REGIONS/GRASSR OO TS Marley’s medical miracle
Jacksonville Juniors star defies the odds to return to the court after dealing with brain tumor
of our high school tournaments, I was actually just walking to the end line to serve and right as I turned around to look at the court, I fell to the ground and couldn’t see anything. I felt extremely embarrassed at the time and I felt that the other players thought I was over exaggerating the issue. My coaches, teammates, and parents all believed I wasn’t hydrated, but I knew this wasn’t the issue.” Banton was a JJVA gym rat since she was
Following risky brain surgery, Marley Banton reveled in the good news flanked by parents Ted and Amy.
MARLEY BANTON, 15, HAS BEAT THE odds to quickly resume playing volleyball when many in the medical profession thought otherwise. Banton, an outside hitter/defensive special-
ist at Jacksonville Juniors Volleyball Academy (JJVA) in Florida, felt odd and out of sorts while playing outside hitter at Pedro Menendez High School during the fall of 2015. She and others assumed that the culprit was low blood sugar, a virus or just plain tiredness. Doctors thought she may have been anemic. As a freshman, Banton earned a starting outside hitter spot for Menendez High School in 2015 and played a variety of positions including libero, defensive specialist and op- posite. She led her team in kills, digs and aces, earning her a spot on
PrepVolleyball.com’s Fab Frosh 59 honorable mention list and the web publication’s Defensive Dandies honorable mention. Banton also earned all-conference and all-county, despite playing with her ‘virus, low blood sugar’ condition. At the same time, Banton noticed her handwriting was not as neat and she would often miss a step or trip. She asked her prep coach if she could switch to playing libero after missing the ball on a few sets. Banton also stopped her wicked jump serve as she felt she could not find the ball. “My freshman year I was realizing that my connections with the ball when serving or hit- ting were not the same,” Banton said. “Usually I am not afraid to dive for a ball, but I got to the point where I was very cautious when mak- ing a move. Every time I’d dive or turn around fast I would get extremely dizzy and fall to the ground. My head would start throbbing in pain and I would completely black out. During one
eight. She played beach volleyball with her younger sister, Ashlyn, for several years. In fact, the duo were the subject of a DiG
Magazine article in 2011 for their exploits on the Florida Junior Beach Tour. When Marley was asked for that story if she would like to play a match with Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings or simply have lunch with the superstars, she said. “Either, we like to eat, too.” Banton was accustomed to playing through small injuries, illnesses and tired- ness. Banton was considered a hearty, strong and fit athlete. But her recent con- dition was something she had never faced before. Banton did not share all that was happening to her with many people. As the oldest of five siblings, she took responsibility to fuel her her passion for indoor and beach volleyball by working a part-time job that provided funds for her JJVA dues. But over the course of a few months, Banton knew something was really wrong when she tripped going down stairs and her school grades were suffering. “After months of waking up with massive headaches – to the point I couldn’t stand up without my head pounding and losing my sight – I finally met with a neurologist at Wolfson Children’s Hospital,” Banton said. “He examined me and I had to do strange movements and he realized I didn’t have much control
54 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
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over the right side of my body so we scheduled an MRI. In early November I went back to take this MRI. I was in the machine for about an hour and a half.”
As soon as the MRI was completed, her
life moved into a crisis phase as she finally got an explanation. After her months-long ordeal, doctors finally diagnosed Banton on Nov. 2, 2015, with a pilocytic astrocytoma tumor that had formed in her brain. “As soon as I was done, they told me to grab my clothes and sat me in a wheelchair,” Banton said. “We walked out to the lobby where my dad was standing talking to a doctor and we went to the ER. We were very unsure of what was happening until a doctor came in and started explaining the situation. I was in shock when I saw the MRI scan and he explained that I had a tumor in my cerebellum.” And Banton realized at that moment,
Marley Banton’s expression after receiving the news from the doctor that she was cleared to resume playing volleyball was easy to read. Photos: Banton family.
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