Thompson Valley HS athletes, sisters Zoe and Emily Rollins continue to persevere
LOVELAND, Colo. — Thompson Valley High School senior Zoe Rollins says: “I went from dedicating all of my time to volleyball to hearing the doctor say I would not walk again.”
It’s been a long road for her and her older sister Emily, now a freshman at CU in Boulder, since severe injuries from the April 2021 accident turned their worlds upside down.
Emily worked hard to resume playing volleyball her senior year and went on to both state and national competitions with her teams.
Determined to leave the wheelchair, Zoe will not give up. “I cannot let what someone else says determine what the rest of my life is going to look like!”
Emily’s enthusiasm for Craig Rehabilitation Hospital’s collaborative program with non-profit Denver Adaptive Divers carried her (as her sister’s dive buddy) and Zoe to Cayman Brac for a week in May. Neither had ever used scuba equipment before. Ever the competitor, Zoe made four dives a day every day. They both earned their certifications: Emily as an adaptive dive buddy and Zoe as an adaptive diver.
Zoe relished the experience. “I was not expecting to like learning how to dive, but I could do it easily. I could move around by myself without someone holding on to me.”
The Rollins family is amazed and grateful for how the Loveland community rallied around them from the very start of this life-changing journey. Emily and Zoe are examples of what honest to goodness team loyalty truly means.
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