Everyone enjoys a good "comeback" story.

You know the one -- an athlete gets injured, suffers a major setback or goes through some tragedy, then comes back to "win the gold."

The thing is, you always hear about the "star" athletes -- the pros or the Olympians. Rarely do you hear or read about the comebacks made by average, everyday people. Comebacks that are just as remarkable, if not more so. Stephanie Murray of Lighthouse Point is an athlete with one of those stories.

Watch her playing volleyball with her Northeast High School teammates last season -- setting the ball to her outside hitters, diving to the floor for a dig, jumping up to block an opponents attack -- and you think she is just your average teenager playing a sport that she loves.

However, looks can be deceiving. The fact that she is on the court at all this year is amazing, because this 17-year old has overcome two setbacks in her short lifetime.

Comeback #1

Four years ago, Murray was a typical, 13-year old, an active teenager who enjoyed all sports, including sailing, tennis, and especially volleyball.

"There's so much energy involved (in volleyball)," she said while relaxing in her home recently. "It's just so exciting to be out there on the court. You've got your team working together and there's just a lot of excitement going on."

Then on June 4, 1998, while sitting in a car being driven by her mom, Denise, on the way to watch her brother, Dennis' baseball game, she was impaled by a three-foot long, 3/4-inch thick, 17-pound metal rod that shot through the windshield and pinned her to the front seat.

As soon as the accident occurred, Denise drove off I-95 and tried to give 911 her location on her cellphone. But, because of the way the system worked at that time, the operator had no idea where they were. Finally, Denise pulled into a gas station and was able to inform the dispatcher of her location so a paramedic unit come to the scene.

At the hospital, doctors discovered the rod had miraculously missed her heart and aorta by one-half an inch and hadn't even nicked a rib. Within a month she was back on the tennis court. She credits her quick recovery to her parents.

"My mom and dad said, 'you have to get right back on the horse and get back into things,'" she said. "And so, right after my accident, like a month later, they had me out there on the tennis court, hitting balls and running around and stuff. And they're like, 'no pain, no gain,' you know, get out there and keep moving. And that's what got me back into everything, my sports and volleyball."

Did the accident change her outlook on life at all?

"I think I'm more mature about everything," she said. "About the way I see things and the way I present myself. Everyday is more a surprise. And you have to be optimistic about everything."

Her maturity and presentation also helped her to something important. She was approached by people pushing for a bill that would require cellphones to show 911 operators the location of the caller.

The Murrays went to Tallahassee where Stephanie lobbied state legislators about the need to upgrade the 911 service for cellphones. She was impressive. Soon after, said her father James, a sergeant in the Broward Sheriff's Office, House Bill #621 was passed. It provides for the state to add a 50-cent fee to cellphone bills, like regular phone bills, for 911 technology. With Stephanie's help, Florida is now one of only 15 states with such a bill. Cell phones equipped with a chip that reveals the callers exact location will soon be on the market.

But, for this teenager, her favorite sport volleyball, was never far from her mind.

She made the Northeast High varsity volleyball team in her freshman year, playing mostly defense, but also outside hitter occasionally. That summer she attended a volleyball camp at the University of Florida where they encouraged her to try setting. In a short time, fell in love with the position and in the fall, her coach tapped her for team setter, though, she says, it was kind of by default.

"Yeah, the coach didn't have anyone else to set," she said with a laugh. "So (he) kind of said, 'Yeah, you've got awesome hands... ok, this is what you're going to do for our team.'"

And she has been setting ever since, though she still had one more very big obstacle to overcome along the way.

Comeback #2

It was after volleyball camp, that Stephanie began experiencing lower back pain. Tests uncovered a slipping vertebrae, medically called Spondylothesis Spondylolysis.

The doctor didn't want to operate. "They just wanted to put me in a bubble," Stephanie said. "You've got to sit down and do nothing, and I said -- 'it can't happen.' You know, being an active person, you just can't just sit there."

So the Murrays sought other opinions and finally found a doctor who said he could operate and that eventually Stephanie would play volleyball again.

In the meantime, without anyone knowing she had a problem, she continued to play. By the end of her sophomore year, the discomfort was so bad at times she could not feel her legs.

So in January 2001, she had spinal surgery which included shoring up the vertebrae with roods and screws and a cage to fuse it together. Then came the recuperating and rehabilitation.

"They said it was supposed to take a year," she said. "But I was determined to get back to volleyball over the summer." In the end, it took her about six months to get where she needed to be physically to play this season.

The process was the hardest part. It came in small steps -- literally.

"Yeah, I had to learn to walk again," she said, kind of grimacing at the reminder. "That was the hardest part I think. Learning how to get out of bed and walk... because every little movement hurt so bad."

But. not once did she ever think she wouldn't make it all the way back.

"I just knew it was going to be a long road," she said. "(But), there was no point where I thought I would never get back. That was my goal and I usually follow through with my goals."

After five months, Stephanie was jogging daily. As she got stronger, she began conditioning for volleyball -- lifting weights, working a volleyball with her hands and setting.

In June, she worked for John Trudel, LHP Parks and Recreation Director, as the head counselor for the city's youth summer sailing program, where she taught boys and girls how to sail. The program ended in July with the annual Mayor's Cup races, which she and her brother, Sean, who was another counselor in the program, supervised.

Then as the school year came around, she amazed everyone but herself getting the starting setter spot for her high school team. Her comeback was complete. In less than nine months, she went from barely being able to walk, to playing setter on one of the top high school volleyball teams in the South Florida and helping the team reach the regional semifinals in November.

With all that's happened the last few years, and with her senior year in sight, what are her plans?

"I want to play in college, and see where that goes," she said. "But I know it's hard, so I have to work on that and, hopefully, I'll get to that level."

As for her education, Stephanie, who is in the school's honor program and gets mostly straight A's in her classes, has some goals there as well.

"I want to be an architect or a foreign affairs correspondent," she said.

She also would like to learn the Japanese language. So college will probably be anywhere she can play volleyball and get the education she wants. That's her new goal.

Considering what Stephanie has been though, you just have to believe she'll will achieve anything she sets out to do.