While many know Enid High School freshman Peyton Kilbourne as a point guard and
shooting guard for the Enid Girl’s basketball team, as well as a member of the track team,
she has had some health challenges that almost prevented her from being the athlete she is
today. Despite such challenges, Peyton has played basketball for 9 years, and has done
track for 3 years.

Peyton has a couple of rare conditions that she thought would prevent her from playing
basketball – however the love of the game, dedication, and God’s Will, allow her to.  She has
severe scoliosis at a 54 degree curve, Sprengel Deformity, and Klippel-Feil Syndrome.
Additionally, she has Absence and fusion of ribs, Cervical ribs, and abnormalities on the set
of nerves called the Brachial Plexus, which can cause extreme pain.

Peyton sometimes has a hard time explaining as she does not like to think of the
deformations as limitations.

She does have physical therapy exercises she needs to do daily to help strengthen her other
muscles to help prevent the pain. She sees a specialist in Dallas, at the Texas Scottish Rite
Hospital every 6 months for evaluation and approval for her to play. She knows her
limitations, and what she can and cannot do when it comes to physical fitness. An example
is no planks, no weight lifting around her neck or lifting above her head.  Due to her limited
range of motion in her arm, she cannot lift her left arm straight up only to her shoulder it
does make rebounding the ball more challenging, however most people have no idea of
this.

Faith plays an integral part in Peyton’s life. Peyton attested, “My biggest motivator is God.
He is my biggest motivator because he has given me everything I have today. Without God I
am absolutely nothing.”

Peyton plans on pursuing higher education after graduating from high school. Peyton
proclaimed, “After Graduating high school, I would love to go on into the medical field, or
play basketball professionally.”