“It was frustrating, because he was used to working so hard and getting good results…and he was working just as hard as he ever had, but he wasn’t getting the same results,” says Colleen Crilley, the mother of senior Wando athlete, Frank Crilley, when asked about his work ethic while dealing with tachycardia.
Tachycardia is the diagnosis of someone who experiences a faster heart BPM (Beats Per Minute), which is considered irregular based on someone’s age and their involvement in physical activity. When Frank Crilley took a COVID vaccine in his freshman year of high school, he was athletically involved in sports, one of them being the varsity cross country team. Crilley suddenly started to experience higher heart rates when he participated in any sports.
“I was on the varsity cross country team and running track. Then, I took this covid vaccine and ever since, my heart rate has become really high when I tried to do any physical activity,” Frank said.
Although this put a limit on his athletic abilities, this did not completely set Frank back in sports, as he continued to stay on the Lacrosse field.
“I still play lacrosse, but overall, it’s been a pretty difficult and unfortunate situation that has made it pretty difficult to play sports,” Frank said.
Looking back on when he was a freshman, and comparing it to now as a senior, Frank has been able to adjust to his everyday life while living with tachycardia.
“For a while it was super confusing, because, you know, before I was really fast. Now, I’m not able to keep up with some other people,” Frank said.
In order to maintain his cardiac health, Frank has different precautions that he takes to secure his safety.
“I always wear a running watch if I do any type of cardio. And basically, I just make sure that my heart rate doesn’t shoot up super high, because normally, I could feel it, but then I look at my watch and see that I’m at 20 beats per minute, and you know, I have to slow down because I could die,” Frank said.
Being a high school athlete, the time came where Frank was going to have to break the news about his condition to his coaches, as he reminisces on that moment.
“[The coaches] were kind of confused as well, and I remember showing up with a heart monitor on my chest. But overall, it was just unfortunate, and telling them was a little bit scary, but we were all fine,” Frank said.
Alongside Frank, his loved ones were also affected by his diagnosis, with one of them being his very own mother, Colleen Crilley.
“I think it was initially kind of an acceptance process. A little bit of denial, just because there’s not a lot of firm information out there. It’s kind of, you know [the nurses] best understanding of what was potentially going on,” Colleen said.
Taking it back to where Frank originally started in cross country, Colleen reflects on what caught Frank’s attention that persuaded him to participate in the sport.
“Frank started running cross country in middle school and at the time, his main sport had been lacrosse, and he did continue to play lacrosse at the time, but the area we lived in didn’t have a very strong competitive lacrosse community… Frank had to reinvent himself a bit as far as what he was doing with his sports engagement, and cross country was something that he hadn’t tried yet, and he was willing to give it a try,” Colleen said.
Being one of the main people beside Frank in this whole process, Colleen explains how Frank’s Journey has been very inspirational.
“I think that it is inspirational because he can have that no excuse attitude and, you know, me as a parent, like many working adults, we get very busy and don’t keep up with things that we need to do. But he is committed to participating on the Wando lacrosse team, and he just works at it all, every day. And he also has worked to gain strength that he needed…,” Colleen said.
