SEATTLE — The 25th year of Kayla Burt’s remarkable life brings her to the University of Portland, where the former Arlington High School and University of Washington star is in her first year as an assistant basketball coach.
Five years after a well-publicized cardiac arrest that nearly ended her life, two years after she graduated from Washington, Burt is where she is most comfortable and happy: in sweats, talking and teaching basketball.
“If I could, I’d still be playing,” Burt said. “Because I can’t play, the next best thing for me is coaching. To be involved in the game somehow is really special to me. Just that I can carry on with the game is an important part of my life.”
The Pilots are 13-9, 3-4 in the West Coast Conference after an 80-78 victory over St. Mary’s, a win that was 22nd-year UP coach Jim Sollars’ league-record 130th. In his career, Sollars has won 298 games.
Already, he has seen Burt’s coaching aptitude.
“I have really encouraged her to stick with coaching, simply because she is a good teacher of the game,” Sollars said. “Many young assistants merely want to continue their playing careers. Kayla understands her role is now different and has adjusted very quickly.”
It was a roundabout trail to Portland. Upon graduation, Burt took a volunteer job with the Hope Heart Institute. By then, however, the last topic Burt needed to be reminded of was her heart condition, which became a daily ritual.
It was New Year’s Eve 2002 when Burt was struck. She was with several of her UW teammates, thankfully, who resuscitated her as best they could before the professionals arrived. Surgeons implanted a defibrillator into her chest, designed to shock her heart back into rhythm should a similar event occur.
The cardiac arrest ended Burt’s basketball career, or so most everyone thought. She worked as a volunteer assistant coach for the Huskies in the 2003-04 season.
After seeing a series of cardiac experts, Burt decided to return to the court to begin the 2004-05 season, 22 months following the seizure. Her return lasted 16 games. On Jan. 9, 2005 in a game against UCLA, the defibrillator fired twice to correct ventricular tachycardia, or a severe quickening of the heart rate.
Burt described the feeling as “like a bomb exploded inside my body.”
Her playing career was done.
So, as valuable as the Hope Heart Institute is, Burt wasn’t of mind to relive every frightening moment, every day of the week.
“It was hard,” she said. “When everything happened to me, I was talking about it daily. So when it became my career, I just thought I needed to get away from it. I only stayed there for about a month. Then I worked at Nike in downtown Seattle.”
It was former UW teammate Loree Payne who helped Burt get back into coaching. Payne worked for Sollars as an assistant for three seasons. When Washington changed coaching staffs, UW coach Tia Jackson hired Payne, who, in turn, told Sollars about Burt.
Instant career start.
“Even in school, it was something I wanted to try to do,” Burt said of coaching. “I was thinking of doing it right out of school, but I wanted to take a break and see what else was out there. Once I realized that coaching was still there and was always going to be there, I tried it. It’s been fun.”
Her life is fulfilling. She scrimmages with her players. She lifts. She recently returned from a ski trip to Mount Hood. Burt is as active as anyone at 25.
In the past year, Burt has formed a tight friendship with her former coach, June Daugherty, after Daugherty herself went through a cardiac arrest last summer. Daugherty, now head coach at Washington State, also wears a defibrillator and makes frequent calls to Burt to ask questions.
It’s one of those beyond-peculiar life experiences that brings people together.
“Sometimes when I see June, I feel like she was ahead of where I was,” Burt said. “I don’t know if that has to do with our age differences or whatever, but before this even happened, June was one of the most positive people I’d ever met, and I consider myself to be a pretty positive person. For her to come out on top doesn’t surprise me at all.”
It’s also no surprise to see Burt back in the game.
The fun part will be to see where she chooses to take it.
Or what she chooses to do next.
Columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. To reach Sleeper’s blog, click on www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.
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