Annie Tate, a basketball player at Wheaton College.
Photo courtesy of Wheaton College.
Last summer, Annie Tate picked up the phone and made a call she thought was impossible.
It was a phone call that even Kent Madsen wasn't expecting.
“I called Coach Madsen and said, 'Hey, can I come back?'” Tate said. “He was with me the whole time. He was great. He was like, 'I don't know what's going to happen, but I'd love to have you back.'”
A talented basketball player from St. Charles North High School, Tate sat on the bench for most of the 2019-20 season as a freshman at Wheaton College, where the Thunder team went 20-8 and won the CCIW title.
That changed the next season.
Tate won National Player of the Year honors while leading Wheaton College in scoring (19.3 points per game) and rebounding (8.2 points). In a season shortened due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Thunder went 11-1 and won back-to-back CCIW championships.
Just when it seemed like the affable guard/forward's chances were numbered for the next two seasons, a series of health issues that had just taken Tate's career into serious jeopardy.
“It's obvious to most kids, given what she went through, that I should stop playing,” Madsen said.
Tate continued to lead Wheaton College in scoring and rebounding in 10 games as a junior, shaking off a foot injury until the pain became unbearable.
“I have a chronic ankle sprain,” she said. “I made adjustments at the beginning of the season, but I didn't think anything of it. Then I started feeling sharp pains in my feet and legs, which gradually got worse. I had a lot of nerve damage in my feet and ankles, so after the season ended I needed surgery.”
Although this year ended on a disappointing note for her, Tate still has a bright future with the Thunder and is optimistic for 2022-2022 after being cleared to return in late summer after a long and painful recovery. He was in his 23rd season.
The next dark health cloud appeared a week before the season was scheduled to start.
During practice, I first experienced leg cramps. Due to blood circulation problems, Tate's lips turned blue. Later, while practicing her running, she felt dizzy and passed out.
“I've had a large spinal tumor in my back since I was little,” Tate said. “Doctors discovered that the tumor had grown and was constricting the artery to the leg, reducing blood flow.”
Two surgeries shrunk the spinal tumor by 75 percent and were less invasive, allowing Tate to return to the court last season.
Waiting for the next dark cloud.
“This is where things get more complicated,” Tate said.
A week before the season was scheduled to end, she realized something was wrong. She's really wrong.
“I started feeling a very sharp pain in the upper right side of my chest,” Tate said. “I was having trouble breathing. I thought I had strained a muscle from exercising or something, but it kept getting worse and worse. I went to the emergency room and found out that I had multiple injuries to my lungs. It turned out that I had a blood clot.”
In the blink of an eye, basketball was no longer on Tate's mind.
“The doctor looked at me and said, 'You're so lucky to be alive. It's not going to be easy from here,'” she said.
It was a long and harrowing road, starting with blood thinners for 6 months. When Tate finished his treatment, the cause of the blood clot was discovered.
“They discovered that I have a genetic mutation that allows me to develop blood clots in high-risk situations,” she said. “The fact that I had surgery (for a spinal tumor), especially two surgeries in such a short period of time, is a factor.”
It was difficult for Tate to deal with, who missed most of the 2021-22 season with foot and ankle injuries. That wasn't the case after the blood clot scare.
“I got spanked,” she said. “There was nothing I could do but accept it. Honestly, I'm just glad to be alive. I felt a lot more peace.”
The long recovery from the pulmonary embolism was difficult, but Tate didn't make it alone.
“Honestly, it's my support system that got me through,” she said. “My friends and family just came around me and supported me and cried with me and hugged me. Poor mom, I gave her so many heart attacks. She was always there to support me as I wanted to get back on the court, and so did my dad.”
After getting cleared to compete in August, Tate decided to give it another try and called Madsen.
“I’m a little crazy,” she said with a laugh. “I said to myself, 'Hey, it would be fun to play this again.' That should be your goal, and if you set a goal, you'll achieve it.”
Said Madsen: “When you’ve been coaching as long as I have (14 years at Wheaton College), you know how much the players love the game and always put in the time to better themselves. All of a sudden, that's been stripped away. When you look at the resilience, the fortitude, the injury is a lonely thing, and it's all up to you to get it back. Although it's a very lonely process. , obviously builds a tremendous amount of personality in people.
“The biggest blessing was the day she finally got back on the court and realized she was back where she wanted to be.”
In addition to being back, Tate leads the Thunder in scoring (18.6) and rebounding (7.2) this season.
Sorry to bury Reed, but she made 28 free throws against Elmhurst College on Jan. 13, putting her name in the Division III record books.
“I still don't fully understand it. 28 free throws is kind of ridiculous,” Tate said, always laughing. “But hey, I'll take it. Lots of fun. Pretty cool. When it happened, I didn't really know it was happening. With my style of play, I foul a lot, so I just tried to work hard on my free throws. I decided.”
