Carine Fobbs made it through the fog.

During a late April game a year ago, the then-Oakland Mills junior was playing third base in a softball game with Centennial when a furious line drive came toward her. The ball tore through her glove and bounced off her head.

"I was kind of standing there like I was OK, but then I fell," Fobbs recalled. The line drive shot left an imprint of the ball's stitching on her head for days.

It was a horrific scene that sent chills down the spine of coach Angie Sutherland.

"It looked like her neck kind of snapped back," Sutherland said. "Even when she was lying on the ground, she didn't realize she was hurt."

After being taken by MedEvac to a Baltimore hospital, Fobbs woke up to see a mother she didn't recognize at first and a neck brace she would wear for five days. She also had a massive headache.

The incident caused short-term memory loss for weeks.

Friends who try to recount events of last spring only get a "Um, I don't remember that," from Fobbs.

Her junior year had already been injury-filled, as a cheerleading teammate fell on her head during a stunt three months earlier. Fears of broken back bones were not realized. Still, her softball injury was serious.

"It's scary that there are memories I don't remember. Scary and frustrating," Fobbs said.

She said school administrators were worried that she might not be able to react to emergency fire bells and kept her out of school for a month and off the softball field for the remainder of the season.

"I started crying because softball is a big part of my life," she said.

Her teammates were equally emotional. "They said, 'We're going to do this for Carine.' We were heartbroken," Sutherland said. "We just fought even harder for her."

Fobbs physically and mentally prepared to play softball again in the fall.

"It was exhilarating and at the same time scary," said Fobbs, who is a catcher. "I just told myself, 'The ball will be coming at me fast, I can't be scared of the ball.' "

In her final year with the Scorpions, who were winless in the county, Fobbs' is hitting .355 while helping the team's young pitchers mature.

"They've made huge strides and I really think Carine has been a huge catalyst for that," Sutherland said.

Fobbs said playing again has, "meant the world to me. Softball has always been a huge part of me and these girls care a lot about me."

Fobbs plans on attending the University of Maryland and possibly walking on to the softball team.

E-mail Matt Palmer at howard countysports@patuxent.com.

user comments (0)