When Kristina Hilberth was involved in a head-on collision during her freshman year of high school, she was told that she could never play sports again.
Both cars were totaled. Her neck and back were so severely injured that Hilberth, who played five sports in high school, was told that taking the softball field, stepping back onto the volleyball court and running track again would be impossible.
That wasn't an option for her.
"I was determined to come back," Hilberth said. "I was like, 'I gotta keep playing.'"
She made the best of her situation, attending physical therapy in an effort to return to full health and telling herself she had to keep playing.
The following summer, she was back on the field.
Despite the accident and a few setbacks early in her college career, Hilberth - now a senior and the starting catcher for the UF softball team - considers herself lucky for having the career that she's had.
"I'm just grateful for what God's given me and the opportunities that I've had, and I'm taking advantage of them," she said. "I'm not going to look back and say I should have tried harder, I should have enjoyed it more, I should have worked harder. None of those things will be something I'll look back and regret."
Her coaches and teammates describe her as the ideal player, the kind every squad must have, and as someone who does all the little things to improve herself and those around her.
"It's just the spark she has for the game," catcher Tiffany DeFelice said. "She really loves being out here. She loves the team. She loves what we do here day in and day out. It's just her love for the game and her loving to be here that really gets her going every single day."
Once a walk-on freshman buried at the bottom of the depth chart, Hilberth has found success through hard work, determination and her ability to take full advantage of the opportunities she has been given.
Catching a Break
When Hilberth stepped on the field for her first fall practice at UF, she wasn't in an enviable position: She was fifth on the depth chart.
"Of course you don't want to be fifth-string catcher, but at least I wasn't no-string catcher," she said.
Hilberth, who didn't officially decide to play college softball until after her junior year of high school, took that attitude into the fall preseason. By December, she had worked her way up to No. 2 behind Kristen Butler, the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 2006.
Butler took Hilberth under her wing, teaching her the mechanics of catching in practice, pulling her aside after games and explaining why she made certain calls.
"Even when she wasn't playing, she'd pick up on little things from Kristen, and the improvement from when she came in to after that first year - then especially after the second year - was immense," senior pitcher Stacey Nelson said.
Mary Ratliff, who played for UF from 2005 to 2008 and now serves as the student coach, said Hilberth probably worked harder than anyone on the team at the time, looking for ways to improve her game and see more time in the lineup.
While Hilberth waited behind Butler as the second-string catcher, she found other opportunities to work her way onto the field.
Coach Tim Walton, then in his first year at UF, liked her as a slap hitter, so Hilberth worked on improving that aspect of her game. She had to switch to the left side of the plate to become a slap hitter, but she was up to the challenge.
"When your coach has confidence in your swing, that's when you know you're going to get more at-bats," Hilberth said. "So I knew that since he had more confidence in my slap, that's what I needed to get better at."
With that in mind, Hilberth focused on getting faster, running and jump-roping "all the time" during the summer between her sophomore and junior years. If she improved her speed, she would become a more effective slap hitter, and the reward for becoming a reliable hitter would be more time in the field.
It may not have been the most direct path to playing time, but it was another example of Hilberth's willingness to fill whatever role her coach and the team needed.
"She's one of those people who never really cuts corners," Ratliff said. "She just puts her nose to the grindstone and works hard at everything she does."
Although her outstanding work ethic has not gone unnoticed by those around her, Hilberth's consistent production as a hitter and catcher has been relatively unheralded during her time at UF.
Away from the Limelight
Hilberth's favorite player - for whom she wears her No. 31 jersey - is Mike Piazza, a former MLB catcher and a 12-time All-Star.
Piazza became Hilberth's baseball idol when she was 6 years old and living in California. Hilberth and her parents attended a Los Angeles Dodgers game, Piazza's first at Dodger Stadium. Fans mercilessly booed the rookie because of the controversy surrounding his draft selection and his personal connection to then-manager Tommy Lasorda.
"I was like, 'Mom, why are they booing him?'" Hilberth said. "I felt bad for him, and I was like, 'That's my new favorite player.'"
Hilberth later requested autographs from Piazza two days in a row during spring training in Florida.
By the second day, Piazza not only remembered her name, but also that it was spelled with a 'K.'
"That pretty much made my life and sealed the deal that he would be my favorite player forever," Hilberth said.
Like Piazza, Hilberth has had to deal with being underappreciated throughout her career. Hilberth doesn't play particularly glamorous roles on either side of the ball. Despite being a part of every play, catchers are generally overlooked, and as a slap hitter, she has yet to hit a home run at UF.
"I think underappreciated is a good term just because, at the end of the day, people don't see the little things she did all day that won us the game," Nelson said. "It's not an exaggeration when I say that she's the one making strikeouts look good."
Even her father, Kamill, didn't fully understand his daughter's contribution at first. When he and Hilberth were visiting UF for her recruiting trip, he asked two questions. As a concerned parent, he wanted to know if his daughter would be able to continue attending church. The answer to that question was yes, much to his relief.
His second question, however, has been answered on the field.
"He said, 'No. 2, will she ever be able to hit away righty again?' And I was like, 'Dad, come on.' He didn't get the small game," Hilberth said. "Now he does. He's like, 'Great job getting on base.' But just like most people say the longball is the exciting part - and it is exciting - there are different roles for different players on each team."
If people hadn't already noticed what Hilberth brought to the team, she has shown her full potential in every part of her game this season.
'Playmaker' and Leader
In 2007, Hilberth's teammates granted her the nickname "Playmaker" - perhaps an unusual nickname for a slap-hitting catcher. However, she had established herself as someone who could step up and come through when the team needed her, whether with a conventional play or not.
"All the good teams have a player like that who doesn't get caught up in themselves," Walton said. "That's a true definition of her character and personality - somebody who always flies underneath the radar, but by the time she's gone, you really say, 'Wow, I really appreciate the job that she's done.'"
This season, Hilberth has already turned heads with her offensive production, batting .381 through 45 games and driving in more runs during UF's first 30 games than she did in the entire 2008 season.
In addition to making plays at the plate and behind it, Hilberth has also stepped up as a leader for her team.
She began to learn how to function as a leader during her freshman season, when she saw her older teammates approach players the right and wrong ways.
"Identifying how every one of my teammates responds to different encouragement and different leadership is one of the biggest parts of becoming a leader on this team. You can't use the same thing for all the players on the team," Hilberth said.
"We don't need a rah-rah type leader. We just need someone to make sure we're still on that right path."
Hilberth's teammates praise her leadership, noting her ability to correct their mistakes on the field without being condescending and her willingness to help them with off-the-field problems, including anything from injuries to homework.
Left fielder Francesca Enea has benefited from Hilberth's guidance and friendship. When Enea's ACL was torn in the middle of the 2007 season, Hilberth was constantly checking in on her teammate's health.
"She was always like, 'How are your knees?' And I was like, 'I'm fine, I'm not the one catching. How are your knees?'" Enea said. "She always wants to make sure everyone on the team is doing good and feeling good."
With the end of her career at UF quickly approaching, Hilberth said she is trying to appreciate everything around her - the time spent with her teammates, the bullpen sessions with Nelson, the things she has already accomplished - and the opportunities she has been given.
"I'm just really grateful that I have that view I have right now to take a step back and look at what I have right now and not take it for granted," Hilberth said.
"Because there is nobody who was the starting catcher for the first Super Regional besides me at the University of Florida. There's nobody besides me who was the starting catcher for our first World Series game. Those things mean more to me than anything else as far as our accomplishments."
If Hilberth and her team accomplish the goals they set at the beginning of this season, she will be able to add one more first to her list: the starting catcher on UF's first national champion softball team.
