This article appears in the April edition of US Lacrosse Magazine. Don’t get the mag? Join US Lacrosse today to start your subscription.

Next to Aine Williams’s smiling picture and just above a bursting list of high school accolades reads the brief bio from her freshman year at Colorado.

“Did not compete.”

But all Williams did in 2018 and into the start of the 2019 season was compete. It started with competing for her life and then competing to return to the team and then to the field. 

“I obviously hope one day I’ll be able to play in a game or be a contributor to our team,” said Williams, whose first name is pronounced ON-yah. “Now I’m just happy to be here and be working hard for everything. Maybe by the end of the season I’ll be there, or maybe it’ll be in two years. I’m just happy to be here with my teammates and working through every day.”

The sophomore defender returned to practice with Colorado less than a year after being on life support. Barely three weeks after the Buffaloes tragically lost another teammate, senior Julia Sarcona, who died in a car accident on Jan. 13, 2018, Williams was hospitalized with what doctors diagnosed as cryptogenic organizing pneumonia — a condition that worsened rapidly and resulted in her spending two weeks in a medically induced coma.

“Losing Julia Sarcona in January and then to almost lose Aine in February was an unimaginable situation,” Colorado coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. “There is no game plan for that, and there are no good answers for the endless questions of why and what do we do next. It affected our team on and off the field and in little ways that are hard to explain and understand. It was hard to find comfort last spring, but our team found comfort in being together and playing the sport we love.”

Colorado’s 2018 season began and ended in Florida, with the Buffaloes putting together a 14-6 record that included a 9-1 mark in the Pac-12, all in the midst of an emotional roller coaster that began with tragedy and uncertainty. They continue to recover together with an appreciation for each other.

“This season is a different season and team, but last season and Julia’s impact on our program remain very much a part of who we are,” Whidden said. “Having Aine back with us and playing is amazing, something we weren’t sure would happen. Her attitude towards life, her toughness and her dedication to this program are inspirational every day.”

Colorado was still mourning Sarcona’s death when Williams started feeling ill in the first days of February 2018. Mike and Erin Williams thought that the second of their five lacrosse-playing daughters had flu symptoms. Just after the hospital admitted her, though, Mike received the dreaded call, urging him to take the next flight from their Hingham, Mass., home to Boulder.

“By the time I got out there, they were ready to intubate her,” he said. “I got to say, ‘Aine, I love you,’ and they sedated her and intubated her. From there, it just went downhill.”

Williams was flown by medical helicopter to CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver. Her heart and lungs were failing and her kidneys were on the verge of dialysis. She was put on a ventilator and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to act as her heart and lungs, and she was put in a medically induced coma as Colorado started the season.

“I remember the night before we played Florida, I was crying all night, I was so nervous,” said Williams’s roommate, midfielder Devon Bayer. “I had no idea what was going on and what was going to happen. That first weekend was the biggest shock. We knew she was really, really sick.”

Whidden, associate head coach Alex Frank and trainer Carina Gattas visited Williams often during her month-long stay in the hospital. Her Mass Elite club coach, Leslie Frank, flew out to visit.

“The lacrosse community was unbelievably supportive,” Mike Williams said. “I cannot say enough about the University of Colorado and the support they gave not only Aine, but us as a family as well. Ann Elliott is a special, special coach. I cannot say enough about her, the team, the family environment that she’s developed there and the support across the board. The athletic director, he called me no fewer than five times.”

Williams watched Colorado games from her bed as she learned to eat and walk again. She had to withdraw for the semester after missing so much school, and she returned home to continue her physical therapy. There, she helped coach her high school team, Notre Dame Academy.

“Physically, she did not look like the Aine that I had known and coached,” said Notre Dame coach Meredith Frank McGinnis, Alex Frank’s sister. “Aine was incredibly athletic and strong and fit. The illness certainly took a toll on her physically. Personality-wise, she was the old Aine that I had known and have so much respect for.”

Coaching kept Williams around the game, and her health improved enough to go from coaching from the sidelines to playing on the Buffs’ scout team. In late April 2018, she returned to Boulder for the Pac-12 tournament.

“She looked so much better than when she left, just in her health and strength,” Whidden said. “She was far from where she started. She still had a lot of work, but to see her at the Pac-12 championship, it was a proud moment for us.”

Williams was motivated all along to rejoin the team. She returned to school and to the field for practices in the fall, and has continued to build herself back up going into this season.

“You can see her in practice moving faster and quicker than in the fall,” Bayer said. “I would say she’s almost there, and next year is going to be a huge year for her.”

Williams can do everything lacrosse-wise. It’s her fitness that still shows some of the damage from the illness. Williams couldn’t run all six of the sprints with the team at the beginning of the spring. She gets frustrated when her legs don’t go as fast as she wants, and her heart rate doesn’t recover as quickly as it used to.

 “When I say stuff like that, I remember what happened to me and I’m so grateful I’m alive and I got to rejoin the team and that I get to practice every day,” Williams said. “Less than a year ago, I was in the hospital. I just remember where I was and not to take anything for granted, even if I can’t do things to the extent I used to do them.”

Colorado, too, counts its blessings to have Williams back. The team has experienced real loss and pain, and they are inspired by Williams.

“They understand the importance of each other, importance of one day at a time — to work hard but enjoy the moments together,” Whidden said. “In the fall, this team established their core values, one of which is purpose. We cannot predict or control the outcomes of this season, but every day they step on the field, they have purpose. And that purpose isn’t just about lacrosse wins and losses. It is rooted in our experiences from last year, in Julia’s memory, in Aine’s commitment and in our understanding of how important each moment is even when things are tough.”