Adversity on the Court Opens Doors to New Opportunities

给索菲亚·祖利希, 她的正规赌博十大平台排行之旅和她的四年正规赌博十大平台排行与她的预期相去甚远.

在安大略省长大, 加拿大, 14岁时，她离开家去上预备学校，并参加了加拿大第一届女子篮球预备巡回赛. After graduating, she was still undecided on where to attend college.

“Denver actually found me,” she says. “I got the offer to come to Denver in August, which is really late in the year, after a spot [on the women’s basketball team] had opened up. 这里的学术环境和运动环境真的是吸引我的地方.”

在她加入先锋队的第一年，祖利奇很少参加球队几乎所有的比赛. Heading into her sophomore season, she was expecting to make a bigger impact, but then she received the news no athlete ever wants to hear. During a pick-up basketball game, she collided with another player, their knees crashing together, 和 knew instantly that something didn’t feel right. An MRI confirmed she had torn her left ACL.

“It was pretty devastating,” she recalls. “我已经准备好回归，投入工作，扮演比大一时更重要的角色，向人们展示我有能力扮演好角色.”而不是, she spent the year rehabilitating her knee, 不能随团队一起旅行，也错过了与队友建立联系的机会.

进入大三的时候，她回到了球队并开始训练，这时坏消息又来了. 她在训练时扭伤了膝盖，又一次，马上就知道出了什么问题. Doctors hoped that a quick scope would reveal that her issue was minor, but instead they discovered another torn left ACL. “There was definitely shell shock,” she says. “I was so close to being back, so it was hard waking up to that.“现实是，这将是又一个失落的赛季，又是一年的康复期.

不幸的是，这一季，也就是她的最后一年，和前两季一样结束了. 去年6月，祖利克主持了学生运动员宴会，当晚戴着头巾. The next morning her knee was extremely swollen. When she went in for an scope, the result did not meet her expectations.

“我看着我的护士，我问的第一件事是，‘你对我的膝盖做了什么?’”她说。. “That one was the shock to me. 在什么都没做的情况下，又有9到12个月的恢复期——这不是训练, 和 I wasn’t doing anything physical. That was probably the toughest one.”

Three torn ACLs in three consecutive years: It defied credulity. 但是，虽然伤病阻碍了Zulich追求她真正热爱的运动, the experience also allowed her to find a new passion. 在她第一次前交叉韧带受伤期间，她成为DU学生运动员咨询委员会(SAAC)的成员。. All athletics 项目 in the NCAA have the committee, 哪个是由学生运动员组成的，专注于提供学生运动员体验的洞察力.

“This helped fill a void with something that I was missing,” Zulich says. “受伤, 我想成为其他学生运动员可以尊敬的人，在需要的时候可以向他们寻求资源和出路.”

DU’s SAAC consists of five subcommittees: diversity, equity 和 inclusion; media marketing 和 image; community service; mentorship; 和 mental wellness. 继去年五名大学生运动员自杀事件后，心理健康和学生运动员的问题最近受到了更多的关注, 包括Katie Meyer, 这位斯坦福大学的守门员帮助她的球队赢得了全国足球冠军.

3月初，美国政府宣布了.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, met with Zulich 和 DU student-athletes from each of the sports represented on campus. They briefed Murthy on the Green B和ana Project, which DU SAAC adopted from University of Wisconsin-Madison. 该项目旨在减少与心理健康问题相关的耻辱, spread awareness 和 increase access to information 和 treatment resources. 学生运动员在背包上系着一条绿色的大手帕，向同龄人表明他们已经完成了心理健康训练, 欢迎提出有关心理健康问题的问题，并可以指导学生找到相关资源.

“作为一名学生运动员，压力更大，”Zulich说. “There are more expectations that you are held to every day. 作为运动员，我们需要发出自己的声音，因为我们有这样做的代表性.”

Since joining SAAC as a sophomore, Zulich曾试图代表杜里大学的学生运动员和全国各地的学生运动员. 在她大三的时候，她担任了DU和Summit联赛的SAAC副主席. 今年，她担任了校园和会议组织的主席.

“如果我早一点知道NCAA SAAC，我可能会在那里待上四年. I love this experience,” Zulich says. 1月, 这段经历使她有机会成为参加2023年NCAA大会的30名学生运动员之一, representing both DU 和 the Summit League. In addition to tackling different topics with other SAAC reps, 她有机会听取了为NCAA做出贡献的个人的意见. Among them: football great Peyton Manning; sportscaster Jim Nantz; 和 黑色14, a group of student-athletes who, in 1969, 在要求参加由黑人学生联盟策划的抗议活动后被赶出怀俄明大学橄榄球队.

The opportunities will continue in April, 届时，Zulich将作为峰会联盟的两名学生运动员之一，参加在巴尔的摩举行的学生运动员领导论坛, 马里兰. Only two athletes from each conference are invited.

今年6月, Zulich将从DU毕业，获得房地产和建筑环境专业的学位 丹尼尔斯商学院. She says that she’s following in the footsteps of her gr和father, 他从欧洲乘船来到安大略省，卖掉了他所有的东西，投资了一栋小公寓楼. Her father 和 his siblings have continued to run the family business, 和 she hopes one day to do the same.

But first, Zulich plans to pursue an MBA. 她的目标是逃离寒冷的气候，到佛罗里达州参加一个项目. Also, she’s not giving up on her basketball career. 有了资格，她希望能进入下一所大学的球队.

“I came out of my last ACL surgery 和 got right to work,” Zulich says. “I pride myself on being relentless. I will push until I can physically push no more.”