In this week’s episode of This Hits Different, Shelby Cassesse tells the story of Penn-Trafford student Makayla Casario, who is excelling on the golf course despite a scoliosis diagnosis and surgery.
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Penn-Trafford golfer battles through scoliosis, surgery
Many golfers have a complicated relationship with the sport. It's frustrating, requires meticulous attention to detail, and takes countless reps to get better.
But it's not complicated for Makayla Casario. She loves golf, and it loves her right back.
“I just really liked the challenge of getting to the hole in a short amount of numbers and hits,” sad Casario, a junior at Penn-Trafford. “It was just fun.”
Casario is a starter on the golf team. She picked up her first club as a young kid, going golfing with her uncle and learning her swing. By middle school, she was golfing a bit more competitively.
Unfortunately, at the same time, a condition she's had since she was a baby was getting worse. Her mom, Rebecca Casario, explains, Makayla was diagnosed with scoliosis at just three months old.
“Her muscle in her neck seemed tight and the doctor wanted to x-ray her for that,” Rebecca Casario said. “Whenever they x-rayed her for that, he realized that her spine was curved.”
Makayla says it didn't affect her much growing up, aside from an annual doctor's appointment. During an appointment in 8th grade though, Makayla and her family got some unexpected and unwelcome news.
“The doctor put up my x-ray and we could all tell that it was a little bit worse than last time,” she said. “And so I obviously got really upset when the doctor told us that I would need surgery.”
Makayla was now looking at an 8-hour procedure where doctors would insert 12 inch rods in her back.
“We were all shocked,” Rebecca Casario said. “The first question she asked the doctor was, ‘will I be able to still golf?’ That was her concern.”
After nearly two months out of school, and six months of recovery, Makayla was cleared to pick up a golf bag again. Now, she was a freshman in high school and had to get comfortable swinging a golf club again. Easier said than done with rods in her back,
“You can feel it and you can tell it’s there,” she said. “You have to swing around it and try to get used to the feeling and get it out of your head.”
Her coach, Eddie Herbst, was there every step of the way. He said it was a gradual process, starting only with rebuilding hand/eye coordination and making contact with the ball.
“Working on making good ball striking,” he said of the primary goal. “From there, it became half swings and then eventually full swings.”
But soon she was back on track, starting for Penn-Trafford's golf team by the following year.
“Once I got it down pat, I slowly improved my swing and worked on it,” she said. “It gets better every time I got out really.”
It’s an attitude Herbst says is a testament to Makayla's drive, both between the tees and mentally, along with her love of the game.
“She never, ever made excuses or complained about it,” Herbst said. “I thought that was pretty good for a little girl. She’s not real big, but she’s got a big heart.”