When Kristy Matthai trots on the field for Westminster this week in the state field hockey tournament, it will be the continuation of a touching story of a driven teen-ager who has overcome a serious eating disorder to pursue a field hockey career.
A little more than two years ago when it was discovered that Matthai had anorexia, she had to decide whether she wanted to remain painfully thin at 5 feet 6, 100 pounds or gain a mandated 15 pounds to play field hockey again.
After many tears, battles with her parents, therapy, working with a nutritionist and doctor, and finally a threat from her mother (Linda) and father (Mike) to put her in an institution, Matthai put on the 15 pounds that would put her back on the field for her sophomore season.
The 15 pounds had been recommended by her doctor to make it safe physically for her to play, and Westminster co-coaches Sue Hooper and Brenda Baker vowed not to let Matthai play until she got up to 115 pounds.
"Hooper and Baker probably deserve as much credit as anybody in pulling Kristy out of this," said Mike Matthai. "Kristy loved field hockey so much that she just couldn't bear the thought of sitting on the sidelines. Nothing my wife or I said seemed to help.
"Kristy was in denial. She had a disease that strikes a lot of overachieving young athletes and models. Our society promotes fitness and being thin, and Kristy was reading every label on food to make sure there was no fat in it."
Matthai, a senior and the leading scorer in Carroll County with 17 goals and four assists, said she still doesn't think she had "that big a problem."
"I didn't want to be a health fanatic, I just wanted to be in the best shape I could and have a good figure," she said.
"But it led to something destructive. I thought I wanted to get rid of fat. I guess [anorexia] is rooted to something else like having control over your own body and what you eat. In high school, I wanted to have freedom, but at 14 to 15 years old, I was under my parents' watchful eye. Your parents are your worst enemy. At least I could control something."
However, Matthai's personality began to change and her friends became worried and went to her parents secretly to talk to them.
This all started to happen at the end of Matthai's freshman year in school and continued over the summer and into her sophomore field hockey season.
"I just wanted to be alone that summer," said Matthai. "I suddenly became introverted and didn't want to see any of my friends."
When Matthai returned to school and went out for the field hockey team after playing on the junior varsity as a freshman, Baker and Hooper looked at her and told her frankly that she looked horrible.
That still didn't shake Matthai up enough to start gaining weight.
"I said, 'fat,' I can't do this," said Matthai. "I told myself I didn't want to gain weight but I wanted to play field hockey. I even hated my nutritionist for telling me what I should eat."
With her daughter still balking, Linda Matthai had a secret meeting with Hooper and Baker to see if they would support the 15-pound weight-gain theory before Matthai could play.
"We said sure, we would do anything to help Kristy," said Hooper. "We kept her on the team but we didn't let her take part in full-scale practices and we didn't let her play for four or five games until she gained the weight. I remember Kristy sitting on the sidelines and drinking milkshakes to gain weight."
Matthai said the threat of being placed in an institution "woke me up" to the possibility of having a problem, but her decision to gain the weight "was all field hockey."
"I really have a desire to play field hockey," she said. "It drives me. I strive to be the best at anything I do."
She has a 3.8 grade-point average, was the No. 1 singles player on Westminster tennis team as a junior and on the No. 1 doubles team as a sophomore, and is now the leading scorer as a senior on the field hockey team.
Playing field hockey and tennis are both strong possibilities for Matthai in college, and she has been talking to Goucher College, Radford, Old Dominion, East Carolina and Catawba.
"My choice of colleges will depend on which one has the best psychology major," she said. "But right now all I want to think about is field hockey and our chances of winning a state title for the first time in three years."
As for the anorexia, Matthai said she now can joke about it with her coaches.
"Every time I get hyper, Hooper and Baker say, 'Oh no, here we go again,' " she said.
For Mike and Linda Matthai, it is a wonderful feeling to see their daughter happy again and playing the sport she loves.
Mike Matthai said: "Linda was super throughout the whole ordeal. She recognized the problem, studied up on it and got help."