RIMERSBURG — Sometimes Shaley Shick wonders how different her life would have been.

To Shick, everything happens for a reason.

The senior guard on the Union girls basketball team isn't your average player. Casual observers have a tough time noticing and even some opponents are unaware that Shick has overcome much to play the sport she loves.

Shick has very limited use of her right arm because of an injury suffered when she was born.

“Honestly, I wonder if maybe I wouldn't have even played basketball,” Shick said. “Maybe I'd be right handed like everyone in my family. Maybe I wouldn't be motivated to try to be the best at everything I do. I really think it helps me.”

Shick has learned to live and thrive despite a condition called Erbs Palsy, a tearing of the nerves in the shoulder most commonly caused by a difficult birth. It can result in complete or partial paralysis in the affected arm.

“When I was born, I got stuck and the doctor pulled too hard on my arm,” Shick said. “I went to therapy for a lot of years — I used to go all the time — to get the movement I have now.”

In Shick's case, her arm is extremely weak and has a limited range of motion, but she does have some use of it.

“I can't lift it over my head,” Shick said. “My right arm is shorter than my left — it just kind of hangs there. I can get one dribble out of it. I played softball and I played first base, but I'd have to take the glove off to throw.”

She has a weak grip with her right hand, but said when it came to shooting a basketball, it may have aided her.

“Honestly, I think it helped my shot,” Shick said. “When I was learning, I couldn't shoot over my head with two hands like a lot of kids do when they are learning. I started with the right technique because it was the only way I could shoot.”

Shick developed into a dangerous shooting threat in her four years with the Damsels. Union advanced to the District 9 Class A playoffs this season, but lost in the quarterfinals.

“It is amazing,” said Union assistant girls basketball coach Ally Kepple of Shick. “Not a lot of people knew because of how big she played.”

Shick takes pride in the fact that her play on the court belied her physical limitations.

“My coaches have been major supportive,” Shick said. “If we're doing a certain drill in practice and I can't do it exactly the same as everyone else, they let me do it how I can. They don't baby me. I don't want to be pitied.”

But sometimes, Shick hears the verbal barbs, particularly from opposing fans who know of her condition.

“A couple of years ago, I got made fun of by fans from another school,” Shick said. “You can't let that get to you.”

Shick's younger sister, junior Lexey Shick, led the team in scoring this season.

The two are very close and often play one-on-one against each other.

“That usually ends with me knocking her down,” Shaley Shick said, laughing.

But Lexey has been there to help her older sister every step of the way.

“She helps me tie my hair back before games,” Shaley Shick said. “She's always had my back.”

Shick is also a track athlete at Union.

She has run just about every mid-distance and distance race, but can't run sprints because she can't steady herself on the blocks.

“I'd just fall over and get a false start,” she said.

On relays, she must run the second or fourth legs because of the better reach she has with her left arm and her loose grip with her right hand.

Shick refuses to let those limitation define her, however.

She has an offer to play college basketball at Pitt-Titusville and is mulling over that opportunity.

Shick plans to pursue a degree in pharmacy.

“There's certain things I can't do well — I have trouble dribbling to my right — but there's a lot of things I can do, too. It's definitely made me tougher and more motivated to be the best.”