Fourth quarter, six minutes remaining for the Braves to make a comeback at Illinois State. Fifth-year senior Gabi Haack drives to the hoop and takes an awkward fall.
“I got a fast break and as I was going up for the layup I fell,” Haack said. “I felt a really intense pain in my left knee and I had never felt something like this before, so I knew something was pretty wrong.”
The Braves would fall to the Redbirds, despite a 7-0 run after the Haack injury, but all eyes and ears were on the leading scorer in Bradley women’s hoops history.
“I found out the results when I was at practice, about an hour after I had gotten back from my MRI,” Haack said. “Obviously [an] ACL [injury] isn’t the one you want to hear as an athlete, so when I heard that, I knew that basically, my career at Bradley was over. [It] was really hard to hear that out loud.”
Haack’s injury, an ACL tear, sent shockwaves through Haack herself, the Bradley community, her father, and head coach Andrea Gorski. The senior received messages from friends, fans, students and others offering prayers and blessings for a player that made such a lasting impact on the program.
After getting the news on her career-ending injury, Gabi turned to the people and beliefs that brought her to this point in life.
“I’ve been talking to [my parents] a lot,” Haack said. “[They’re] just letting me know that they are here for me and that they support me. They tell me it’s okay to feel all these emotions; we have a strong faith, so just keeping God at the center of it all and focusing on all the good that can come out of this, and just knowing that this is part of His plan [is what has helped me out].”
Despite the brutal turn of events for the star, just like a loss during the season, it was time to move on and pick up a new perspective.
Finding a new angle
Haack has spent all five years of her Bradley career focusing on improving her game and improving her teamwork. While the improvements in the box score are much more quantifiable, the improvements off the court she has made have been felt just as much.
“If you ask Coach Gorski, she’d say I’m a lot more vocal now than in my earlier years, but I tend to lead more by my actions,” Haack said. “So in that sense, I think that’s where I can impact people more, by looking at the things I do, more than the things I say.”
As a sign of Haack’s impact on the team, freshman Caroline Waite, a player who has earned a large share of minutes as a first-year player, made note of how the senior’s words and actions have carried weight in the locker room.
“[Haack] just talks to us, just [gives] us little tips after timeouts after breaks and giveslittle tips on shooting and on defense in those breaks when she can,” Waite said.
Waite knows the impact that Haack has had on this program, and with that, knows that every little piece of advice she can get from the fifth-year senior is worth taking a deep look at.
“I mean she’s worth everything,” Waite said. “[She has just really told me] simple things to help me out with my game, putting in the extra work, fueling your body and that every practice and every workout is important.”
The team currently sits in the midst of a 15-game losing skid, including eight since Haack’s injury.
Any athlete knows that when your team is in the midst of a skid like this, all you want to do is go out there and help. It’s been one of the biggest challenges Haack has had to face.
“It’s tough to not be out there fighting with them,” Haack said. “I’ve been trying my best to be supportive of everyone and be there for them, but we just need to remember that we are a very young team. I have a lot of trust in these girls and they’ve been working hard in practice, and their goals are big. It’s just a different perspective I’ve been given.”
The next steps
Haack’s injury has put her in a tight spot. While trying to help the team out as much as possible, she has a bright future on the horizon that she has begun to look at.
Recently, Haack announced that she had begun an internship with the strength and conditioning team at Bradley. Through her experience with it so far, she has enjoyed learning about the variety of sports at Bradley in addition to getting real hands-on experience.
“I really am not sure what my exact next steps are,” Haack said. “I have a couple things in mind, but my focus right now is on getting through this surgery, working on my rehab and the physical therapy aspect, focusing on the internship and supporting my team from the side right now.”
It’s safe to say that Haack’s future is going to include hard work, resilience and determination, since those have been the keys to her getting to this point in her life.
But don’t think that just because her season is over on the court, that she’ll stop giving the team everything she’s got.
“[Leadership] is definitely something I’m still working on,” Haack said. “It’s been tough, but [the team] knows that they have my support and that I’m here for them in anything they need.”
