Injuries could have derailed Vanessa Gomez’s softball career several times. But she wouldn’t let them.
First it was a broken ankle when she was 11. Then it was a bone spur that required surgery at 13. Last spring, it was a torn ACL and another surgery. Each time misfortune struck, Gomez stayed patient, rehabbed, and persevered.
“I’ve had comebacks, so injury is nothing new,” Gomez recently told the Sun. “It just makes you stronger and makes you question whether or not you really want to do something. It takes commitment to come back.”
The senior at Pioneer Valley High School can now say that all the commitment and hard work was worth it; Gomez just signed a scholarship offer with Northwestern College to play ball in Iowa next fall.
She received the offer during a trip to the Northwestern campus where, still recovering from surgery, she could barely participate in the team’s practice. Nevertheless, the coach must’ve seen something special in Gomez, because he gave her an offer on the spot, she said.
“He talked to the assistant coaches for 15 minutes, comes back, and he makes me an offer,” she recalled. “I was dumbfounded. … I didn’t think I was going to play softball in college at this point, being a senior and having to come back from an ACL. I was totally stoked.”
Gomez plays third base and is a standout player for the Panthers. In addition to her talent behind the plate and in the infield, she brings invaluable leadership.
“She is a one-of-a-kind kid,” Pioneer Valley softball coach Kristina Sewell said. “Athletes with her maturity and humility are hard to find.”
The sport of softball is “literally in my blood,” Gomez said. Her father was on a path to a professional baseball career if not for suffering a similar knee injury to Gomez’s. Her mother was also a softball player.
Gomez caught the bug.
“Hearing all their stories … . You’re little, you’re around the sport all the time,” she explained.
For Gomez, her passion for softball goes beyond the triumph of a home run or the accolades of winning. She finds fulfilment and meaning in multiple dimensions of the sport.
“I like the competitiveness and being able to be out there on the field with all these girls behind you,” Gomez said. “Just being able to perform with each other and pick each other up when you strike out or make a stupid error, I just like that camaraderie, and the intensity of other girls wanting it as much as you do and they push you. It’s my favorite thing, honestly, in the whole entire world.”
This article appears in Nov 2-8, 2017.