Gabby Piontkowski

My name is Gabby Piontkowski and I am currently a junior at Binghamton University in New York, where I study psychology and play Division I soccer.  I started playing soccer when I was four years old and the love for the game just kept growing as I got older. As I started to get older and soccer became more serious for me, it finally came time for me to start looking at colleges and start the recruitment process. Binghamton was on the top of my list and once I signed the letter of intent to officially play there, I was as happy as could be.

I trained super hard the summer before my first ever pre-season as a college player because I knew that the college level was much higher than club and high school soccer. Unfortunately, towards the end of the summer I started to feel very sick and fatigued, making it harder for me to prepare for pre-season.  I ended up going to the doctors and found out that I had strep throat and a sinus infection which was what was causing me the exhaustion and fatigued feeling.  This was very stressful for me because I had to take time off from training due to not feeling well, and it was just a few weeks before leaving for college.  I was super nervous that this was going to set me back and make me unprepared for my first pre-season as a freshman. 

A few weeks go by and I report to school for the first day of pre-season.  I feel even more sick and fatigued than before, and my legs were starting to cramp up and my breathing was terrible. I ended up failing my fitness tests and doing awful in practices because of how terrible I was feeling. As time went by, my breathing was getting worse and I started to get pain in my chest and ribs making it hard to breathe, talk, cough, sit, run, basically do anything. I kept playing through the pain though because as a freshman I didn’t want to let my coaches down and I knew I had to make an impression. 

It had been a few weeks into the pre-season and during one of our team dinners, my coach came up to me and informed me that my family was here to see me.  I was super embarrassed because I didn’t want my family to be checking in on me 24/7 now that I was in college. Unfortunately, the reason my family came to see me was because they had to tell me that my grandma had just passed away. So on top of not feeling well, failing my fitness tests, and not playing well in practices, I just found out that my grandma had just died (keep in mind this is all in the first few weeks of my freshman year). 

So now a month has gone by and the pain in my chest and ribs was so bad that I could not do anything.  I could barely breathe without pain and it was tough for me to get sentences out without being out of breath.  I knew something was wrong and thankfully we had a home game that night so my dad was in a hotel right down the street.  I called him and told him we had to go to the hospital to get this checked out because I knew this pain was not solely from a sinus infection and strep throat.

Thankfully we went to the hospital that night because I ended up having blood clots in my legs that had traveled up to my lungs and if I didn’t go to the hospital that night I would have passed away from a stroke. 

Because of those blood clots, I was out of soccer for a total of nine months which was the hardest thing I have ever dealt with in my life.  To be told you can’t play the sport you fell in love with when you were little is the toughest news you can hear. But instead of letting it drag me down, I used that time to grow and become stronger on and off the field. It could have been super easy to give up and just be negative about the whole situation, but I knew that I wanted to play college soccer so I wasn’t going to give up that easily. After those nine months of not being able to play soccer were finally over, I trained super hard to get back into the best shape of my life and I came back for my sophomore year ready to go.  I ended up playing my sophomore season and was awarded “comeback player of the year”. To be able to step out on that field again was the best feeling ever and I knew that all the hard work I put in and perseverance I had paid off.

Now fast forward to my junior year where we are currently dealing with COVID-19.  Our fall season has been cancelled due to COVID but we are scheduled to play six games in the spring.  I was super excited to return to school after winter break and start preparing for our spring season but unfortunately, I was hit with another health related issue.  Because I tested positive for COVID back in November I had to get an EKG done in order to be cleared to play in the spring. My EKG had come back abnormal so I had to get a couple tests done to see what was going on.  After these tests were done, I was told that I have a PFO which is a small opening in the upper chambers of your heart which is normal for most people because it usually closes when you are younger, but mine never did.  This was a big deal because with my medical history of blood clots, if I didn’t get heart surgery done to close the hole, I could possibly have a stroke or more blood clots in the future. So I am currently out of my junior season because I have to get a heart surgery done to close the hole in my heart. 

The whole point of me sharing my story is to show you that some things happen in life that you cannot control.  But what you can control is your attitude and mindset towards it.  I could have easily given up and quit soccer after having all these hardships happen to me, but instead I dealt with them and used them to make me a stronger person. I have learned so much having gone through these tough times, and I honestly wouldn’t change anything.  I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason even if it is not ideal, and I believe that everything I have gone through was on purpose.  These tough times have shaped me into the person I am today and it has taught me all about hard work, dedication, and ultimately, not taking things in life for granted.  I am extremely grateful every single time I get to step out onto the field and do what I love to do because I almost had that ripped away from me my freshman year.  You never know when something could happen and you never know when your life could change so be thankful for everything you have.  Going through everything I have gone through starting at the age of 18 is definitely not ideal, but it is an eye opener and makes you realize that there is so much in life to be grateful for.  Don’t take things for granted and remember to always keep a positive attitude when dealing with any hardships.