The long road back

Track coach recovering from horrific Highway 93 car wreck

RONAN - Ronan-St. Ignatius high jumper Ishan Wylie cleared 4-foot-11 at Saturday's Bigfork Invitational.

Maidens head girls track coach Crystal Pitts, watching from the side, let out a whoop, accompanied by a fist jammed into the air.

A smiling Wylie trotted over to the coach to receive a hug and a pat on the shoulder.

Wylie's high jump was nice, good enough for first place, but it wasn't any miracle - she's gone higher.

The real miracle was Pitts standing there watching, then sending that fist high.

The miracle is Pitts walking from event to event, filming each jump, taking down notes and calling out instructions to members of the Ronan-St. Ignatius track team. Another miracle is her husband Terry, gamely limping around the infield. A coach at Arlee High School for many years, Terry is able to give advice where needed.

On Dec. 3, 2006, the Pittses were headed home from Dillon at 1 a.m. when they were hit nearly head-on just a few miles south of Arlee by a drunk driver.

The couple had just watched their son Zachary play two games as a member of the University of Montana-Western basketball team.

Last fall was a happy time for the Pitts family - Zachary was playing college basketball and planning his wedding to former Kalispell resident and Flathead Bravette Valissa Sneck and younger son Zanen was on a Latter-day Saints mission in Colorado.

Crystal, a longtime health and PE teacher and Ronan track coach, has no memory of the accident.

"I don't know anything about the wreck, other than the weather was good and we were not in a hurry. We had just been talking about the games," Pitts said.

The other driver, who was southbound, turned directly into their path.

The couple were trapped for hours in their mangled car.

Crystal was out, but Terry, suffering with the pain of a badly broken leg, was awake through it all.

"The space he was in was the size of his waist," Crystal said.

The rescue crew had to peel back the car's dashboard and pull Terry straight up to free him.

"He has his good and bad days, too. He's looking at two more surgeries," she said.

Crystal woke up the following Friday.

When a nurse told her the day, Pitts replied "but my last day was Saturday.

"I had 12 breaks in seven ribs all on the left side … on top of a broken neck," she said.

The doctors have told Pitts she was about 1/4 inch from being paralyzed.

She remembers very little of the first week.

"I know Terry talked to me twice in those first six days," she said.

The first discussion was younger son Zanen, on his mission in Colorado.

"I told him, 'No, Zanen wasn't to come home.'

"And I remember Terry told me he had told Zachary to go get married and I said 'absolutely.'

"I remember those two things with him."

The medical staff during her initial hospital stay asked her to measure her pain on a scale of 1 to 10.

Her answer?

"It's 20."

Her initial hospital stay was two weeks. She went home for the first time Dec. 16.

But it wasn't long before her neck started to feel "really weird."

A doctor's visit soon after landed her in traction. She was fitted with a halo Dec. 21, spent 40 hours in traction with seven and nine pound weights attached to her head, and didn't get home again until Dec. 29.

But through all that, she never questioned she'd make it back in time to coach track at Ronan.

In 26 years of coaching, Pitts has missed exactly one meet and two practices - in 1991.

"I told them before I got out of the hospital I was coaching track," Pitts said.

Her colleagues in the Ronan school district weren't as sure as she was, according to Ronan athletic director Aaron Griffin.

"I think the first two weeks (after the accident) we were pretty concerned if she was even going to make it," he said.

"It sounded pretty touch and go for awhile.

"She's a very popular fixture, not only as a teacher, but as a coach. She's become Ronan and the kids in the community know her.

"I know Crystal well enough and I've coached with Crystal. You know that if she was going to be okay, she'd be back on the track. As far as the district was concerned, it was up to Crystal," he added.

"If you know Crystal Pitts and know her well, she doesn't back down from anything," Griffin said. "I don't know if the girls would have allowed her to quit, to be honest," Griffin said.

"If anything, track is helping her get better.

"You still see the same passion and same desire and the same commitment," Griffin said.

The education and track communities have reached out to Pitts, too.

She received gifts from the Libby teachers and from longtime area track coach Neil Eliason.

Her favorite gift was a decorated relay baton from the Whitefish girls track team.

"That really made my day," she laughed.

"It was kind of cool to hear from the track community. I really appreciated that."

How is she doing now?

"I keep plodding along," she said.

"My shoulders are killing me. But my neck's better … and the headaches are better. Everything is getting better.

"I can't lift. I can't sit for very long.

"The biggest thing … I get tired of the pain," she said.

She's not back teaching yet and Terry has to drive her to practice and to all the meets.

"But my coaches that I'm with have been really, really good. They all said they wanted to learn new events," she said.

Noelle Decker took over working with the relay teams on handoffs and Shelley Buhr stepped

in to coach pole vault.

"My plans are to come back and everything will be normal," she said. "I'm planning on everything to get back to normal somewhere along the line. And I know it could take a couple of years."

The first step is an event she's been looking forward to since December - Zachary and Valissa's wedding reception, planned for June.

"It's hard to fathom they're married because we didn't get to be a part of it," she said.

Meanwhile, there is still several weeks of track to help her get by.

"One thing about track - a track meet is full of highs and lows all day. I am so lucky to be able to be a part of that with the kids. It is the kids that help my pain feel good for a couple of hours," she said.

"The journey is far from over. I have two alternatives and I'll take this one."