Seeing his daughters on the court this season is a little more special for Auburn Mountainview girls basketball coach Chris Carr.

After wrapping up last season with a sixth-place finish at the state 3A tournament in February, Coach Carr figured Caitlin and Ally – members of the Lions varsity team – would settle into their usual offseason routine of AAU hoops.

But last April, the family’s foundation was rocked when Caitlin, a senior at Auburn Mountainview, was diagnosed with a blood clot in her leg that required an eight-day stay in the Swedish Medical Center Intensive Care Unit.

In May, Alley was involved in a nearly tragic accident in which the car she was traveling in was broadsided by another vehicle traveling nearly 70 miles per hour.

It’s easy to see why Chris Carr is thankful.

“It was not a spring where you wanted to be around the Carr family very much,” he said.

It all started in April when Caitlin took off for an AAU tournament in Los Angeles.

After a visit to a local college and some open gym time, Caitlin began to experience severe pain in her lower back.

“We thought it was my sciatic nerve,” she said. “So I told my coach and he told me not to play, so I didn’t play the whole tournament. I was icing, taking Advil, stuff like that.”

“She called and said she had back pain,” Chris added. “And being the coach I am, I told her to just be tough and play through it. But she called the next day and said, ‘I just can’t do it.’ So we shut her down and flew her back home.”

Caitlin said the pain had become so severe by the time she landed at Sea-Tac Airport, she could barely walk.

By morning, the pain had subsided, but the leg became swollen, appearing blotchy and purple.

After a couple of trips to different doctors, the Carrs found out that Caitlin had a massive blood clot.

“To hear that the clot went from her stomach to the back of her knee, that was the scariest thing I’d ever heard,” Chris said.

Caitlin was admitted to the Swedish ICU.

“It was pretty intense,” Chris said. “They went in, put a catheter in her knee and dissolved that clot the best they could.”

“It was really scary. I’ve been healthy my whole life,” Caitlin added. “It was just a freak thing. Kids like me don’t get this.”

Caitlin’s condition required three surgeries.

“I went into shock during my last surgery,” she said. “I had a 104 temperature, and they couldn’t stabilize me. I literally thought I was going to die. I guess I woke up and asked if I was going to die, but I don’t even remember saying that to my family.”

“I spent a few nights in the hospital with her, me and my wife split it, and I don’t think I ever had one thought of basketball or anything else,” Chris said. “I was just hoping she’d recover.”

Caitlin eventually was released from the hospital, taking blood thinners to make sure the vestiges of the clot dissolved.

Not long after her release, however, the family got another reminder of how precious life can be when Ally, now a junior, and the car she was riding in was hit by another car in an intersection.

“Thank God, the (phone) call was from her and no one else,” Chris said. “I got there and the accident had just sheared a utility pole in half. The firefighter said he’d never seen an accident this bad that nobody died in.”

Although shaken, Ally was able to continue with her summer routine. Caitlin, however, had to limit her physical activity.

Caitlin eventually returned to top form. The Lions travelled to Phoenix over the holiday break to play in the Nike Tournament of Champions.

“She’s just now starting to get to a point where she’s healthy,” Chris said. “It’s been a long, long road for her to get back.”

Caitlin led the team in scoring, at more than 23 points per game, as the Lions went 1-3 in the desert.

“We just looked at it as an opportunity to compete with some of the best teams in the nation,” Caitlin said. “And I think we did compete. We could have gone 3-1. But if you look at the big picture, we got better.”

And no matter how the Lions do this season, Caitlin is just happy to be back on the court having fun.

“It was really life changing for me,” Caitlin said. “When I got back and was able to start playing and working out, it was so much better than sitting in ICU. I’ve just become more thankful. I just like playing ball with my friends. I’m just playing for fun now.”