The hard road back from injury for one St. Joseph’s University softball player created greater grit
Taylor Marinelli went through the same pandemic as many frustrated athletes, but she was also injured and besides healing, had to strengthen her mental health and fortitude.
In the spring of 2020, with the world on pause, the main focus for many college athletes was to find any way possible to train and stay in shape. St. Joe’s utility player Taylor Marinelli, meanwhile, was glued to the couch.
About a month before her season was canceled, Marinelli had a serious ankle injury at practice, one of the injuries that was hard to look at.
“My foot was facing the opposite way,” said Marinelli, a former Central Bucks South star player in her prep school days.
» READ MORE: Sweet-swinging Taylor Marinelli is the go-to hitter at Central Bucks South
The team was playing a simulated game while practicing inside, and Marinelli injured her ankle sliding into second base.
“When I went down …” Marinelli said, taking a second to think about the best way to describe it. “[My ankle] just came out of the socket completely, and there was some ligament damage.”
The ligament damage took nearly the entire season to heal. The support and constant presence of her teammates helped Marinelli through the early part of the recovery process.
That only lasted a month. On March 13, 2020, Hawks athletes were sent home with their season canceled.
“When COVID hit, it just hit me harder that I didn’t have my 20 best friends around me to help me through the injury mentally and physically,” Marinelli said.
A college athlete trains almost every day with lifts, practice, film sessions, and more. All of this time and effort puts a lot of weight mentally on playing during the season. Marinelli had to transition from this type of lifestyle to sitting on a couch unable to train.
Giving up always was an option. But this new situation helped Marinelli grow as a softball player and a person.
“[I had to] find things to prioritize that actually made me happy outside of softball because that’s not my life forever,” Marinelli said. “So, say, if you don’t get a hit that day, it’s fine. There are more stressful things in life.”
Sometimes when athletes have a major injury, they don’t come back the same. This often is the case when pitchers come back from arm surgery. The velocity tends to drop off from where it was before the injury.
Marinelli saw the opposite when she returned as a graduate student.
“I’m obviously not fortunate that the [injury] happened, but it made me realize my actual limits, training and skill wise. … I feel like I’m pushing myself more because I know I can,” Marinelli said.
Along with a better understanding of her body, Marinelli’s personal growth was something head coach Erin Brooks thought would be important for everyone on the team.
Brooks was lucky to be friends with Pam Herath, a life coach she brought in to help the team. Herath has been there for the players on an individual level with their mental health in sports, but she also helps facilitate a strong team culture.
“[Herath] is all about being there for each other literally on and off the field,” Marinelli said. “[She helps us] respond properly to situations of diversity and adversity in the team … being comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
The emphasis on creating a strong culture through Herath’s help had an impact on Marinelli. She was the only player of the 2021 class to come back for their fifth year in 2022. And it was because of the culture.
“We got our life coach my freshman year, so the sophomores and juniors that came in didn’t really have all of the foundation,” Marinelli said. “Culturally, I wanted to lead the program to where it should be versus where it was.”
So far this season, Marinelli is hitting .248 with a pair of home runs and 17 RBIs. The Hawks continue their season with a doubleheader Saturday at UConn and look to improve on their 19-20 overall record.