EVERETT — The first thing people notice about Archbishop Murphy High School basketball player Jamie Lyons is her court vision.
As the point guard for the Wildcats, she sees in a way few can.
She knows when standout center Lisa Coate is cutting to the basket and laser-guides a pass just as Coate enters prime territory. Next time down the court, Lyons drives toward the basket and whips a pass out to freshman sharp-shooter Krista Eknes.
The fact that Lyons has almost complete blindness in her right eye has never stopped her from doing anything. So why should basketball be any different?
“She’s got a vision — which is kind of ironic — that is even bigger than what you can see,” said Jamie’s mother, Julie Lyons. “I think that’s a testament to who she is.”
Jamie Lyons isn’t fond of the word “can’t.” She’s heard it often enough during her life, but isn’t sure what the folks at Webster’s were thinking when they put it in the dictionary. It started when she was a little girl with people doubting she would be able lead her horse over jumps because of possible depth perception difficulties.
“I was told that I wouldn’t be able to do that and I wasn’t going to play basketball or baseball,” said Lyons, a 5-foot-4 senior. “I did all those things and my parents supported me and knew I could do anything I wanted. When I set my mind to something, I’m pretty stubborn about doing it.”
Lyons was born with Persistent Hyperplastic Primary Vitreous, a condition that caused blindness in her right eye. Doctors performed surgery to remove a cataract in the eye when she was three weeks old. Another surgery was performed to dilate the pupil a year later. Her left eye was covered at times in hopes of strengthening the right. It wasn’t until she was three — when Lyons could describe the darkness — that it became clear that none of the steps ever had a chance to improve her vision.
When her left eye is open, she sees only darkness with her right. She can tell the difference between dark and light with her right eye when the left is closed.
If that sounds like a sad tale, it really isn’t to the Lyons family. It is a part of her life, yes, but one that has generally held little significance.
“I have been blind in my right eye since I was born, so I don’t know any different,” said Lyons, who has made nearly 40 percent of her three-point shot attempts this season. “I’ve just adapted to it. To me, it’s normal — all I know.”
But her right eye is blue, her left is green. That’s why they make colored contact lenses.
But won’t she get hurt? Yeah, she sprained her ankle just like pretty much any person who’s played basketball.
But she doesn’t see as far over to the right as most people. That’s what the neck is for. She turns her head.
“I think it was probably about in the seventh grade when the word ‘disability’ was used,” her mother said. “We had never used that word with her and never would. Because she’s not (disabled). She is who she is. Although the doctor might have thought basketball wasn’t the best thing because of the depth perception, it didn’t occur to her and didn’t occur to us not to try something.”
The Lyons family’s “so what?” attitude about Jamie’s vision has been a good thing for the Wildcats.
With Lyons serving as team captain and contributing 10 points and a team-best six assists per game.
The Wildcats are 83-14 with all three of the school’s state playoff appearances during her career. She started as a freshman and became a rare sophomore team captain. With Lyons, the Wildcats have lost only two home games in four seasons.
“She’s really the glue that holds this team together,” Archbishop Murphy coach Bill Kelley said.
And she wants nothing more than one more trip to state.
As a freshman, she played in the state tournament just days after her grandfather passed away, one of several deaths to people close to her that she’s been forced to deal with during her life. Lyons made last year’s trip to the Yakima SunDome on crutches after severely spraining an ankle during the final practice before the tournament began. Though she couldn’t play, she helped in any way she could, including writing inspirational messages on her teammates’ hands.
“All the hardship you go through in life makes you grow stronger,” senior forward Ellie Frahm said. “Going through her ankles and her eye makes her work harder. She’s one of those people that if you tell her she can’t do something, she’ll definitely work harder to prove you wrong.”
Kelley admits he wondered if Lyons would be able to handle the pace of varsity basketball, until the day Lyons and her mother walked into the Archbishop Murphy gym for the first time.
“They both seemed very confident that she’d be playing for me,” Kelley said. “I liked that attitude right off the bat.”
“She’s a kid that loves to play basketball,” he added. “She wants to put in the extra time. If there’s debating about having an extra practice, she wants to have that practice.”
With only two seniors on the team that includes four freshman, Lyons’ ability to be what Kelley refers to as “a second coach on the floor” has been one of the major keys to the team’s success this season.
“She gives me tips on things she went through when she was a freshman,” Eknes said. “She helps me learn from her mistakes. The experiences she’s had rubs off on the other freshmen.”
Lyons hopes her contributions will lead to a state title this season while taking her one step closer to her goal of playing college basketball.
Anyone want to tell her she can’t?
Aaron Coe writes for the Herald in Everett.
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