Omaha softball coach's skull was fractured by foul ball. Here's how she got back in the dugout

The Flames were working on defense, getting ready to face a team that favors slap hits and bunts.

"We are more big hitters," said Carolyn Todd Bray, the softball team's head coach, watching closely while her husband, also the team's assistant coach, ran the drill and players scooped up balls and flung them around the infield.

After last year's difficulties on and off the field, the coaches and players on this year's St. Mary squad say they feel mostly back to normal, with one exception: Instead of being out on the field, Carolyn Todd Bray now spends most of her time coaching from the dugout.

But her presence alone is a testament to the team's journey of injury and recovery, of bonds and choices made, of determination and resilience for coaches and players alike, no matter the wins or losses the team records this season.

The trials began during a spring break game last year in Florida. While coaching third base, Carolyn Todd Bray, 49, was struck in the right temple by a line drive foul ball batted by one of her own players. Bray spun and dropped, striking the other side of her face, knocked out cold in front of the Flames' dugout.

Chad Bray sprinted to his wife's side. Other officials followed. Jen Miller, a friend of Carolyn Todd Bray's from their coaching days in Minnesota who was on the trip, later told him she initially thought Carolyn was dead. 

Carolyn regained consciousness soon after, as her players watched, and was taken by ambulance to the Orlando Trauma Center. 

Chad Bray had a decision to make: Go with his wife, or stay with the the team, who also needed his support. He knew what his wife would want. His parents, who spend winter months in Florida, were at the field and went instead. 

Carolyn suffered fractures to her skull, temple, cheekbone and both orbital rims as well as a small brain bleed. 

During the following months, she battled through headaches, a concussion and, as the result of the fall, some neck issues that initially caused difficulty walking. Through it all, she was determined to get back to her team. She credited her husband of 27 years, college staff members and friends with helping her make the journey.  

In December, Carolyn Todd Bray received the National Fastpitch Coaches Association's 2024 Donna Newbury "Perseverance" Award. It recognizes a member coach who has demonstrated extraordinary strength of will and character in the fight to overcome a physical, mental or social adversity that presented an additional challenge to the already demanding job of coaching. She received a standing ovation from the nearly 2,000 people in attendance at the organization's national convention in Dallas.

Chad Bray, who alternated between caring for his wife, teaching math at Millard North High School and coaching the team in the weeks after her injury, was named the association's Assistant Coach of the Year for the NAIA division. College of St. Mary officials presented the awards again at the Flames' recent home opener.

'We need to start playing'

The road back hasn't always been easy, however, for either the Brays or the team. After winning two of their games in Florida, they lost the next 17. 

"At some point, we had to say to the team, 'OK, these other teams don't feel sorry for us ..." Carolyn Todd Bray said. "We need to start playing." 

They won a game in mid-April and then a couple more. "It sucked," she said, "... because we had a horrible record, but our (athletic director) was just happy we were playing at this point." 

Flames catcher Paige Stuck, now a fifth-year player, thanks to two shoulder surgeries, said she doesn't remember a lot of the losses last year. 

Getting through their coach's injury and recovery was hard, she said, but it put a lot of life into perspective. The team built strong ties, and they had good times, even on the 2024 trip. During this year's spring break trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama, the team joked their way through 24 hours stuck in an airport.  

"This is life," said Stuck, now a student in the college's occupational therapy doctoral program. "This is friendship, this is memories."

'A scary situation'

During the second day of tournament play in Florida last spring, Carolyn Todd Bray was standing closer to third base than usual because the team had runner on second.

Macy Santoni, a then-freshman from Omaha who has been on ballfields since starting T-ball at age five, swung and connected.

Bray, wearing sunglasses and a visor, turned her face to the left and put her hand out. The ball went over her fingertips and struck her temple. She figures the glasses saved her from worse injury.

After she came to, Chad Bray said, his wife began exhorting him to get her off the field. He and others seated her on a bucket. At some point, someone ushered the players out of the dugout and they reunited with their parents. 

An ambulance arrived and loaded Carolyn on a gurney. Initially, emergency responders were going to take her to another facility. But in the parking lot, they decided to go to the trauma center.

Chad Bray said he began second-guessing his decision at that point, questioning whether he should be going with his wife. But he'd seen the faces of the team members and knew they needed him to stay. And the fact that his parents could go helped ease his mind. 

After she left, Santoni recalled that Bray checked on her, told her it was OK and asked how she was doing.

"It's a scary situation," she said. " ... Him checking on me and making sure I was OK did mean a lot."

Then the team had its own choice to make: Did they want to forfeit or keep playing?

According to team legend, Stuck replied, "Coach would be pissed if they quit."  

Playing on

They took the field. Santoni was still at bat. She hit into an out but received a standing ovation from everyone at the softball complex. 

The Flames won that game and another later in the day. The players returned to their lodgings and Bray went to the trauma center, where he spent the night and the next day, which was an off day. For the remainder of the trip, he spend his days coaching and his nights at the hospital with his wife while parents, friends and Rick Pruett, the college's associate athletic director and head volleyball coach, helped with the team. 

At the end of the trip, the team flew back to Omaha. While Carolyn's brain bleed had stabilized, it meant she couldn't fly. Miller rented a car and the three drove back instead.

Back in Omaha, Carolyn began making the rounds of five different doctors, including a concussion specialist. College colleagues helped drive her to appointments. While she hasn't suffered any lasting cognitive impairment, she did require physical therapy.

One early exercise, Chad Bray said, required her to follow lights as they appeared on the floor. It was slow going, and frustrating for a woman too competitive for golf, a game that takes time to perfect. 

"That was really hard to watch, the recovery period ... seeing her not be able to function," he said.

But she made progress and kept updating the team with the app they use to communicate, the same one he had used to share information with them while Carolyn was hospitalized. Because many of the players are studying to be health care professionals, they posed questions a typical college student wouldn't know to ask. 

"Every time they got an update where there was some positive improvement, it just took a little bit more weight off their shoulders," Chad Bray said. "I think mentally, emotionally, the team slowly healed as Carolyn slowly healed physically."

Returning to the field

But Carolyn was eager to return to her team. For her first visit, Chad Bray arranged for handlers with Pups with a Purpose, an Omaha organization that specializes in therapy dog training, to bring in therapy dogs. Carolyn's eyes were still black and she needed help to walk to the field, but players lined up to hug her and play with the dogs. Their presence softened the situation.

Chad Bray said the experience solidified another decision. The couple got a mini-Bernedoodle in August. The team voted to name him Dewey, an homage to the Brays' favorite soda — Mountain Dew.

Dewey, who's now in training to become a therapy dog himself, typically accompanies Carolyn to practices and to her office. Players have come to take him for a time if she has a meeting. Recently, a team member who'd had a tough test asked to take him for walk. Athletes from other teams stop in to see him, too.

"We all love Dewey," said Santoni, an elementary and special education major. "He's kind of our break away from softball ... He's like our moral support." 

Carolyn could only work a limited number of hours at first, so she had to be strategic with her schedule. But she felt that she needed to be with the team for their recovery. At the time, she cried a lot. It's a common side effect of a concussion but not something she often does otherwise. She also saw a therapist at the recommendation of her concussion specialist. 

"For me, the crying was just the guilt," she said. "I know it wasn't my fault, (but) I'm sitting there and I'm not being able to do what I'm supposed to be doing for my team."

She returned to the field this fall. Her doctors had warned her that her skull fracture wouldn't be fully healed for at least a year, although there's no exact timeline. So she's had to be careful. Players have been protective, keeping a close eye on stray balls. She has considered getting a helmet. But those required for coaching third base in baseball have no side or ear protection. 

So Carolyn has spent more time in the dugout, as Division I softball coaches largely do. Chad Bray said it's worked well. "I feel like it's maybe better to have you in the dugout talking to the players," he told his wife. 

The team also has been using technology that allows coaches to send messages from a tablet to players' watches. For now, he said, it's only allowed on defense. Carolyn uses it to call pitches. But the NAIA will allow it on offense next year.

While the team's record this year hasn't been what a coach with a softball tattoo on her ankle would like, there are positives. The players are making lifelong friends, as she did. Three of her former college teammates came to watch when the team played in Davenport, Iowa, earlier this spring. 

"You can see the maturity," she said. "They're dealing with so much with classes and their futures and the stress of what they're going to do with their lives. It's so cool to have 20 athletes who are there for each other. We talk a lot about women empowering women and how cool (it is) to be able to do it through the sport of softball."