KU's Price shining in senior season after overcoming tragedy
LAWRENCE (KSNT) - College has been anything but easy for KU softball's Angela Price.
Price, a current senior, is having the best season of her collegiate career, but the path to the present included a few curveballs. It's taken a years-long battle through the lows to get to the current highs.
Her freshman season was promising, but everything changed during her sophomore year. Price received a phone call from her roommate, telling her to call her sister. Once Price connected with her sister, she learned her father had passed away in a motorcycle accident.
"My mom was also on the motorcycle," Price said. "My dad died instantly and my mom was life lighted."
Angela traveled home to Arkansas, missing a month of school to help her sister take care of her mom. She recalled how her mom's room at home turned into what seemed like a 'hospital room,' and she and her sister became the makeshift nurses.
When she did return to Lawrence, she wasn't ready to leave to her mom, which showed in both her personal life and on the field.
"There were a lot of days when Angela didn't know if she was going to come back [to the team]," KU head softball coach Jennifer McFalls said. "And didn't know if she was going to be at KU, didn't now if she wanted to play softball anymore."
McFalls was one of the forces that played a huge role in pulling Price back to the surface. When days got tough, Price would call her coach to talk or even come over to her house and visit. The two spent time togethe on McFalls' couch, and one time she served breakfast to Price and a teammate.
Angela's close bond with her coach kept her level yet again during her junior year, when she tore her UCL. Tommy John surgery set her back essentially a whole year, as she was cleared only to run bases halfway through her third season with KU.
"It was like two years, which is a big chunk of a college career, of being restricted by something," Price said.
Fast forward to her senior season, and the Jayhawk senior says she's finally feeling, and playing, 'free.' She's posting a career-best in every stat category, batting over .300 with double-digit RBIs, and even knocked her first career home run for a go-ahead win at Texas Tech in mid-April.
"Just her energy and her commitment to her senior year, to being the best version of Angela Price she can be has just played out," McFalls said.
"Honoring my dad's life is the biggest fire in my belly, and what's keeping me going," Price said.
This story aired in Sunday night's K-Nation. Click here for the full episode. Click here for more K-Nation content.