RINER, Va. – The 2021 tennis season ended with a bang for then-junior Ashley Parsons, as she won the final singles match to clinch Auburn’s team state championship.
But days later, Parsons’ life was poised to change forever.
“I was riding ATVs in my backyard with my dad and brother and was going up a hill and it stalled and rolled back and flipped over me,” Parsons said. “In the process, my legs snapped above my head really quickly and I completely shattered my lowest vertebrae.”
The winning return she would now seek, would simply be trying to walk again.
“Initially they told me ‘you’re lucky to be alive, and you’ll be lucky if you ever walk again.’ I did go through a lot mentally when they first told me that, I was absolutely heartbroken but I was able to move my legs and move my feet, so I was determined to walk again and get back on the court,” she said.
Recovery left Parsons bound to a wheelchair, having to wear a brace, and she couldn’t bend, lift, or twist.
“Ashley, you talk to her, and you wouldn’t know, but the first time I visited her she was not able to get up and move much, it was very difficult,” her coach Paul de Gastyne said.
But Parsons, described by her coach as “the goodwill ambassador of Auburn Eagle tennis’, was no stranger to resiliency. She made it a goal to get back on the court.
“You couldn’t ask for more from Ashley to be a leader, an example of that resiliency, that goodwill, good attitude, come out and work hard,” her coach added.
And just a few weeks ago she returned to the court, an honor greater than any title.
“I actually teared up the first time I stepped out onto the court, just being able to come back out here again and play again. That just really showed me the perspective of hey, you really don’t know when the last time of doing anything is going to be so you really have to soak every moment up and make the most of any opportunity,” she finished.