Kasey Pastor had good reason to be concerned when her left shoulder started feeling sore while she participated in practices with the Ohio State Swim Club last fall.

Two years earlier, the sophomore on the Canal Winchester High School girls swimming and diving team had experienced similar pain before an X-ray revealed that she had five stress fractures in the same shoulder because of overuse, which forced her to take a four-month hiatus from competing in the sport.

Thus, when she heard a popping sound and experienced searing pain in her left shoulder while climbing a rope during a training session with her club squad in late November, she feared that she had suffered a season-ending injury before her high school season had even started.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh no, please not again,’ because the pain was even worse than the first time I hurt my shoulder, when it was broken in five places and looked like broken glass through the X-ray,” Pastor said. “I was really worried because it was right before the start of my high school season, which I’ve been looking forward to so much.”

Her doctor originally thought she had a torn labrum, but an MRI showed that she instead has shoulder instability, which means the shoulder joint is too loose and moves around too much in the socket, causing inflammation and pain.

Pastor was told to rest her shoulders as much as possible and undergo physical therapy sessions, but she was medically cleared to compete this season.

Julie Pastor, Kasey’s mother and Canal Winchester’s coach, said her daughter has been able to fight through her chronic shoulder pain to become one of the Indians’ leading performers.

“Kasey’s in a lot of pain when she competes, but she’s not a quitter and she’s learned to tolerate it,” coach Pastor said. “If Kasey wasn’t swimming this season, it would really hurt the team because she’s our best butterflyer and one of our top relay swimmers. Her club coach has told her to take it easy, but Kasey said, ‘No, my team needs me,’ and she’s gone out there and competed hard for us.”

Pastor began physical therapy on Jan. 10 with the goal of strengthening her rotator cuff and shoulder blade muscles to make the shoulder more stable.

In the meantime, she continues to experience a various amount of pain every time she competes, especially during her favorite race, the 100-yard butterfly.

After placing eighth in the event in 1 minute, 7.53 seconds in Grandview’s Yule at the Pool on Dec. 17, Pastor was in so much pain that she openly wept after emerging from the water.

But that didn’t stop her from competing in the 100 breaststroke later in the meet, placing seventh in 1:20.61.

“I don’t like crying in front of other people, but that race killed my shoulder and it hurt so bad I couldn’t stop myself afterward,” Pastor said. “Every time I brought my arm around my head, I felt a sharp pain like someone was stabbing or shooting me.”

Regardless of how bad the pain has been, Pastor said she’s never considered bringing her season or career to a premature end.

“I’ve swam my whole life and it’s what I love to do, so quitting now would be pointless,” she said. “I spend 15 to 18 hours a week training in the water and I compete on weekends, and if I were to quit doing it, it would be giving up on a big part of my life. I know that this injury isn’t going to magically go away one day. It is what it is, and I’d rather go through some pain than quit doing what I enjoy doing.”

Pastor isn’t sure if she’s going to be able to reach her goals this season because she hasn’t been able to train properly, but she is hoping to finish the 100 fly in under a minute and qualify for the Division I state meet in the event in the future.

As a freshman, she advanced to the district meet in the 100 fly, placing 25th (1:03.97).

“I dropped four seconds off my 100 fly last year, so I was happy with the progress I made,” Pastor said. “When my shoulder hurts, I have to kick my way through practice, so it stinks that I can’t work on my stroke as much as I want to. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to break a minute this year. But I’m going to do my best and if nothing else, I’m strengthening my shoulder and setting myself up to do well my junior and senior years.”

Despite having her training disrupted, Pastor placed second in the 200 individual medley (2:28.28) and third in the 500 freestyle (personal-record 6:00.32) in the Teays Valley Invitational on Jan. 7.

Pastor, who maintains a 4.0 grade-point average, hopes to continue her swimming career in college and become a physical therapist.

“I want to be a physical therapist because I can relate to it, and I want to help fix other people who are going through what I’ve been through,” she said. “I also want to swim in college because that would mean I’ve found a way to overcome the obstacles that have gotten in my way.”