Avery Beckering began her junior season at Southwest Christian High School already in pain. In 2025, she played in the summer with a sore right shoulder. Then, she started her high school season with an ankle sprain, and she hoped the time off would also let her shoulder rest.
Instead, the shoulder injury lingered, and Beckering learned she had a stress fracture.
She wasn’t cleared to play until the Section 2AA final in October, yet she led the Stars to a win and the 2025 MSHSL state tournament, where they won the consolation bracket.
But there was little rest for Beckering. She jumped back into club volleyball with Northern Lights, and in February, she felt discomfort in her back. She was in Omaha, Nebraska, when she played through more pain, and after a tournament championship match, she knew something was wrong.
Beckering woke up the next day and could “barely get out of bed.” She had a stress fracture in her back, and she had to be in a brace for four months.
Two consecutive stress fractures meant Beckering spent most of her junior year at Southwest Christian and club season injured, but during the time off, she committed to injury management and prevention. She studied the game from the bench. Now Beckering has been healthy all senior season, and the Stars (20-6) are No. 1 in Class 2A, and they have aspirations to win a state championship.
“I’m grateful to be on the court no matter how we’re doing,” Beckering said. “But it’s another factor that makes me want it to be a good season and win state.”
Beckering, an outside hitter, leads the team in kills with 315 and a kill percentage of .314. She was named the MVP at the Class 2A Minnesota Showcase, which included many of the top Class 2A teams. Despite her absences due to injury, Beckering earned a scholarship and is committed to Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.
“With the injuries she’s had to face, her ability to jump back and hang with some of the top kids in our state speaks volumes about her ability to play the sport,” Northern Lights U-17s head coach Summer Garr said. “She’s got a natural ability to be able to read the sport well and to be able to take coaching and feedback and apply it really fast.”
Stress fractures can occur with repetitive movements and when muscles are too tired to absorb impact, so instead, the bones do. Growth plates are also softer than bone, so they can be more prone to overuse injuries.
Beckering plays volleyball year-round, and she also underwent a growth spurt early in her high school career. She was 5 feet 6 inches tall as a freshman. By sophomore year, she was 6 feet tall. Because of her growth spurt, she gained more attention from Division I colleges, but her health habits had not caught up yet, especially her diet.
Some days, Beckering “forgot to pack a lunch, so I just grabbed a snack.”
During her shoulder recovery, Beckering and her family consulted with a dietitian, who emphasized carbs and protein. She was not allowed to lift her arm above her head. She was told to limit workouts, and she went to physical therapy. Then the back injury came, and she wondered what her future in volleyball might be.
“Is this something I’m going to continue to do if I am going to keep getting injured like this?” Beckering said. “After my shoulder, my confidence was coming back, but I just got hit again. That was really hard. Four months seems like a long time to sit out.”
Her back injury also required more physical therapy and neutral-pine exercises such as dead bugs to strengthen the muscles around the back. She progressed to rotating her core and working on deep core exercises to support the back. She was allowed to work on ball handling and control by bouncing a volleyball into a wall.
Her two injuries forced her to sit during a critical time when athletes build skills and chemistry with teammates.
“Practices were hard,” Beckering said. “I couldn’t do anything. I was just watching, basically. I was able to help a little bit with skill stuff.”
Her task was to recover, but it was also to support teammates and improve her game through observation. She read defenses and communicated with fellow outside hitters about what was open. She observed how her teammates interacted and what feedback worked and what didn’t. She saw that every member of the team contributes.
“I’ve learned a lot about being a good teammate and what it means to help the team off the court,” Beckering said. “This year, we’ve talked about accountability, and we have such good people that might not have as many roles on the court, but it’s given me an appreciation for them as teammates and people because I understand what it’s like to be there, and to see how hard they’re working to keep our team engaged.”
Her teammates have noticed a tangible difference in her feedback this season.
“A lot of people in huddles, they’d be like, ‘Good job, you got this,’” Southwest Christian junior Anna Brunsberg said. “But she has really good information that’s going to help us score.”
First-year head coach Coral Hangge knows that the best chance the Stars have of winning a section and state championship are to keep Beckering and the team healthy, but they need to be prepared for intense competition late in the season too.
“The kids know the time in the gym is super valuable,” Hangge said. “We try to get their bodies rested by getting some additional tools. We feed them nonstop, and it’s so great.”
The team had ice cream before a 2-0 win against Maple Grove in tournament play on Oct. 10, and it has massage guns and other ways to aid recovery. Beckering sits out of some drills during busy weeks. She continues with her physical therapy and strength training to prevent another injury.
“I still have a lot of mental blocks I wrestle through with the aches and pains that I have,” Beckering said. “‘Oh, am I going to get shut down again. Is this going to be a really big injury, or is this just muscular?’”
All the work to prepare herself is worth it for one final chance at a championship with Southwest Christian.
“There’s a lot more urgency,” Beckering said. “We’ve had a lot of success this season, but mostly I’ve been so grateful to get to play again.”
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