INDIANAPOLIS — The playing conditions were, in a word, miserable. A downpour through the entire soccer game, including heavy winds at times, made for treacherous footing and players wringing out their jerseys during brief breaks in play.
But don’t tell Arabian sophomore Claire Fendel about the misery of the weather. There was no one happier to be on the pitch and playing soccer, no matter how hard it rains.
Fendel is just eight months removed from a one-car accident that caused injuries from which she is still recovering.
Driving home from a shopping trip to Hamilton Town Center with her older sister, Rachel, Fendel lost control of her vehicle in a construction zone between mile markers 211 and 212 on Interstate- 69. As she tried to prevent the accident, she overcorrected, causing the vehicle to roll several times.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryHer first thoughts after the accident were of her sister, who suffered a black eye and an injured ankle.
“I remember most of it,” Fendel said of the accident. “I didn’t really think I was injured that bad; I just thought it was a cut with a few stitches, and it would be all good. I was panicking because they wouldn’t tell me about my sister.”
While Fendel also suffered a cut on the back of her head, requiring staples, the cut to her right hand was more serious than she thought at the time. It severed a tendon and nerve endings, requiring surgery the day before Thanksgiving and months of rehab, bringing her sophomore season of basketball to an end.
“It was stressful because I had to miss a lot of school,” she said. “It was always during the day. The therapy stuff wasn’t too painful; it was just annoying to go to. I still have to wear a big brace when I go to sleep at night to try to straighten my finger out.”
The accident happened after the Arabians had played just five basketball games in 2016. Her biggest disappointment was missing out on playing against old friends in late January.
“I was hoping I was going to (play),” she said. “But then I had the surgery, so it wasn’t going to happen. I’ve wanted to play Lapel since the seventh grade, and this was the first year we played them. I know people from Lapel, and they’re a good competitive school. When I was on a travel team as a kid, I played against a lot of them in practice. They were always fun. I just thought they would be fun to play against.”
On Friday, June 23, in her first soccer game since the accident, Fendel scored the first goal of the summer for Pendleton Heights and later added an assist as the Arabians defeated Brownsburg in a scrimmage at Cardinal Ritter 3-1.
“I felt awesome,” Fendel said. “I didn’t think it was going to go in, but it did.”
With five players — including three team captains — having graduated in 2017, Fendel is an important piece of the Pendleton Heights soccer puzzle that coach Mark Davy is assembling. He liked what he saw from Fendel on Friday and said one of the big goals of the summer is for her to get her legs back into soccer shape.
“She played very well today,” Davy said. “About what we expected; to see her get that goal was good. The biggest thing for her, being out so long, is getting her (in) game shape and being able to run up and down the field.”
She said still feels the effects of the injury to her hand. Overall, she said she feels healthy and ready to go for soccer season and, later, basketball season.
“I’m feeling good,” she said. “I can’t make a fist, so it’s hard with weightlifting — I can’t grab the bar. I can’t open chip bags, and they said I probably won’t be able to. I’m going to focus on my distance running, being able to run longer. I’m hoping (to play basketball); I’ve been playing in the open gyms, so I expect to.”
