Survivor interview: Tory Blyth Campbell
Tory Blyth Campbell played softball for most of her life. She struggled with an injury with a surgery and with that she also struggled with placing her worth on her sport. She is currently an entrepreneur as an event planner and she also does strength training. She loves to inspire young athletes in strength training, speed & agility, and lessons. She is also newly a KC Royals Urban Youth Academy Youth Development Coach. In this podcast we’ll be talking about identifying with your sport, recovering from a major surgery, and being a survivor.
Below I have written most of what we talked about but you can listen to the full podcast on Anchor / Spotify or on Apple Podcasts.
Q: We’ve talked about identifying with our sport. How did you get to the point of placing your worth on softball?
A: My whole life revolved around sports for as long as I can remember. When you find that you’re good at something and you get that recognition from that you’re just like “oh, yeah”.
Since I can remember, I’ve played sports. My mom didn’t want me to get burned out by college so she always said that if I wanted to take a season off I could. Even now at 33 years old I would still play if I could.
Q: How did you get your injury and how did you handle recovery?
A: My freshman year of high school I had my first injury. We didn’t know what was wrong so we assumed this happened over time since I’m an aggressive player. They told me that the next step was back surgery.
For me, at 14 years old, I’m freaking out. Not only was it a back surgery but I was terrified that I was going to lose feeling from my waist down.
They thought it was going to help me but they weren’t sure. To this day I don’t think it did anything. I don’t know if I regret getting the surgery. I have no idea because I never really got closure with what went wrong.
I think I recovered for two weeks and then I was trying out for basketball. It was my second back surgery that was harder on my body.
My second back surgery was June 20th of this year.
My advice to young people that are being told that they need surgery is to look at all your options first. Back surgery and knee surgery was more major for my injuries I would say because going under can be scary.
The biggest issue I had in my college career was my knee injury. I was playing two sports: basketball and softball. It was my freshman year of college about three weeks in. I was scrimmaging with the basketball team and I’m a very competitive person.
I heard my knee crack and I fell. I couldn’t get back up and couldn’t walk. I thought something was torn but long story short I didn’t tear anything.
The doctors told me it would have been better if I just tore it. I was 18 years old and my knee would catch and I couldn’t straighten it.
I came out from behind the plate to become a third baseman. Fast forward to right before the Covid shutdown happened, I had my knee scope.
They found a huge 9 millimeter loose body floating around in my knee. It was getting unmanageable.
I guarantee I’m not the only 33 year old catcher that is dealing with knee issues and back issues.
I try to use what I’ve learned and what I know now to help young athletes prevent injuries.
Q: You are a survivor. How did you get to that hard point in your life, survive it, and what advice do you have for people that may feel the way you felt?
A: When you go through your life as an athlete, that’s your life. I’d never really dealt with injury, even with my back surgery I was out for only 2 weeks.
When I had the injury that basically lost my division one looks, it took a really hard toll on my mental.
I felt like I went from being somebody to being a nobody. I didn’t handle it very well.
A lot of athletes are told to be tough. Well, yeah, in your sport, one hundred percent. Off the field is different.
I wasn’t open with my feelings growing up and I was slipping into a depression. I’m like, who am I?
I’m questioning my whole existence at this point.
I saw that you’re doing a mentorship program and I’m like gosh, to have somebody that can relate to you and just listen to you would be great.
I think the advice is to take advantage of the people you can talk to. You are not the only athlete that has been through this.
You can be the toughest, coldest player in the world and you can struggle with your mental. These problems are not something that you can just brush under. Talking about it and finding some sort of outlet to talk is one hundred percent something that needs to be happening.
Q: What was your journey like going to multiple colleges?
A: I loved it because it was different environments. That was how I always coped with things. It was exciting feeling like people are trying to get to know you and everything is new.
Looking back on it, I wasted a lot of time and money. I went to college to play sports. I respect people who get their degrees but college is not for everybody.
People shouldn’t be looked down upon for not getting their degree. As an athlete, you have to keep up with your school work or sports become a no-go.
I would rather be doing something that truly makes me happy. I really enjoy what I’m doing right now so I don’t feel the need to go back to school.
Q: What do you do for work now and how did you get into that?
A: I am a strength coach for Coach Rogers at Destine Performance.
It started with a conversation at a tailgate where I met him. Just through talking, he mentioned me coming and coaching with him.
Destine offers intro to strength. We also do speed and agility and individual lessons, not just softball. He got me in contact with the Urban Youth Academy with the Kansas City Royals.
We got in there and did a workout with Destine Performance. They asked me to come on their team to coach.
It’s fantastic what they do at that academy. Some kids that can’t make it to Destine will go to the Academy.
I just love being in an environment where I’m able to pour my knowledge into kids who want to get better and be elite athletes.
I own my own business and I’m working in my sport. It is full circle. The best coaches I have ever had tore me down mentally and built me back up better than ever.
They held me accountable. They are the coolest people and I respect them. I use what they’ve taught me in everything I do.
Q: What was the transition out of playing competitive sports like for you? What did you do in your newfound free time?
A: I made a lot of bad choices. I felt like a failure for a long time because I didn’t do what I originally set out to do. My vice was drinking.
I became a bartender. I was good at it and I got recognized for it and I liked that. That is where I wish I wouldn’t have made the choices that I made.
I was drinking 6-7 nights per week but I was making a ton of money.
If I would have had an outlet with someone to talk to about what I was going through back then, I think it would have made my transition way easier or I would have been able to cope with it in a healthier way.
I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was finding reasons to go out and do things. I was trying to stay busy.
My whole life was scheduled for me growing up. As soon as that stops, I’m like, what am I going to do with myself? I’m so used to being busy so I would have 3 or 4 jobs at a time.
Q: What aspect of the transition out of sports was the hardest for you? What advice can you give to athletes on what you learned from that?
A: The hardest is the realization that it’s over with. Some athletes are lucky enough to stay around their sports.
Some athletes I know struggled when it was over and never went back to their sports.
It is time management.
The people that you work with after college at your 9-5 are now your team. I’m an entrepreneur and if I wanted to sit in bed all day, I could, or I could keep myself busy.
My advice is: don’t cold turkey it. There are so many opportunities to be around or involved with your sport. I think that’s when you struggle the most with it if you cold turkey it.
Q: What was one of your favorite moments while competing?
A: Competing in general, I just love it.
I would say probably when I played for the Kansas City White Socks. The second year that I played for them we were one of the top 25 teams in the nation.
The best was when we played in the ASA Hall Of Fame tournament in Oklahoma City.
At the time we were the first midwest team to ever make it to the championship game. I will never forget that because we had killer competition.
I wanted to play the best and it was awesome competition. That was one of the coolest weekends.
That year of softball, we were just so in sync and we were playing really good softball. Playing on that field and just because as a kid you’re like this is where I want to be, this is the field I want to play on. All the elites play here.
If you have any more questions for Tory, please leave comments below or contact me. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call or text the Suicide Hotline. It’s toll free and available 24/7 at 988 or 800-273-8255.
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Are you or someone you know currently struggling with what happens in life after sports? Or did you already go through that transition to life after retiring competitive sports and wish you had more resources and support? Have you ever wondered, “what do athletes do after they are done playing sports? What’s next after sports?” Do you feel like you dedicated so much to your sport and you don’t know what to do now that you’re done competing? You’re not alone. Check out the site and join us in the journey. Once an athlete, always an athlete.
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