely shocking when we found out about Emilie," said Briar Woods coach Chris Starke. "Our primary concern was her health and recovery."

Ball, whose father Keith was just named to the current class of Park View High School's Athletic Hall of Fame, comes from an incredible strong family and Emilie, with the help of her family, neighbors and teammates went full throttle at beating the cancer, including an energy-sapping 12 weeks of extremely aggressive chemotherapy. Some sessions lasted eight hours.

"There were weeks when I couldn't get out of bed because my body couldn't handle it," said Emilie.