球场上的逆境打开了通往新机会的大门

给索菲亚·祖利希, her journey to the University of Denver 和 her four years on campus were far from what she had expected.

在安大略省长大, 加拿大, she left home at age 14 to attend preparatory school 和 compete in 加拿大’s first female basketball prep circuit. 毕业后，她还没决定上哪所大学.

“丹佛真的找到了我，”她说. “我收到了八月份去丹佛的邀请, 现在已经很晚了吗, 在(女子篮球队)有了一个空缺之后. The academic environment here, as well as the athletic environment, is really what drew me in.”

In her first year with the Pioneers, Zulich played sparingly in nearly all the team’s games. 即将进入她的二年级, 她希望能产生更大的影响, 但随后她收到了任何运动员都不想听到的消息. 在一场篮球赛中, 她与另一名选手相撞, 他们的膝盖撞在一起, 我立刻意识到有些地方不对劲. 核磁共振检查证实她的左前交叉韧带撕裂.

“这真是毁灭性的打击，”她回忆道. “I was ready to come back 和 put work in 和 have a much larger role than I did my freshman year 和 show people that I am able to play.”而不是, 她花了一年时间恢复膝盖, unable to travel with the team 和 missing out on building connections with her teammates.

Entering her junior year, she was back with the team 和 practicing when bad news hit again. She tweaked her knee at practice 和, again, knew right away that something was wrong. 医生希望通过快速检查能发现她的问题不大, 但他们却发现另一个左前交叉韧带撕裂. “肯定是炮弹休克，”她说. “我就快回来了，所以醒过来很难.” The reality was, it was going to be another lost season 和 another year of rehab.

Unfortunately, this season, her senior year, ended the same way as the previous two. Zulich hosted the student-athlete banquet last June 和 wore heals for the evening. 第二天早上，她的膝盖肿得厉害. 当她去做镜检查时，结果没有达到她的预期.

“I looked at my nurse, 和 the first thing I asked was, ‘What did you do to my knee?’”她说。. “这对我来说是一个震惊. To have another 9- to 12-month recovery period after not even doing anything—it wasn’t a practice, 我没有做任何身体上的运动. 这可能是最难的一个.”

连续三年三次撕裂acl:它打破了人们的轻信. But while the injuries prevented Zulich from pursuing a sport she is truly passionate about, 这次经历也让她找到了新的激情. During her first ACL injury, she became a member of DU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). NCAA的所有体育项目都有这个委员会, which is made up of student-athletes focused on providing insight into the student-athlete experience.

“这有助于填补我所缺少的东西的空白，”祖利希说. “受伤, I wanted to be someone who other student-athletes could look up to 和 come to for resources 和 outlets when needed.”

DU的SAAC由五个小组委员会组成:多样性, equity 和 inclusion; media marketing 和 image; community service; mentorship; 和 mental wellness. The issue of mental health 和 student-athletes has recently received more attention following last year’s suicides of five college athletes, 包括Katie Meyer, the Stanford goalkeeper who helped her team win a national championship in soccer.

3月初，美国政府宣布了.S. 卫生局局长维韦克·默蒂， 会见了祖利克和杜里大学的学生运动员 来自校园里的每一项运动. 他们向默蒂简要介绍了绿色手帕项目, DU SAAC从威斯康辛大学麦迪逊分校录取的哪个. The program is designed to reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues, 传播意识，增加获得信息和治疗资源的机会. Student-athletes sporting a green b和ana on their backpacks signal to their peers that they have completed mental health training, welcome questions about mental health issues 和 can direct students to resources.

“There’s more pressure that comes with being a student-athlete,” Zulich says. “你每天都有更多的期望. We as athletes need to use our voices, because we have the representation to do so.”

从大二加入SAAC开始, Zulich has tried to represent DU student-athletes 和 student-athletes across the country. During her junior year, she was SAAC vice president for both DU 和 the Summit League. This year she has served as president of the organization both on campus 和 for the conference.

“If I would have known about NCAA SAAC earlier, I would have been a part of it for four years. 我喜欢这种经历，”Zulich说. 1月, the experience afforded her the opportunity to be one of only 30 student-athletes in Division I athletics to attend the 2023 NCAA Convention, 代表杜克大学和顶峰联盟. 除了与其他SAAC代表一起解决不同的问题, she had the opportunity to hear from individuals who have contributed to the NCAA. Among them: football great Peyton Manning; sportscaster Jim Nantz; 和 黑色14, 一群学生运动员, in 1969, were kicked off the University of Wyoming football team after asking to participate in a protest planned by the Black Student Alliance.

这些机会将在4月份继续存在, when Zulich will be one of two student-athletes from the Summit League to attend the Student Athlete Leadership Forum in Baltimore, 马里兰. 每个会议只邀请两名运动员.

今年6月, Zulich will graduate from DU with a degree in real estate 和 the built environment from the 丹尼尔斯商学院. 她说她是在追随她祖父的脚步, who came by boat to Ontario from Europe 和 sold everything he had to invest in a small apartment building. 她的父亲和他的兄弟姐妹继续经营着家族企业, 她希望有一天也能做到这一点.

但首先，祖利克计划攻读MBA. She has her sights set on escaping the colder climates to a program in Florida. 此外，她并没有放弃她的篮球生涯. With eligibility remaining, she’s hoping to walk on to a team at her next university.

“我从上次前交叉韧带手术中恢复过来，很快就开始工作了，”Zulich说. “我为自己的坚持不懈感到自豪. 我会一直推，直到我再也推不动为止.”