RHS, PCHS students win scholarships

Phil Campbell’s Sarah Hilliard and Russellville senior Heather Cole were named Bryant-Jordan scholarship winners Monday.

If Franklin County were to be measured by only two residents, high school seniors Heather Cole and Sarah Hilliard would be the two to pick.
Both Cole, from Russellville High School, and Hilliard, from Phil Campbell High School, were recognized this past Monday night for their outstanding achievements through the Bryant-Jordan Student-Athlete Scholarship Program.
The program, which is named after legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and Auburn football coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan, has honored high school seniors for the past 27 years. Students are awarded in two main categories: scholar-athletes, which are students who have maintained excellent grades while playing high school sports; and achievement athletes, who have gone through a very difficult or trying situation while maintaining their grades and playing high school sports.
PCHS’ Hilliard received the Bryant-Jordan Regional Scholar-Athlete Award for Class 2A in Region 6 for her ability to juggle basketball and softball while still maintaining a 4.0 GPA and the title of valedictorian. Out of all 48 scholar-athlete regional winners, Hilliard also received the Alabama “A” Club Educational and Charitable Foundation Scholarship, which is a statewide scholarship she was interviewed for on Monday morning.
Hilliard said being a student athlete hasn’t always been easy. When there’s a game that goes into overtime and you finally make it home at 10 p.m. and you still have a biology test to study for, finding the balance between keeping up your grades and keeping your spot on the team can definitely be a challenge.
“Sometimes it was really hard for me to do it all, but I just did what I had to do to make it happen,” Hilliard said. “I’m a person who isn’t satisfied unless I’m giving 110 percent to whatever it is I’m doing. Since I was focused on my grades and on playing sports, I just gave 110 percent to both things.”
Even though it got hard, Hilliard said playing sports wasn’t ever really work for her.
“I have played sports since the age of five and it’s just something I love,” she said. “I love being part of a team and getting close to your teammates. You just develop a special bond with the people you play with and I enjoyed that so much.
“I’m also a competitive person, so playing sports allowed me to express that side of my personality.”
Being competitive is what Hilliard said also played a major role in her quest to have the top grades in her graduating class.
“Once I realized that I was capable of becoming the valedictorian, I couldn’t just not try to attain that,” she said. “I knew that it was within my reach to have that title so I just made it a priority to make that happen. My family was also there to support me and that made it a lot easier when it got hard.”
Being the valedictorian and a dedicated student athlete in two different sports may seem close to impossible for some people, but Hilliard said those who are just starting their high school careers shouldn’t dismiss that dream as a possibility.
“Don’t sell yourself short because it’s possible for you to do it all,” she said. “You can have great grades and still do the fun things you love if you’ll just make sure to keep everything in balance and ask for help when you need it.”
The $2,500 Hilliard received for being a regional scholar-athlete and the $12,000 she received for being the Alabama “A” Club recipient will go towards her expenses at the University of Alabama where she plans to purse a law career.
RHS’ Cole received the Bryant-Jordan Regional Achievement Award for Class 5A in Region 8 because of her strength during not one but two tragic events during her four years of high school.
Near the end of her sophomore year, Cole, who has played softball since her t-ball years, had her sights set on the area tournament in Hartselle – the last game of the season.
Around this same time, Cole’s father had become very sick from complications associated with gallbladder surgery. When both his gallbladder and appendix ruptured during the surgery, Cole said infection set up in her father’s body and by the time they realized how serious the condition was, it was too late to do anything to prevent it.
“We had just made it to Hartselle for the area tournament when my mom got there,” Cole said. “She went straight to talk to Coach [Ted] Ikerd and then he came over and told me to get my stuff. I thought he meant to go get my drink from my mom and he said, ‘No, Heather, get your stuff together because you’re not staying.’”
Cole said she soon found out that her dad’s condition had gotten worse, and he had gone into cardiac arrest when they were airlifting him to Huntsville Hospital.
“He was in a coma by the time we got there and he never came out of it,” she said. “He passed away on May 1, 2010.”
Cole said the death of her father was hard to comprehend at first.
“We had been visiting him in the hospital so much that I just knew they were going to find out what was wrong and be able to fix it,” she said. “When we got to Huntsville Hospital, I just thought he would get better but he never did.”
Cole said her teammates immediately came to her aid by coming to the hospital to see her and coming to the funeral when her dad eventually passed away.
“They were constantly calling or texting me to let me know they were thinking about me or asking me if they could do anything,” she said. “That’s one of the great things about playing sports is being part of a team. Everyone is there for you when you need them – on and off the field.”
Cole’s softball season was over for that year but she got right back to practicing for her junior season. Softball was something she loved and getting back into the swing of practice and games helped her cope with the loss of her father.
The Golden Tiger softball team was once again near the end of their season when April 27, 2011, rolled around.
With the threat of severe weather and tornadoes, schools in Russellville and throughout Franklin County let out so students would have a chance to get home to a safe place.
“When we got out of school, I called my mom and told her I was going to my grandma’s work in Russellville,” Cole said. “When I got there, my grandma said she didn’t think it would get too bad so I just needed to go on to her house in East Franklin for the rest of the day.”
Cole said she called her 21-year-old brother, Bradley Hardy, who was also supposed to be at their grandparents’ house.
“He wasn’t there but said he was on his way and for me to just stay there,” she said. “Once he got there, I laid down because the weather was making me sleepy. I thought I would just take a nap.”
A short time after she lay down, Cole said she started getting phone calls from both of her grandmothers, her mom and her friends saying the tornado was heading straight for East Franklin.
“My grandma said it was five minutes away and that me and my brother needed to get in the bathtub,” she said. “My brother was outside and I told him what was going on but he said there was no way there was a tornado coming because it didn’t even look like the weather was doing anything.”
Cole said she was shaken up from the phone calls and went back inside and got into the bathtub despite her brothers reservations. Less than 60 seconds later her brother joined her.
“He came in and threw a quilt over me and knelt down next to the bathtub,” she said. “We heard the toilet start making gurgling noises and the walls started shaking. I asked him what that was and he said, ‘That’s the tornado.’ As soon as he said that the walls crashed in and it was black.”
Cole said she and her brother ended up across the road with debris from the brick house scattered on top of them.
“I was still awake and I can remember it started hailing on us and it hurt,” she said. “I kept shouting to my brother to see if he was ok. He said he was ok a few times and then he said, ‘No, Heather, I’m not ok.”
Cole said she could see blood on her brother’s clothes and knew he needed help. Her brother managed to toss her his cellphone and she called 911.
“I called 911 so many times the operator finally had to tell me to stop calling,” she said. “I just didn’t know what else to do.”
While waiting for help, Cole received a call on her brother’s phone from her grandfather.
“When I answered the phone he asked where I was and I said ‘outside.’ He asked what I was doing outside and he told me to get in the house because the weather was getting bad. I told him, ‘You don’t have a house. It hit us.’”
Cole said her cousins arrived on the scene before the paramedics could make it there. They used the neighbor’s front door to load her brother into their truck and they met the ambulance on the road because it couldn’t get through the debris.
Cole was taken to Russellville Hospital initially and was eventually sent to Birmingham. Her pelvis was broken in two places, her spine was fractured in two places and she had a collapsed lung.
Her brother was taken straight to Birmingham because his injuries were so severe. He had cuts all over his body, his pelvis was broken, he had a collapsed lung, a 2×4 had gone through his arm and doctors had to remove pieces of a CD that had become lodged in his arm as well.
“He was on a ventilator for a few days,” Cole said. “I didn’t know how bad his injuries were at the time, though, because I was still in the hospital.”
Cole wasn’t able to walk because of her broken pelvis and fractured spine and she feared what this would mean for her softball career.
“I remember asking the doctor about walking,” she said. “I asked him to please have me healed by softball season. I didn’t want to miss my senior year.”
Cole said they set the surgery schedule around softball. She had to remain on crutches until July and she moved on to physical therapy after that. After months of building back her strength and pushing through the pain of physical therapy, Cole finally had the pins and screws removed from her back and pelvis this past December – just in time to get back out on the field.
“The fear of not getting to play again crossed my mind all the time, but that just made me work harder at getting back on my feet,” she said. “I won’t lie – it still hurts to play, but it’s worth it to just be out there.”
Both Cole and Hilliard give a good portion of the credit for their achievements to their coaches, Ted Ikerd at RHS and Darit Riddle at PCHS.
“I can’t even describe how supportive Coach Ikerd has been through everything I’ve gone through,” Cole said. “I can barely even talk about it because there just aren’t words to really say how much I’ve appreciated him.
“I’ve been lucky to have high school sports and my coaches and teammates in my life because they got me through some of the toughest times I’ll probably ever go through.”