A little more than two years ago, Katrina Schulz could barely lift her arms above her head.

Yet here she is today, back on the volleyball court, preparing to help her team compete at this weekend鈥檚 club volleyball national championships in Edmonton.

But if you ask her, the 17-year-old didn鈥檛 know if she would ever be able to return to the game she loves.

Just talking about her injury-plagued past brings Schulz to tears.

For the past five years, serious shoulder problems have been a way of life for the 91原创 teenager.

It started in Grade 8 when she suffered a ski accident, hitting a patch of ice and going airborne.

Initially, she felt fine, but when Schulz awoke the next morning, she could not get out of bed, unable to move her upper body or neck.

Schulz had a bad case of whiplash, her collarbone was rotated and one shoulder was pressed in while the other was stretched out.

鈥�(But) they never seemed to have an idea of why I was feeling what I was feeling,鈥� she explained. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 make sense 鈥� it wasn鈥檛 dislocated or fractured or cracked according to the X-ray.鈥�

Eventually, Schulz recovered and was able to resume her everyday life, including a return to volleyball.

Two years later, her shoulder issues began acting up.

Periodically, her shoulder would pop out of place. First, it was just one, but then the same problem presented itself in the other.

It got so bad that it started to happen while turning in her sleep or sometimes when she raised her hand to answer a question.

Schulz kept all of this to herself.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think that I was keeping a secret, I just wanted to keep playing,鈥� she explained. 鈥淚t hurt a lot (but) I didn鈥檛 realize how serious it was.鈥�

Through a project at school, Schulz learned that her brain was likely telling the body to stop sending messages that something hurt.

鈥淓ventually, I would feel it pop out but I didn鈥檛 feel the pain that I used to feel,鈥� she said.

鈥淚t feels like your arm is not attached, that it is not a part of your body.鈥�

Schulz estimates that between the two, her shoulders were popping out up to eight times per day.

One day during practice, Schulz put her arms together to pass the ball and felt an excruciating pain as both shoulders popped out simultaneously. Her teammates and coaches sensed something was wrong, but Schulz deflected their concern, convincing them it was sweat, not tears, dotting her face.

But in the car ride home from practice, Schulz broke down, telling her parents what she had been enduring.

This was March 2015 and the following months were filled with visits to several physiotherapists but none of them were able to provide answers.

Eventually, it was determined she suffered from hypermobility, a condition where the joints move beyond the normal range expected for that joint.

Surgery was her next option but first Schulz had to strengthen the joint and the athletic training and strengthening exercises didn鈥檛 seem to be doing the trick.

She gave protherapy a try, receiving 50 to 60 needles in a one-hour span twice a week for the next six months.

It wasn鈥檛 easy either, as Schulz is traumatized by needles, likely stemming from when she was four years old when she fought off a severe case of E. coli.

鈥淭he needles, that was the most pain I have been through with anything, I think,鈥� Schulz said. 鈥淚t was just a very hard process.鈥�

But the injections worked in strengthening her shoulders.

In December 2015, the doctors operated on one shoulder, and once that was healed, they did the other one at the end of March, 2016.

And after months spent rehabbing and strengthening her shoulders, she was cleared to play volleyball in August.

鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 serve a ball over the net, or set the ball very high or any of those moves because my shoulder was still weak,鈥� Schulz described, her tears from earlier replaced with a broad smile.

Despite the pain 鈥� and the fact she faces more surgeries as her shoulder problems have persisted 鈥� Schulz can鈥檛 imagine not playing.

She doesn鈥檛 boast about her skill level 鈥� after all, she has missed what has amounted to two years 鈥� but just loves the game.

That love is easy to see, says Gura Sidhu, her high school coach at R.E. Mountain Secondary.

鈥淭he kid is such a trooper in terms of coming to practice, going to rehab 鈥� she has gone through a lot,鈥� he said.

鈥淎nd she is such a great leader.鈥�

While people always talk about IQ, he brought up EQ, or emotional quotient.

Sidhu described how Schulz 鈥� who earned a starting role this year despite missing two years 鈥� had no problem calling out her teammates in a respectful way about being better and their effort level. But what those teammates wouldn鈥檛 see was the fact when they weren鈥檛 around, she would extol their virtues.

Schulz鈥� struggles have also shaped her future.

She is off to the University of Waterloo in the fall to study kinesiology 鈥� and hopefully continuing playing volleyball 鈥� before becoming a physiotherapist.

Schultz spends some of her free time volunteering at Lifemark, a physiotherapy office in 91原创.

鈥淚 want to prevent other athletes from going through what I went through,鈥� she explained. 鈥淎nd I want people to know that when they are injured, they need to tell people. They can鈥檛 just keep things hidden because it only makes things worse.鈥�

Schulz plays for Focus, a Surrey-based volleyball club.

The team is in Edmonton this weekend for the Canadian national club championships.