A test of will

For most high school basketball stars senior year is supposed to be the best, where the stars shine the brightest and lead their team to plenty of victories and deep into the postseason.

For most high school basketball stars senior year is supposed to be the best, where the stars shine the brightest and lead their team to plenty of victories and deep into the postseason.

That was not the case for Plains Heather Earhart.

For Earhart, who will be playing basketball at the University of Montana Western in Dillon this fall, her senior season was a struggle. After never missing a game and only not starting once in her life, Earhart found herself sidelined for several games at the end of January due to an unknown illness.

The intense stomach pains that kept her from many practices throughout the basketball season and eventually took her off the floor also kept her from eating. Already a petite figure at 5'3" and 117 lb., Earhart lost 16 lbs. in two weeks, making her fatigued and weak.

"No one could figure out was wrong and that was pretty discouraging," Earhart explained. "I was going in twice a week getting my blood taken for more tests."

While she struggled with her health, it was both her church, where her dad is the pastor, and her schoolteachers who rallied around her and brought her any food that they hoped she could stomach.

"Oh man, I got baby food given to me, protein shakes, fiber bars. I got all sorts of stuff, they were like ‘here this is good for you.' Some of them I did not like," Earhart laughed.

One of the church members, Rick Hanks, has always been impressed with Earhart's character and savvy play and he remembers how skinny Earhart looked at the time.

"Boy she looked like a skeleton, but she was still out there grinding," Hanks said. "What really impressed me about her is for such a small package she is a really tough kid. I think a lot of kids would have just quit."

He remembers bringing her vitamin compounds and vegetable juice drinks among other things, in which some worked and some didn't.

Finally, her doctors decided that she had to come off the court, afraid she would pass out, because of a lack of nutrition.

It was at that time Trotters fans had a sight they were very unfamiliar with, Earhart on the bench. The star point guard who can be found in the off-season throwing elbows with the boys in open gym or waking up at six in the morning during volleyball season to practice shooting with her Assistant Coach Richard Griffin, a former Montana Western basketball player, was now resorted to the role of a cheerleader.

"It was really hard. I think it was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through," Earhart said. "It was really hard because you could see that [my teammates] were struggling."

The time off, however, had no effect on her pain, so the doctors put her on a diet of high-protein milk shakes and bars. The diet was still harsh on her system, but the highly competitive Earhart forced it down.

"It still hurt really bad, but everything hurt to eat and drink, but at least I got to play, so I was just shoving them down," Earhart said.

She was then able to lead her team into the postseason, but the sickness had taken a toll. The three-time Trotter MVP averaged career lows in many basketball statistical categories. Her points per game were down from 15.3 points per game her junior year, second highest in the conference, to only 11.2 points per game her senior year. With a wounded leader, the Trotters missed out on making it to the Divisional Tournament for the first time in Earhart's tenure.

It wasn't until several weeks after the basketball season ended that a naturopathic doctor, a doctor who teaches their patients to use more natural remedies to help the body ward off disease, finally found out what was wrong.

Earhart no longer had any stomach acid in her stomach, making it unable to break down food and causing it to bloat to twice its normal size and push against her

abdomen.

Earhart immediately started taking six HCL pills, made up of a strong acid, along with pure licorice and fiber every day that allowed her to be able to eat again and her stomach to break down the food. Earhart says that typically people with this problem only are required to take one pill day and when she went to the pharmacy for the pills, the lady behind the counter asked her if it was for a sixty-year-old, not believing it was needed by an eighteen-year-old.

The breakthrough came just in time for Earhart to salvage her track season, and despite being diminutive in size Earhart swept both the javelin and discus events at the district meet with career bests in both.

Now five months removed from sitting on the bench wondering when she would play basketball and when the doctors would find answers. Earhart is physically much better, but is still taking the HCL pills and hoping her stomach rebuilds its acid naturally.

"I'm still not completely better. Sometimes it hurts, but at least I can eat," says Earhart. "Some people that have to take [HCL pills] and in a couple days it will start to rebuild it, or a couple months or sometimes you're on it your whole life. It just depends."

Still with the strength she learned from playing against the boys and the skills she credits from her coaches, Jack Revier, Griffin and Walt Hermiston, Earhart is ready for the college game.

Hanks, who has been watching high school sports for the last 40 years, says the strength Earhart has is more of a fire that will help her next year.

"It remains to be seen if she can step up and perform at the next level, but I do know one thing, she has an unquenchable competitive fire," says Hanks. "She won't back down from anybody, she's not scared of anybody and she'll go up against everybody."

With what she has already had to fight through, it should be an easy transition.