"Lindsey Janikowski was back in familiar surroundings on Thursday night, wearing her No. 11 jersey for the Neenah High School girls' volleyball team. Twenty-two days earlier, Janikowski was playing in a volleyball tournament at Appleton North High School when she suffered a stroke. Slowly but surely, the 17-year-old Janikowski made progress over the next three weeks, and doctors allowed her to come home on Thursday afternoon.
Lindsey made it clear to her mother, Colleen, that she wanted to be with her teammates for their match in Menasha. "I'm part of the team," Lindsey said. "So I wanted to be here."
Except for head coach Bruce Moriarty and fellow senior Kelsie Rankin, none of the Rockets knew that Janikowski would be at Thursday night's match. When she showed up at about 6:30 p.m., they were stunned — and thrilled."
It's so nice to cover happy events with strong news value. What's even more humbling is the fact that the family and people who were in-the-loop on the surprise contacted us to let us know it was happening. We could have never known.
The moment her teammates saw her again for the first time...
Proudly standing with her team again during the national anthem...
And participating in pre-game cheers...
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