WASHINGTON, D.C. – About six years ago
Bridget Bergquist, now a freshman on the Longwood women's soccer team, was with her family watching her brother Steven in a travel baseball game in Northern Virginia. The fields did not have restrooms so her mother, Kathy, had to take Bridget by car to a nearby Safeway to use the facilities.
Says Bergquist: “I had to go five or six times. My mom said, 'we are taking you to the doctor.” A family friend had also suggested Bergquist should be taken to the hospital and tested for diabetes.
And that is what happened. As a seventh-grader who was very active with soccer and track, Bergquist learned she had diabetes. Looking back now, the warning signs were there: frequent trips to the bathroom and cramps. “She was getting skinnier, skinnier and skinnier,” says her father, Steve.
“I was losing a lot of weight and drinking 16 to 17 water bottles a day,” she says, standing on the field after Longwood's 1-0 win over host Howard on Aug. 27 in the nation's capital. “I always had to go to the bathroom. People thought it was bulimia or I was anorexic. I was eating a lot, but everything was going straight through me. I always got really bad cramps. All of the water went straight through me.”
According to ndeh.nih.gov, nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, a serious disease in which blood glucose (blood sugar) levels are above normal. Bergquist has Type 1, or juvenile diabetes. “The pancreas is damaged and does not put out insulin” with Type I, says her father.
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, either the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin, according to
www.diabetes.org.
The diminutive, feisty Bergquist, a midfielder/forward, has learned to live with and even excel with diabetes. She was a standout at Brentsville High School in Prince William County, where she was second-team all-state with 11 goals and 10 assists as a senior. She attracted the attention of several Division I programs before picking Longwood, where she came off the bench in the first four games as the Lancers began the year 3-1.
Does diabetes affect her as a player? “It does,” she admits, “but I try not to use it as an excuse.” Bergquist is monitored at practices and games by the Longwood athletic training staff, which includes assistant athletics director for sports medicine and head athletic trainer
Jenna Page.
Bergquist checks her blood sugar on a regular basis and a good range for her is between 70 and 120. If that number goes above 120 she gives herself some insulin. “It takes about 10 or 15 minutes for (the number) to go down,” she says. Bergquist eats three meals a day and takes insulin six or seven times per day.
But just don't label Bergquist as the unlucky woman with diabetes on the Lancers. She has overcome other challenges as the shortest player on the team at 5-foot-2 (along with sophomore
Taylor Cave) to log key minutes as a freshman for head coach
Todd Dyer.
“I call her the Tasmanian Devil. You wind her up and turn her loose,” says Dyer, now in his 19th season. “She can do a lot of neat things in a small space. She is like a Mighty Mouse. She is fast, quick and dangerous. She is one of our most dangerous players.
“Off the field she is making us laugh with crazy comments,” he added. “She marches to the beat of her own drum. It is refreshing to work with someone like that. Bridget is unique in what she offers on and off the field. She is always asking a lot of questions.”
She is known as the resident prankster for a team that welcomed 10 freshmen to the roster this season.
“I joke around a lot and pull some pranks with the girls. My dad is very comical, too, and likes to be sarcastic with me and it rubs off,” she says.
So wouldn't an incoming freshman be intimidated trying to play that role with teammates who are three or four years older?
“That is the thing about this team: everyone is close and welcoming and you don't feel uncomfortable at all,” says Bergquist, who is undecided on a major.
When the team was forced to eat a meal earlier than normal before facing Drexel on Aug. 17, several players checked their soda options. Most of them were drinking Coke when Bergquist piped up: “Can I have milk?” That brought smiles to some of her teammates.
“She is different from anyone that I know,” says
Kylie Dyer, a sophomore midfielder. “She makes everyone laugh. The freshman class has brought so many personalities to the team. There is no intimidation. She is confident on the field. She is go, go, go.”
Editor's Note: Special consultant David Driver is a Virginia native and has covered college sports in the state for more than 20 years. He has been a staff writer for newspapers in Arlington, Springfield and Harrisonburg and has contributed to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Washington Post, Stafford County Sun and The Potomac News in Woodbridge. He was also the first sports editor for the daily Baltimore Examiner. He will continue contributing special feature content to longwoodlancers.com throughout the upcoming 2012-13 academic year as well. A former Division III baseball player at Eastern Mennonite University, David can be reached at www.davidsdriver.com.
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