Meet Journal Star high school sports coordinator Adam Duvall
Journal Star reporter Adam Duvall covers high school sports throughout the Peoria area.
Kaitlin Cassidy was in the afterglow of making a big decision about her future when her athletic career took an unfortunate turn.
The Peoria Notre Dame athlete suffered a torn ACL in the first match of her senior volleyball season on Aug. 26. This came just 15 days after announcing her commitment to play college basketball for Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.
Cassidy was also a Journal Star all-area forward and starter on the 2024 Class 2A state champion girls basketball team. She is scheduled to undergo surgery next Wednesday and will miss the rest of the volleyball season and her final prep basketball season.
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“I’m so glad I committed when I did,” Cassidy said. “… I don’t think I’ll ever get over that it happened when it did, but now that I look back on it, I don’t think there could be a better timing for it. Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, I’ll be back before college basketball starts.”
In the second set of a nonconference match against Morton, the 5-foot-11 all-Big 12 Conference first-teamer got set for an attack following a long rally. Her landing was awkward and immediately screamed out in pain. She was carted off in a wheelchair following an extended delay.
“I went up for a ball,” Cassidy said. “… I felt like I was on top of the world when I was in the air. When I came down, my knee went one way, and my body went the other. My whole world went crashing.”
A visit to prompt care then x-rays and an MRI at Midwest Orthopedic revealed the exact extent of the damage.
“This is where your ACL is supposed to be and it’s not there,” Cassidy said of what doctors told her about the injury.
Cassidy is looking on the bright side. There were no tears to the MCL or meniscus, which she called, “the best-case scenario.” Plus, she says she knows that some athletes can no longer compete or haven’t gotten the opportunities she’s had over the years.
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“Obviously, it’s disappointing that I can’t play,” Cassidy said. “I still get to be around the girls. I get be around my best friends and I couldn’t ask for more than that because it’s really just what I need right now through all of this.
“It’s tore me apart the past few weeks knowing I’ll never put on a Notre Dame jersey for big games and under pressure. … I’ve got people to lean on even when times are hard.”
Her Catholic faith has played a big role in helping her process what transpired.
“I’ve always been a big believer on ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ ” Cassidy said. “I know that God always has a plan for me. He got me this far in life, obviously, He knows what he’s doing. It’s a little bump in the road that I’m going to have to work through and that’s going to happen in life. When things like this happen, there’s no way around it. You have to find the strength to get through it.
“That’s where the Notre Dame and the Notre Dame community, they’ve been great to me.”
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
