Car crash put it all into perspective for TWU defender

Kaleigh Henry hair cut by Leah Carroll

Car crash put it all into perspective for TWU defender

By Gary Ahuja - Langley Times

Video by John Gordon of Langley Times

While her teammates enjoyed great success on the field this past season, Kaleigh Henry was struggling.

Henry, a defender with the Trinity Western Spartans women’s soccer team, suffered a concussion in the summer, in a car accident, and after initially trying to play through her pain, she couldn’t finish the season.

She was forced to stand on the sidelines and watch as her teammates captured the national championship.

For a long time, soccer has been a huge part of the 20-year-old’s life.

But last August, two days into the team’s pre-season training, Henry was driving along 200 Street with four teammates. A car in front her was making a left turn, and Henry had to quickly swerve to avoid a collision.

Their vehicle struck two telephone poles; the driver’s side taking the brunt of the impact. Her passengers suffered some bruising and cuts, while Henry received a concussion and whiplash.

Ever the competitor, Henry tried to rush back into the line-up, playing a grand total of 31 minutes before it became clear that her body had not recovered sufficiently.

“I tried to come back and ended up causing myself a lot more pain, and realized I would have to sit out an extended period of time,” she said.

It made for a difficult few months.

“I was clinically depressed; it caused me to really re-evaluate what my identity is, because I had always placed it in soccer and when that is taken away from you, you really have to look into the mirror and see what you are made of.

“I was at the point of despair because I had lost my identity in soccer; I was looking through all these other things,” she said.

She was partying hard while neglecting her school work.

“I was looking everywhere for a sense of me,” she said. “I hit rock bottom when I realized the actions I am doing now are not helping my future at all. I just realized God and I want the same thing.”

So, on Nov. 22, one week after her teammates had captured the national championship, Henry — who was raised in an atheist household — accepted Jesus Christ into her life.

“I really wanted to make it through on my own, but I wasn’t going to make it without something,” she said. “So I just accepted the extended hand that Christ always had for me and I have felt immensely better ever since.”

On Wednesday morning, surrounded by her coaches, teammates and friends in the TWU cafeteria, Henry shaved off her hair.

At some points during the haircut, Henry had tears in her eyes, while at others she had an ear-to-ear smile, as her teammates took turns lopping off her long ponytails.

“It was tears of realizing that I am really loved,” Henry said. “The reason I never accepted Christ before was because I didn’t like myself, I didn’t have love for myself.

“Cutting off your hair and realizing your looks don’t matter, that the love transcends that is an amazing feeling.”

“So it was definitely tears of joy and a little bit of tears of ‘wow, there is no going back.”

By cutting off her shoulder-length blond hair, Henry said it is a sense of being reborn.

“And I felt this year was really bad for me and it caused me to reflect on things,” she said. “Vanity is something I struggle with and I think cutting off my hair will really humble me as well as externalize this great change I felt on the inside.”

Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh was not surprised with how many of Henry’s friends and teammates turned out to support her on Wednesday morning.

“She embodies what I want our program to be about,” he said. “She is a servant, she has got leadership, she is committed, and as evidenced by today, she is loved by our team.

“Whenever you are dealing with identity issues and some of the things that give you security and comfort, and those things get taken away from you, that puts you in a tough spot,” he said.

“Probably all those issues culminated into her identity crisis.”

Henry is donating her hair to the United Kingdom-based Little Princess Trust, which makes wigs from human hair and gives them to young girls undergoing chemotherapy.

She also raised money, with half of the funds going to the Vancouver Women’s Shelter and the other half for the Spartans trip to Paraguay.

The team will spend 12 days in Paraguay, where in addition to playing soccer against local teams, the Spartans will help out at local orphanages, soccer camps for poor children and in soup kitchens.

Last Updated: 2010-02-19
Author: Scott Stewart