- April 25, 2024
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WINTER GARDEN Eighteen years ago this Saturday, Courtney Earp made her grand entrance into this world alongside her twin brother, Chandler.
Weighing just 4 pounds that day, she was petite, but she was a fighter, as her parents Ken and Jeanne recall. As she readies to graduate high school in the coming weeks, that much, at least, has not changed.
Courtney had a strong senior season on the tennis team at West Orange High this spring — a season during which the Warriors advanced to the regional playoffs. As the Warriors’ Line 2 player in singles and a part of the Line 1 doubles team, she lost just once this season as an individual, finishing 7-1.
Her head coach at West Orange, Marilyne Ross, said she was the team’s most valuable player this spring. An impressive recognition on its own, it is even more so when considering the road Courtney took to get back on the court.
After a cancerous tumor was discovered in her left lung in December 2015, the then-junior spent five weeks in the hospital and missed her entire junior season. Despite that setback — and the scare that came with it — Courtney remained the same petite fighter she has always been.
“She’s super strong,” Jeanne Earp said. “She had to go through so much, and she’s always been a fighter. She was born little … and she’s always been strong.”
The first signs of the tumor surfaced in summer 2015, when Courtney began coughing up blood.
“At first, I didn’t think it was anything serious, (because) I was a pretty healthy person,” Courtney said.
Eventually, she did bring it to her parents’ attention, and doctors initially responded by prescribing antibiotics and giving her an inhaler. For a time, that seemed to do the trick.
Bu when she began coughing up blood again around Halloween, the Earps decided to seek more extensive testing. After trips to several specialists, the culprit was finally discovered on Dec. 8, 2015: a cancerous mass in her left lung.
“I feel like God gives you what you can handle; but it was tough. You look back and you don’t know how you did it. (Courtney) exudes the strength, and so we got it from her.”
— Jeanne Earp, mother
“I was kind of just shocked and frozen at first,” Courtney said, recalling when she was given the news from her doctor. “My parents were outside talking to the doctors, and I was just sitting on the hospital bed like, ‘Oh my gosh.’”
Courtney endured five surgeries as doctors removed the cancerous tumor and also tried to save the other lobe in her left lung. Through it all, the Earps leaned on both the staff at Florida Hospital, which Ken Earp complimented as doing “an amazing job” — and one another.
“I feel like God gives you what you can handle; but it was tough,” Jeanne Earp said. “You look back and you don’t know how you did it. (Courtney) exudes the strength, and so we got it from her.”
Indeed, Courtney rarely sulked about what had happened, instead making friends with the many nurses who attended to her.
“She had remarkable strength,” Ken Earp said.
After five surgeries in as many weeks, Courtney Earp was discharged to come home Jan. 14, 2016. At that point, the first priority was to get back on track with her schoolwork, and she was home-schooled for the rest of her junior year.
About two months after being discharged, Courtney began easing her way back onto the court — at first just helping her mother Jeanne, who is a tennis instructor, as she gave lessons.
Courtney, whose weight had dipped as low as 85 pounds while in the hospital, recalls feeling flimsy and needing to focus on building her strength back up.
“Courtney’s game is one of consistency. She returns practically every ball thrown at her, and she can wear down an opponent.”
— Marilyne Ross, coach
Last summer, she began to train more regularly and into the fall, she set the stage for her return to the varsity team at West Orange, all the while maintaining a 4.2 GPA and also being an officer for the school’s band.
When she returned to the team, she was pleasantly surprised to be named the team’s Line 3.
“I didn’t really think I could get back to where I was,” Courtney said.
It was no pity move, either. Courtney played well her senior season, using a methodical approach to defeat opponents.
“Courtney’s game is one of consistency,” Ross said. “She returns practically every ball thrown at her, and she can wear down an opponent.”
The Warriors’ season eventually ended April 18 with a 4-1 loss to Winter Park in the FHSAA Class 4A Regional First-Round Match, but even then it was Courtney who scored West Orange’s sole victory of the day.
Now, Courtney is preparing to graduate and begin her next journey as a college student at the University of Central Florida this fall. She is excited to continue to play tennis as a recreational outlet and credits her family for helping her retain her love for the game through a tough time.
“(Their support) was everything,” Courtney said.
“It impacted me in a positive way. I believe everything happens for a reason. I think it built my character a lot.”
— Courtney Earp
Courtney will return to the doctor at predetermined intervals so she can be sure that the cancerous cells have not returned, but she is not angry about that, or really any of what happened. Courtney takes a glass-half-full long view of her health scare.
“It impacted me in a positive way,” she said. “I believe everything happens for a reason. I think it built my character a lot.”
Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].
