Leaping high, her arm extending well above the net before coming down in a hammering motion, Sierrah Lemons sends the ball crashing toward the floor with a thunderous spike. The act itself is not remarkable; it’s a play repeated countless times across high school volleyball courts throughout the season.
But considering sports are at the top of the list of things the Soddy-Daisy High School student shouldn’t be able to do, the fact Lemons not only plays but makes the game look effortless certainly should be labeled as remarkable.
Days before she turned 3, doctors informed Lemons’ family she had a tumor in her right eye. Needing to act quickly to prevent the disease from spreading to her brain or to her other eye, on the day of her third birthday, her cancerous right eye was removed in a three-hour procedure.
Days later, she was fitted for a prosthetic eye. Although her lack of depth perception would cause her to fall often or bump into doorways until she became accustomed to the blind spot on one side of her body, Lemons’ family insisted on finding activities that would help her adjust.
She began taking gymnastics, tap dancing and ballet classes before progressing on to youth league baseball, basketball and track and field, where the lanky kid even learned to excel in the hurdles.