ABOVE: Martin County West assistant track coach and stroke survivor, Jazlyn Geerdes, far right, monitors athletes doing high knees as a part of practice on Wednesday. Geerdes had a stroke less than a year ago and has recovered well enough to serve as a first time track coach.

SHERBURN – It was a little over 10 months ago, on May 17, when then 20-year-old Jazlyn Geerdes began the struggle of her life, as a blood clot in her basilar artery caused a stroke on both sides of her brain.

“If [she had got there] a half-hour later, she would have been dead,” Jodie Geerdes, Jazlyn’s mom, said. “They told me that, and it woke me up as a parent that you need to trust your instincts.”

Geerdes exceeded expectations from the beginning. It was expected that she would need to be in the hospital for three to four months, but she needed only three weeks before she passed all her tests and left the hospital on June 6, 2025.

Since then, Geerdes said she has continued to work on her recovery.

“I did a little bit of speech rehab, but that was the first one that I was done with,” she said. “Then physical and occupational. Occupational was a little bit longer, probably three weeks, four weeks. Physically, I am actually still working on it today. I had hip surgery in the end of December. I was in rehab for that. They also added in stroke technique stuff because some of the things I couldn’t do because of my stroke. Still working on rehab, but it’s cutting back.”

Back in late last May, Geerdes was still struggling from the effects of her stroke and had just progressed to speaking full sentences. At that time, she said her goal was to get back to her normal life. Today, she said she has pretty much made it there.

“I’m pretty much back to normal, at least in my eyes, it’s back to normal,” Geerdes said. “I’ve been very exhausted, though still, so that kind of affects my balance.”

To have made it to this point, she said it definitely feels a lot better than before.

“It feels like I know I’m gonna get better,” Geerdes said. “I didn’t believe I was gonna get better at first, but now it’s like I know I can get better.”

Not content with waiting around to get better, Geerdes has returned to a busy schedule. She has continued her pursuit of a nursing degree, which she began before her stroke. Currently she works as a waitress, helps as a substitute paraprofessional for Martin County West and is preparing for a wedding in September.

Now, she’s getting back to her roots as an athlete by joining Martin County West as an assistant track coach.

“I’ve been doing track since junior high,” Geerdes said. “I started out just for fun and did hurdles, that was basically it, and then I started with jumps. My junior year, I made it to subsections for triple and long jump. Senior year, I had some complications with my hips, so senior year wasn’t the best, but it was still super fun. I tried high jump and found out I was pretty good at that, and made it to sections for that. Once I started jumps, that was my main focus.”

Geerdes was scrolling on Facebook when she saw MCW was looking for an assistant coach. She reached out and got a hold of Head Coach Lee Carlson. Carlson replied that they were looking for a jumps coach, and Geerdes was accepted after an interview.

“I was really hoping I would get it,” she said. “I don’t have any coaching experience, so I was hoping as a newbie, they would accept me. I figured my track background would help out a lot, which it did. I was very nervous. Once I found out it was good to go, I was very excited.”

This is only the second week of practice, and it was cut short due to snow days on Monday and Tuesday. Regardless, Geerdes said the learning process has gone well so far.

“The coaches, Lee Carlson, have made it very easy to become a coach,” she said. “He welcomed me in right away. Showed me how practices go, what I will be doing, everything like that. He’s made it super easy to transition as a first-time coach.”

Having been an athlete herself, Geerdes said it has shifted her perspective now that she is a coach.

“I see it from this student’s perspective,” she said. “Now I’m like, ‘Oh, I was put through that.’ I understand what kids are going through now. If something is hard or something hurts, I understand that it’s not just to be dramatic or they don’t want to do something, it could actually be a problem. I like seeing it from both sides.”

Looking forward, Geerdes said she hopes she can continue as a coach for a little while, hopefully for a long time. Big picture, she said her goal is to finish her nursing degree and find a position in this field.

To get to this point, Geerdes said she has some very important people to thank for giving her the strength to make it this far.

“I want to thank my mom and my fiancé, because they’ve been there through everything,” she said. “A lot of motivation there to get back to normal.”