By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University men's basketball coach Brett Ballard gets fired up for the start of every new season.
Washburn men's basketball coach Brett Ballard is thankful to start a new season after surviving serious truck crash in August. [File photo/TSN]
But given the events of Aug. 4 and the dramatic recovery that the 46-year-old Ballard has made since that serious accident on I-470 outside of Topeka, the start of preseason workouts and the beginning of official practice for the 2026-2027 season on Oct. 10 hold a special meaning for the highly-successful Ichabod coach.
Doctors determined that Ballard's one-vehicle crash was caused by a neurological episode, and after a week in Stormont Vail Hospital, the very thankful WU coach has spent the past two months recovering and inching back to normalcy.
"Physically I feel probably about back to normal,'' Ballard told TopSports.news on Friday. "I was fortunate from that standpoint. Mentally I'm getting there. There's still a little bit of brain fog, but I feel like I'm tracking in a really good direction, and I'd say if I had to put a percentage on it, I'm probably 85-90 percent.
"The good news is the doctors feel like over the next couple of weeks and couple of months I'll be back to 100 percent. It's just going to take a little time for the brain to heal itself.''
Doctors have continued to keep a close eye on Ballard's recovery but have allowed him to return to the court -- albeit on a limited basis -- for the Ichabods' preseason workouts.
"They limited me for awhile and they've been allowing me to ease back into kind of a fuller load,'' said Ballard, whose Ichabods are coming off a 31-2 season. "I would say coming up this month I'll be back to full time. I'm at about 6 to 7 hours a day right now, then I'll go back up to full speed here in the next couple of weeks. I'll kind of be inching up with that. I've been trying to be careful about making sure I don't come back too quickly.
"It was hard on me when they were holding me back and not letting me do much. It was smart and I understood that, but I'm not a guy that really likes to sit around and not having a routine was kind of tough on me. So getting back into the routine of things has been really good for me.
"And without question I'm as excited about officially starting practice this year as any year. I'm always excited, but it's just a little bit different feeling this year and being able to get back in a routine is really nice.''
OUT OF THE BLUE
Ballard, who has led the Ichabods to a 198-81 record and multiple NCAA Tournament appearances, said he had no inkling that his health was in danger prior to the accident and said that doctors are still trying to determine exactly what happened.
"That's what's kind of crazy about it,'' he said. "I feel like I try to take good care of myself with my nutrition and my health and working out, so I felt fine and even that day I felt fine. The doctors are a little bit confused on exactly what happened.
"They've kind of pinpointed it down to a couple of different things. That's got me a little bit anxious that they don't exactly know why this happened. Something definitely happened, but they don't know exactly why. I try not to worry about that and continue to attack each day, but when something like that happens to you out of the blue, it's got me a little spooked.''
Brett Ballard's Washburn Ichabods are coming off a 31-2 season and back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths, including a Final Four appearance in 2025. [File photo/TSN]
READY TO EMBRACE THE FUTURE
Although the accident was clearly a life-changing moment for Ballard, he is determined to approach the future with the same zest he always has.
"It put things in perspective of how precious life is and how quickly things can be taken from you,'' he said. "It definitely put that into perspective, so there is a level of gratitude that I have. But on the other side of it, though, life goes on and you've got to continue to put one foot in front of the other.
"I still have a job to do and a family to take care of, so you can't just sit back and relax the rest of your life. I still have things I want to accomplish, so it's a balance. I'm definitely grateful and pretty fortunate to be sitting here right now, but at the same time I've got a team that I'm excited to coach this year. God was definitely watching over me that day and he had a plan and he's got me here.
"My faith is important to me and I believe in that even more since this wreck. I'm excited about the job I have to do. From what the doctors told me I'm going to be back to 100 percent. I'm pretty close right now, but I'm going to be back to 100 percent in the next couple of months, and I'm excited to coach this team. This team has got a chance to be really good again and I'm really excited about being around the guys.''
