ESTANCIA BASKETBALL PLAYER SERVES AS INSPIRATION TO OTHERS
Growing up, Olavio Hernandez was just like many other kids, active and athletic. “You talk about a kid that loves sports, that’s all he wants to do,” said Estancia boys basketball coach Daniel Pierce. “Whether it be playing catch on the recess field in elementary school or shooting hoops, he’s been that way since he was a little kid.”
“He liked to ride horses, he liked to run, he liked to be in basketball, he loved every sport,” said Olavio’s father.
In middle school, Olavio started have knee problems. “I had some knee pain on my right knee, since the 7th grade, it always hurt,” Olavio explained. “I kept holding the pain until freshman year, when I hit it there was pain, pain, pain. It didn’t stop. So, I went to the ER to get it checked. They did an Xray but they didn’t find anything wrong. A couple days later, they did an MRI. They found a little ball, like 3 centimeters, they thought it was a cyst. They wanted to do a biopsy. That’s when they found out it was cancer.”
Olavio had three surgeries to try and remove the cancer, but ultimately, they came to a drastic conclusion. “We tried and tried and couldn’t get it,” Olavio said. “That’s when the decision came up that I had to amputate my leg.”
“I was scared,” he recalled. “It was hard to think about, but it was either my life or my leg.”
After lots of intense physical therapy, Olavio gathered enough strength to learn how to walk again. “I got my prosthetic two months after my surgery and trying to get to walk was difficult, not just physically, but mentally, and trying to get through that depression I had.”
What helped him get through his depression was a drive to pick up a basketball again. Olavio would not be denied the opportunity to play. “I played a lot of basketball at the park, just pick up games, and that’s where I started learning the mobility and how to use it (my leg),” Olavio said. “My friends helped me a lot. I told them I was going to come back for sure, I wasn’t going to give up on that.”
Olavio didn’t give up, and now, as a high school senior for the Estancia Bears, Olavio is finishing up his high school playing career. “He never gives up, he goes, goes, goes,” said his coach. “No matter how much pain he was in, or how much he was hurting, he would continue to strive to be the best kid he could be.”
“I told him, ‘Sometimes you forgot that you don’t have a leg,’,” his father commented.
Olavio wraps his leg before games to minimize any potential injury to an opponent who might run into it. Olavio says he doesn’t look at himself as different. “I just see myself, the way I used to see myself, playing basketball with two legs,” Olavio said. “I try my best, I never give up on the court. It’s a little challenging still. I try to keep up with the other players, but I stay in it.”
“I’m impressed every day,” said Pierce. “I don’t understand how he does it. We will condition at practice and he’ll do everything. I’ll tell him, ‘Just do what you can’ and he’ll say ‘I’m going to do it all.’ It’s amazing to watch him out on the court.”
“Sometimes I think I look different, but I got over that,” Olavio said. “It’s going to look different, but it’s always possible to do something the same as someone else.”
The will and determination to return to the court after losing part of your leg serves as an inspiration to his team, his school, his community, and his family. “Everybody is proud of how he’s done it,” said his father. “I’m proud that he can do anything he can and wants.”
“Again, I don’t know how he does it, but for some reason, that kid has a will and a way to do everything,” said Pierce. “As I was growing up, my mom and dad always told me where there’s a will there’s a way, and he found a way. I don’t think there’s anything from here on out for the rest of his life that’s going to slow him down.”
Resilience, courage, perseverance, and determination. That’s what it takes to overcome a devasting circumstance and that’s what Olavio Hernandez personifies in a Spirit of Sport.
