Mask Crusader: MV athlete wants others to learn from her own near-fatal injury

By KANDACE MCCOY

kandace.mccoy@register-news.com

The softball game played on July 27 started as any other travel team game for Mt. Vernon’s Alisha Capps.

There was the routine infield chatter, the barking of umpires’ calls and quiet conversation by fans in the stands.

However, normalcy abandoned the game in the fourth inning of a scoreless contest played during the U.S. Nationals at Florissant, Mo.

Capps, a 16-year-old hurler playing for the St. Louis Esprit 18-and-under travel team, stared down a Missouri Wicked Elite batter.

“She was pitching pretty good that game,” recalled Capps’ father, Steven.

Capps hurled a curve ball — high and outside.

“It was a pitch no one should have grabbed,” said her mother, Leslie.

The Wicked Elite batter reached for and cracked the ball, hitting it approximately 125 miles per hour — right into Capps’ face.

“I knew when she fell down and didn’t jump back up something was wrong,” Leslie Capps said, trying to control her trembling voice. “I was screaming to call 911. I knew she was hurt bad — for her not to get up, she had to be hurt bad.”

And it was bad. Though Alisha raised her glove to try and catch the ball, she wasn’t able to get it up in time to protect herself, and the ball smashed nearly every bone on the right side of her face.

“I didn’t know how she was,” Leslie said. “The ball came off so fast, and if you could’ve heard her hit — she turned around and fell on her stomach.”

When Alisha’s father rushed onto the field to his daughter’s side, he saw her face covered in blood. “It was pouring out like it was pouring out of a glass,” he stammered.

“There was a lot of blood. I pray no parent has to see their child like that when it’s so preventable,” Leslie added.

And the hit could have been prevented, Alisha believes, if she had been wearing a face mask.

The mask, according to sports equipment company LineDrive, is made of an ultra-lightweight material contained in bullet-proof glass and reduces the chance of facial and dental injury.

“If I had [the mask] on,” Alisha explained, “I would have been fine.”

As a result of her injury, Alisha suffered fractures which resulted in little to no solid bone remaining in the right side of her face. Her jaw was broken in two places, the bone along her eye socket had been shattered, and her cheek bone was crushed.

“It pretty much shattered every bone,” Leslie Capps said. “It’s a miracle she didn’t lose any teeth.”

Alisha endured two different surgeries to help restructure her jaw, and since there wasn’t enough bone intact for the placement of metal plates, a titanium screen wire was inserted into the right side of her face — an internal device she will have for the rest of her life.

After a week’s stay in Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis, Alisha returned home with a crusade.

“Two weeks after we were home, she said, ‘Mom, I can’t stand it, get your glove and let’s play catch,’” Leslie remembered. However, she said her daughter was determined to educate younger players about the importance of wearing the face mask.

“She talked to a 12-and-under traveling team. She still had a black eye and her cheek was still swollen,” Leslie said, “and the jaw bar on her teeth was still on.”

Once Alisha explained to the girls what happened to her, one mother came up and thanked Alisha for her concern.

“She said, ‘Thanks for talking to them because my daughter didn’t want to wear [a face mask] and now she would.”

Alisha is also drafting a letter to the Illinois High School Association and the Amateur Softball Association for consideration to mandate all infielders, including pitchers, wear face masks.

St. Louis Esprit coach John Kieny, who started the organization in 1982, said in his 40 years as a coach as well as 20 years as a hockey trainer, he had never seen an injury like the one suffered by Alisha.

“Alisha’s a good athlete, but she had no opportunity to react and deflect the ball,” he said.

He added that with the way bats are made and the strength in which players swing, he agrees with Alisha that there needs to be a mandatory requirement for pitchers and corner infielders to wear protective face masks. “I think bats have gotten too dangerous since they have gone to composition materials — it’s too much,” he said.

Mt. Vernon Township High School softball coach Steve Morris said he saw Alisha on the first day she returned from the hospital.

“She looked a lot better,” he said. “She’s lucky to be alive.”

Morris, who has a rule that all infielders wear a mouthpiece during games, says he wishes the IHSA would also pass a rule requiring infielders to wear mandatory protective gear. “I definitely think that as good as players are getting, and getting stronger, something has to be done,” he said.

Pitchers like Capps are “very vulnerable,” he continued, and even though coaches try to teach their players the proper fielding position, hits like the one Capps received aren’t expected.

“I’ve taught players to have their glove down and ready in field position. With first and third [bases], you want them to have gloves up and ready. I’d rather it go through their legs, than see [players] get hurt.”

Morris sent a report to the IHSA following Capps’ incident, but until the association creates a new rule mandating protective gear, he said enforcing players to wear safer equipment may be difficult.

“I have heard lots of discussion about coaches trying to enforce this,” he said. “I think it comes down to personal preference. ... It’s pretty difficult to force [players] to do this if there’s not a rule to back you up.”

Word of Alisha’s incident hit the area not long after it happened.

“I heard about her accident at the beginning of school,” noted Woodlawn softball coach Eric Helbig. “I was surprised, but then again I wasn’t. You hear more and more about this kind of thing. Between the hardness of the balls, the new bats, and the better players, there’s unfortunately a lot more of this in baseball and softball. In softball, the pitcher’s only a little over 30 feet away at the end of a pitch, so it can be a scary situation. The same goes for third basemen who play in for the bunt.”

However, coaches say that if players want to wear protective gear, they will be able to do so.

“I don’t require my pitchers or infielders to wear protective equipment, but I’m also not going to prevent them from it if they want to,” said Helbig. “I’d definitely say that it would be a good idea to wear protection at the younger levels and even in high school if you’re the type of pitcher that isn’t real overpowering. I don’t think we’ve faced a pitcher in high school that wore a mask, but I’ve seen them around, and I’m guessing we’ll see more of it. I think we’ll probably buy one for the team in case someone would feel more comfortable with one on and I’ll definitely pass on information as to where they can be bought.”

“I highly recommend [wearing a mask] to players on first and third base,” Morris “I’ve got a kid that plays third that has hands as quick as I’ve seen and she caught some vicious line drives — fortunately — last year.”

Kieny said he will be asking coaches in his organization to require players to wear the face mask. “I’m a convert because of Alisha,” he said. “No one will pitch for me without a mask.”

Even though Alisha will be submitting a letter to the IHSA, Helbig says he doesn’t believe the requirement of face masks is an issue at the moment. “Right now, I don’t think it’s that much of an issue that the IHSA or NFSHSA (National Federation of State High School Associations) needs to step in and require fielders to wear masks,” he said. “I think they might tinker with moving the pitching distance back first and see if that helps create a little more room between the pitcher and hitter.”

Alisha has a hard time digesting that philosophy.

“It makes me mad that people think [the mask] is not worth it,” she said.

But the high school junior knows that no matter where her crusade may lead, she has supporters behind her.

In fact, after Alisha was transported to the hospital following her injury, her Esprit team was behind 5-0 by the seventh inning. Fans then began to chant her name, and with that inspiration, the team came back and won the game, 7-6.

“We still don’t know what’s in store for her future,” Leslie Capps said. “You can’t sleep when you picture your child hurt. I keep seeing her get hit with the ball over and over again.”

Yet Alisha says when she picks up a paper and sees a photograph of a player wearing a mask, she says to herself, “Good.”

She does not want her pain to be in vain.

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