May 9, 2002

By Jack Ferdon
The Santa Clara

On March 25, Sydney Wiginton had what was probably the tastiest Taco Bell of her life.

That is because on February 16 the senior softball player broke her jaw during a game, causing doctors to wire her mouth shut. Wiginton had to subsist for the next five weeks on a diet composed entirely of soup, Jamba Juice and Ensure, which is rarely imbibed by anyone under age 75.

The break occurred when Wiginton, the all-time leader for the Broncos in stolen bases, tried to steal second base against Humboldt State. When she dove headfirst - "I always dive headfirst. It's just the way I play," Wiginton said - for the bag, her face collided with the second baseman's knee, fracturing her jaw.

Wiginton was knocked unconscious, so she does not remember much about the violent collision. But her teammates who witnessed the play will never forget the disturbing sight.

It was pretty shocking," junior shortstop Tracie Hall said. "Her jaw was just hanging there."

Wiginton was rushed to the hospital for X-rays. Initially, the prognosis from her doctors was not good.

"They told me, 'You won't be able to play softball this year,'" Wiginton said.

But the MDs didn't know who they were dealing with. Just as aggressively as she plays softball, Wiginton defiantly ignored their advice that they wait a few weeks before operating and chose instead to undergo the five-hour surgery within a week of the accident.

"I wanted to do the surgery sooner so I could get back to playing softball," she said.

But before that could happen, Wiginton had to endure more than a month with her mouth clamped shut. She took the potentially maddening situation in stride.

"I thought it was kind of funny," Wiginton said. "For me, there's no point in getting upset. There were days when I woke up and said 'This sucks.' But then I realized there's nothing I could do about it."

While the wiring of her jaw limited her diet to liquids, Wiginton's ability to talk was unhindered.

On the phone, people couldn't tell. They'd ask, 'Did you get your jaw opened already?'" she said.

Nor did her wired-shut mouth keep her from attending practice and working out with her teammates.

"She came to all our practices," Hall said. "She was really supportive."

Indeed, on the day her jaw was unwired she raced straight from the hospital to her team's game, making only a brief stop at Taco Bell to get her first solid food in weeks.

Two weeks later, Wiginton was back in the lineup. And ever since, she has been the jaws of life for the Broncos. After her return, Santa Clara won eight of 18 games, which is the best stretch the 21-36 Broncos have had all year.

"She's back out there, playing as hard as she used to," Hall said.

But Santa Clara has lost its last four games, which doesn't bode well for them entering this weekend's season-ending WISL round-robin tournament, featuring Loyola Marymount, San Diego and Saint Mary's. Not that this would faze Wiginton.

"We should be able to take it," she said.

After a broken jaw, nothing can seem too daunting.