Madelyn Wilson thrilled to be granted extra year of eligibility at Apex Friendship after overcoming cancer

By Kyle Morton, HighSchoolOT producer

Apex, N.C. — There are some people who run into obstacle after obstacle while pursuing their dreams.

For some of those people, those obstacles come at far too young of an age.

Madelyn Wilson of Apex Friendship is one of those people, and she's overcome two battles with Hodgkin's lymphoma to keep her dream of playing volleyball in college alive.

Wilson, the winner of the Stuart Scott Courage Award at HighSchoolOT Honors in 2019, had to put off her 2020 graduation after treatments for her relapse with cancer severely weakened her immune system.

A stem cell transplant, six weeks of radiation and another round of chemotherapy took Wilson out of volleyball for another year.

In the fall of 2019, she was taking part in remote learning before it would become the norm for other students in 2020.

The treatments were successful. The cancer went away and has stayed away for over a year now, and the possibility of playing competitive volleyball again came back.

Wilson hoped to return to playing club volleyball in 2020 in pursuit of a college opportunity.

"Volleyball is the one thing that's sort of gotten me through everything," Wilson said. "My goal has always been to play in college, so that fixation and that drive to reach that goal is sort of what got me through."

Early in the year, though, her father Tony, an assistant principal at Apex Friendship, recognized another possibility -- another year of eligibility to play for the Patriots.

The N.C. High School Athletic Association has a hardship process that is not often used through which students can apply for an extra year.

The appeal was successful, and things were looking good for Wilson to get a second chance at a senior volleyball season in 2020.

Then the pandemic happened, and eventually, the fall season was in question.

To come so far and have everything thrown back in to question was a difficult thing to accept.

"It was super upsetting," Wilson said. "I didn't know if I would even be able to play after we went through the whole process of getting the eligibility."

But the hope was still alive, and when the NCHSAA put a plan together to allow almost every sport to get a season in, it began to feel real again.

"The fact that the state has made it so that we can play and practice, it's been awesome," she added.

But even with the pieces all in place, the so-called new normal for high school sports has proven to be a challenge, though certainly a worthwhile one.

Wilson's situation is unique, but she's not the only student athlete at a heightened risk of COVID-19 due to her weakened immune system.

"There's sort of respect for the fact that we get a chance to play," she said. "It's an opportunity that we have to cherish... we're very disciplined to the Covid rules and respecting each other. I think that's the one thing that's giving us this opportunity to play and stay healthy."

So far, all of the protocols, precautions and waiting has proven to be worth it. The Patriots are unbeaten at 4-0, tied with Holly Springs for first place in the South Wake Athletic 4A Conference.

Wilson is second on the team with 24 kills, a key cog in Friendship's strong offensive attack.

"The team this year at Friendship is amazing," Wilson said. "The talent that we have is incredible, and my teammates are some of my really good friends... just the opportunity to play with these girls means the world."