RAPID CITY - Every time Dana Hill runs onto the baseball diamond this summer he can't help but smile just a bit. It wasn't terribly long ago that the Post 22 catcher and pitcher was sitting in a doctor's office, wondering if he was ever going to get to play his first love again.

Hill, a senior at Rapid City Central, suffered through a tough junior year. First, he got pneumonia, which caused a heart infection and took a lot out of him. But he battled through that to get on the football field for the Cobblers last fall. Still, he knew something wasn't quite right.

"I started feeling bad during football season," Hill said, "and it just kind of got worse from there."

The three-sport athlete isn't one to vocalize too much, so he kept the fact that he wasn't feeling like his old self completely to himself.

"He's a silent leader," Central head boys' basketball coach Mike Purcell said. "He doesn't need to say much to get others to follow him."

But then the fainting started.

"I wasn't getting enough blood and oxygen to my head and I was having some passing out," Hill said. Still, he kept it to himself until he was headed to basketball practice one day and something happened that made it impossible to keep the fainting spells a secret any longer.

"I was going to basketball and I passed out down the stairs," Hill said. "I sprained my wrist and stuff, so that was when I kind of knew (that I had to go to the doctor)."

Hill's visit to the doctor culminated with a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where doctors discovered that he was suffering from a rare disease called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.

"I went to Mayo right before indoor (baseball) started," Hill said. "I just got over it, I still have it a little bit, but with medication and a change in diet it should go away in a few years."

His basketball team was admittedly shaken by losing him to the initially unknown nature of the circumstances.

"It was very hard on us as a team," Purcell said. "He's got a lot of people that really care for him and love him and it was a tough time for us to see him go through that. He's just a great kid who I've really enjoyed coaching over the years. It was hard on us on the floor for different reasons - he was our lockdown perimeter defender and, physically, our strongest guard - but it was much tougher on us off the floor because we all love Dana. We're just happy that everything turned out all right."

The truly frightening thing for Hill was that, at first, doctors weren't entirely sure what was going on - leading to some theories that would have meant he was done with baseball for at least this summer, if not forever.

"At one time they thought I might be looking at some surgery," Hill said. "They also found a small cyst in my head, but there's nothing they can do about that because it's so small, but they thought that might be the problem for a bit. At one point I didn't think I'd be playing at all, when they told me that. That didn't go over too well. I wasn't too happy."

The cyst, now that doctors know it's there, will be monitored to make sure it isn't causing any problems - which it isn't. Hill is out playing baseball this summer despite being a little behind in his preparation for the season, getting in his regular duties as Post 22's starting catcher and even adding in some pitching, his first duties on the mound since he threw for the Bullets several summers ago.

"I didn't even really pitch too much for them," Hill said, "maybe an inning or two. This is really the first pitching I've done since Little League."

Hill's experience as a catcher, and the tutoring he has received from both his dad, Terry, and former Post 22 backstop Dustin Rowland, has helped increase his effectiveness both behind the plate and on the mound.

"It does help," Hill said of seeing the game from two different perspectives. "You know the umpires and their strike zones a little better and it keeps my arm in shape, throwing all the time. I just figured I'd give pitching a try this year since we were short a couple."

That Hill stepped up into that role was no surprise to his coach.

"He's just an outstanding young person," Post 22 head coach Dave Ploof said. "That's the No. 1 thing he brings to the squad. He knows what he has to do to be a good one and he works hard at it. He had a scare physically, but he went to Rochester and I think it's under control now."

Hill says he wants to play baseball in college and dreams of getting a degree in marine biology someday. Ploof thinks he can definitely get there.

"He just needs to keep on working and polishing his skills," Ploof said. "That's what you have to do. If he can go out and show his wares out here for Post 22, he'll be seen. That's all he has to do, just relax and perform on the field and he'll have an opportunity to play some outstanding college baseball."

For now, it would be almost impossible to wipe the smile off Hill's face when he's out under the sun, playing in the dirt.

"I really appreciate the game," Hill said. "There's only a certain amount of time that you get to play it, so you really have to take advantage of every day."