Sports Editor As Jillian Crawford hung from near the edge of a 30-foot tall, snow and ice-covered cliff, her right femur fractured and her life literally hanging in the balance, the nine-year-old suddenly was staring down her own mortality.
On the final day of a holiday ski trip to Red River, N.M., the Crawford family had, in an instant, been inserted into their worst nightmare.
“On the last run down the shoot before we went home, I slipped on an icy spot and my ski got stuck in the ground but didn’t pop off, and my leg twisted and I did a roll,” recalled Jillian.
Crawford’s mom, Kim, captured the accident on her cell phone’s video camera. All she could do was watch as her daughter tumbled over and landed helplessly near the edge of a sheer cliff.
Crawford called her husband, Joe, who was nearby, and he rushed to the scene. The family contacted emergency personnel immediately, but no one could get to Jillian for several minutes.
Eventually, a rescue team reached Crawford, stabilized her injured leg and carried her to safety, but Crawford’s trauma was only beginning.
During the helicopter ride and subsequent emergency room visit in Albuquerque, Crawford received an incorrect dosage of morphine and, for a brief time, stopped breathing on her own before being resuscitated.
“That was the scariest moment of our lives,” said Joe Crawford, now the head girls basketball coach at Piedmont High School.
To top it off, the initial surgery to repair the spiral fracture to her femur proved unsuccessful. Throughout the recovery process, which included another procedure to replace the screws that had been inserted into her leg, Crawford lost a significant amount of weight, and she went through a grueling process just to learn how to walk again.
Today, the only visible reminder of the accident is a foot-long scar that runs the length of the Piedmont basketball star’s right thigh. Mentally and spiritually, though, the memory of the accident is with her daily.
“It kickstarted my whole relationship with God, because there were a lot of instances that I could’ve very easily died that day,” she said. “I base everything I do now off my relationship with God and that’s what started it all.”
Crawford dealt with pain for years afterward and remained limited to running short distances, but that didn’t hold her back from claiming a state championship in the 1600-meter run as a sophomore at PHS. She scored 11 points and grabbed almost five rebounds per game for the Lady Wildcats basketball team this season.
“I’m very thankful for the accident, because it’s taught me that you can come back from anything, honestly,” she said. “I was able to win a state championship in the mile. It’s crazy to think that I’m still very blessed athletically after all that happened.”
Crawford will have one final chance to play high school basketball on Saturday when she competes alongside teammate Khloe Carr in the Oklahoma Girls Basketball Coaches Association All-State game at Mustang High School. Former Piedmont coach Eric Carr will serve as head coach for the Large West team, with tip-off set for 3:30 p.m.
Crawford is playing despite still being in recovery from a forearm fracture she suffered in the final game of Piedmont’s season. She’s not fully cleared for basketball activities yet, but if a near-death experience can’t slow her down for long, neither will some pain in her arm.
“When I was younger, I thought I might be set back from everyone with an injury like that,” Crawford said. “I’m very blessed and very thankful.”
“Whether it’s doing backflips off a trampoline or jumping off a cliff, Jillian has no fear,” her dad said.
And, by the way, she also has no hesitations about returning to the slopes again. She had a Spring Break ski trip in the works, but the COVID-19 pandemic halted those plans.
“My parents would not like me to go,” she said then chuckled. “I haven’t been back yet, but I want to. It was the time of my life until the last 30 minutes.”
When Crawford reports to Southern Nazarene University in August to begin her college basketball career, she’ll do so with a unique perspective on life and what really matters to her.
“Most athletes find their identity through their sport and how well they can perform,” she said. “But having (the accident) happen when I was nine, I think I learned that your identity isn’t found in your accomplishments as an athlete. Everything is a lot bigger than basketball. I’m very blessed that I learned that at a young age.”
