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Author: Emily Bunnell  (Me, front right, and Abby J next to me, in the unlucky position of receiving bunny ears) How I found my way onto summer teams goes back to Baylor University. In the fall of 2018, I was one of the first women’s soccer players to enter the new transfer portal. I remember the week the portal was supposed to go live, just itching to leave. I had to get out of Texas, out of the south. When I finally started my (first) transfer process, I took four official visits and a couple of weeks to figure out what was next. When I decided, I sat in my parents room crying. I had just got off the phone with Seattle University head coach Julie Woodward, telling her I had decided to go to Minnesota. I sent a text to Chris Wells, the assistant coach, thanking him for the visit as well. I would start my next journey at the University of Minnesota the following semester. During the spring, the Minnesota soccer team had a meeting about playing summer ball. When I was at Baylor, we were given strength and conditioning packets (and extremely tough ones) but there wasn’t a discussion around playing summer ball. Of course I was interested, any chance to get on a field and play is a chance I typically take. One opportunity came up in the meeting – a team called the Seattle Stars was looking for players. Players would be housed by host families and spend May-July training three days a week with games on the weekends. This sounded so cool to me. I have never lived in the Pacific Northwest or played for a summer team. This could be fun, and it might be healthy for me to take another crack at getting out of my comfort zone in Minnesota. I talked to my head coach at the time, and she shared with me more information on how to get in contact with the coach of the Stars, Chris Wells. When I heard that Chris was the head coach – already having an idea of the type of coach and person he was – instantly I was sold. I talked to my dad and he was all for it. Details were finalized and the day after my finals were completed, my dad and I began our 26 hour road trip to Seattle, WA. This summer, 2019, is one of my all time favorites – and it came at a time when I was struggling. I had just transferred to the Gophers for a spring season and was still recovering mentally and emotionally from what Baylor was. Getting away for the summer, I was able to focus on my mission, to get in peak shape physically, technically, and mentally for my first fall season as a Gopher. And I did just that. In terms of the soccer, I got exactly what I expected from playing with the Stars. I got fitter, my technical skills improved, and I was playing with confidence. What I didn’t expect was all the other benefits that the Stars provided me. The relationships I built that summer with teammates and my host family have stayed with me to this day. I went to Seattle not knowing anyone, and I left with new friends and some great mentors. I fell in love with a city I had never thought I would. And most importantly, I fell in love with soccer again. I didn’t realize how much fun I *wasn’t having* playing soccer until I started having fun again. Leaving Seattle, I was glowing from the inside out. As I left the city with my dad to go back home, it took just 20 minutes for him to turn to me and say “You know, it’s not too late to change your mind. We can figure out a way to make it work. You haven’t technically used any eligibility at Minnesota.” “No, I made a commitment. I have to go back.” To keep it simple, I did not enjoy my fall season with the Gophers. Going 3-12-4 wasn’t fun. Playing 89 minutes on the season was not fun. Watching two teammates tear their ACL was not fun. I was ready to be done with Minnesota. I didn’t fit in. But I knew I didn’t want to quit soccer. I kept my spark alive by remembering how much fun I can have playing – my time with the Stars in the forefront of my mind. On my 21st birthday, I had a meeting with the staff. I asked to enter the transfer portal, again. The next day I submitted all my paperwork to the NCAA and called Chris Wells. I knew exactly where I wanted to go. One problem. With NCAA regulations, I did have to graduate that spring, a year early, to be eligible to play at a third university. This meant I had to take 26 credits that spring and study abroad in Bali over J term (I couldn’t fit all the credits into a schedule, real bummer). I also had to get permission from the dean of my college to take that many classes by convincing him that I had a plan in place to succeed in the classroom. Where there is a will, there is a way! Then, of course, the Covid-19 lockdown hit halfway through the semester. Suddenly, school became a much different (and to be honest, easier) situation to handle. I did it, I got my bachelors in three years (with a 3.97 GPA). I was ready to get out to Seattle. Unfortunately summer ball was canceled that year, but I was just so excited to start my next chapter in soccer. The following summer, 2021, I could not play for Chris Wells. Due to NCAA rules I could not play for my college coach over the summer. I still wanted to stay in Seattle, because I was enjoying my time immensely in Washington, so I found the next best option for me in the Pacific Northwest (where opportunities and competition during summer ball was much stronger than I’d observed back home). With guidance from my coaches and teammates at Seattle U, I found myself playing for the PacNW WPSL soccer team. Again, I had so much fun. I began to develop a sense of belonging and connection within the soccer community in Seattle and ended up playing for PacNW the following summer as well. After graduating with my masters from Seattle U, I began looking to play professionally just as I had always dreamed. In the winter window, I struggled to connect with the right agent and then ultimately had to delay my process due to a minor injury. So, it was looking like it was time to find a summer team again! Of course I reached out to Chris Wells with his recommendations, especially now that I was allowed to play for his summer team again. In their first season in the USL-W, Chris Wells would be head coach of Oly Town FC. After getting cleared for contact by my physiotherapist April 28th, I was back on the field for summer ball with Oly Town in my first scrimmage May 9th. Again, I was looking forward to another great summer playing soccer in Seattle. This time, my intentions were to get game fit and to stay prepared for my number to be called for a professional team. Not only did I succeed in terms of that top line goal (getting THE call that a team in Portugal wanted me in June) but I was once again surrounded by amazing girls that I got to connect with and learn from. Many were still in college, but there were a handful that already had professional stints in the US and abroad. I found myself, and many other girls that had aspirations to play professionally, learning as much as we would from the veteran players. The good, the bad, the ugly of women’s professional soccer. I actually now get to play against one of my Oly Town teammates, Abby J of Torreense in Liga BPI! Summer ball has been a huge part of my soccer career. I feel incredibly lucky to have loved every team I have been a part of. It’s been a great opportunity to play with players you may never have played with before, play for different coaches and gain different perspectives into your game, and meet some pretty awesome people. It is less stressful than a collegiate season, so it is a great chance to gain confidence, try new things and grow both as a player and person. Summer ball can also be a unique way to live in a new part of the country. Most importantly, you go into a fall season game fit and ready to play which is one of the most important measures in preventing injury. I look back to that meeting in the spring of 2019 and cannot help but feel grateful I took a chance on moving across the country for a summer team. Want to support our work? You can start for as little as $2/month on Patreon!
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Author: Emily Bunnell  Concussions have been my most frequent injury in my athletic career. Concussions are an injury that affects everyone uniquely, and the recovery can be unpredictable. Thankfully, I have grown up in an era of greater understanding and awareness for concussions. Head injuries are no joke. As much as I have advocated “I’m fine” after a knock to the head, I am grateful for my athletic trainers and coaches for knowing better than to let me continue to compete. That’s not to say I haven’t always told the truth or found loopholes in the system, but as I have matured I have come to understand that the game is not as important as having a functioning head on my shoulders. My first experience with head trauma came at age seven when I was in gymnastics. Young Bunnell decided it’d be a good idea to try a new skill on the balance beam, a skill I had yet to master on the floor. Naturally, I landed straight on my head and needed a couple stitches. This was in 2005 and my concussion testing in the emergency room involved attempting to complete an iSpy book. I completed it, so it was determined I didn’t have a concussion. I assume iSpy books have since been removed from concussion protocol. Around that same time, I was also playing club soccer. My club soccer team Bangu Tsunami (which eventually became part of Minnesota Thunder Academy) decided to provide headgear for all youth players in their programs. This decision taken by a club – protecting youth soccer players from head injuries – was so far ahead of its time. I wore mine all the time and still do. This was a formative moment in my soccer career that allowed me to be fearless in the air with my head. And it was at the very beginning of a shift in youth sports to protect young athletes against head injuries. Although it wasn’t perfect, and protocols were not very sophisticated, the information and awareness surrounding athletes and head injuries was beginning to make its way forward. Physical Play, Intense Impacts Since then, I have had many head bumps, minor concussions, and even a broken nose or two while playing. With my style of play, even while wearing headgear, knocks to the head are bound to happen. However, from my experience and familiarity with head trauma from a young age, it took me a little too long to take the health of my brain seriously. I had always bounced back pretty quickly and each head injury had been far enough apart from one another that I wasn't experiencing any long term issues. I made it through most of my college career with the same trajectory – bump here and there – when I finally experienced my first real, substantial head injury. Two minutes into a game at Utah Tech while playing for Seattle U, my teammate and I collided heads while going up for a defensive clearance. I actually remember quite a bit from that moment. I knew I got hit and fell down, and then my teammate yelled “there’s blood!” My first thought was “Jeez, I must’ve got her good” until I regained some focus in my eyes. My next thought was “Oh shit, it’s my blood. I broke my nose. Will I need a nose job?” I have no idea why that was the first thing to go through my head – it’s a little funny looking back. But then my athletic trainer got to me, I stood up, and started walking the wrong direction. Once she got me off the field, all I wanted was some cotton stuck up my nose and to get back on the field. Thankfully, instead, my athletic trainer got me to lay down and started to clean everything up andI realized I couldn’t see. It wasn’t my nose, it was my eye. Realizing I could not see out of my right eye, I accepted that maybe I wasn’t going back in the game. I was forced to take this concussion seriously. It helped that my orbital bone was fractured and I wouldn’t be able to play while the bone healed for the next 8-12 weeks. I would follow normal concussion protocol as provided by my athletic trainer but hold off full contact play until I was cleared by the ENT specialist. I was also in physical therapy to regain movement in my eye and focus in my vision. I was doing all the right things to get back on the field right after winter break.  One month and six days after the initial head injury, I woke up on a Monday morning to someone yelling my name at me. As I lay on the floor of my apartment, a strange feeling of euphoria rushed over me. I was confused, but I was just so happy to be here, wherever that was. When I started to come to, I was helped onto a gurney. I learned the man was an EMT, and I was told I had a seizure while I was waking up. My roommate heard me fall out of bed and she came to check if I was okay. She found me having a grand mal seizure. Gabe is a literal angel, her response to my medical emergency was incredible. So I found myself back in the hospital, more imaging, more testing, more doctors. In December 2021, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. I was confused, who gets diagnosed with epilepsy at age 22? The CT scan showed an abnormal area of gray matter on the left side of my brain, but I had all my recent head trauma on my right side. Although the head trauma did not cause the epilepsy, it may have triggered a form of epilepsy I was born with. It was a lot of information to learn all at once, especially still being concussed, broken, and in my “seizure hangover” stage. I didn’t know what all this meant for me. What would playing with epilepsy be like? Could I still head the ball? What if I had another? It was a really hard and confusing time for me. I experimented with a couple different medications and dosages for several weeks before finding one that worked for me. Four months later, I was able to begin playing again. I would play my sixth, and final, season at Seattle U without a second thought. I was still wearing my headgear, but the events of the past year hadn’t fully sunk in. It took me almost two years to feel like my normal self again. Turning Point, Protocols In late September 2022, Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa had returned shortly after one concussion before getting concussed again. I watched that hit, and the aftermath of his symptoms on national television. That was a turning point for me. Not my own personal pain or seizure or warnings from medical staff. It was watching a football player on TV. That could legitimately be me if I took another hit, or cut corners on a head injury recovery. I began to fully understand that there needs to be a balance. I can’t be reckless in the air, my headgear clearly can’t protect me from everything. But I also can’t play scared – which can be equally as dangerous. I needed to learn to see and pick the right moments to go in for aerial challenges. Either I go 100% fully believing I will win the ball or maybe that is not a moment to put myself at risk. It was trial and error learning from my concussions, and still is, but it was a learning curve that I know will benefit me in the long run on and off the field. Thankfully, things finally seemed under control. My medication seemed to be working and I had been seizure free since that incident. As I prepared for my transition to professional soccer, I felt I was ready. But moving abroad for my first professional playing opportunity also presented a unique set of challenges. As many players had warned me, concussion protocol for women’s professional soccer abroad is not always held to the same standard as it is in America. Of course, this is varied among teams, medical staff, etc. for each team, but generally this is what I was prepared for. What I was not prepared for was being told I did not have epilepsy by a medical professional during my initial physical, despite bringing all my medical paperwork, prescriptions, and doctors notes. I had to fight tooth and nail for the medical professional to write me the prescription I needed, but I did finally get my medication.  The club staff and my roommates were aware of my diagnosis. Because I believed it was important for people around me to know that, however unlikely, that I could possibly have a seizure. Thank goodness I let them know. March 17th, while out to dinner with a friend, I said “I kinda feel weird.” Next thing I remember is waking up in the ambulance. I had had my second seizure, this time in a foreign country. I was nervous, a lot of doubts flooded in my head while I sat in the gurney at the hospital. What will the recovery look like this time? Will I have similar mood swings? I was scared I wasn’t going to be “me” for awhile again. Due to the nature of my seizure, and the fact it was not in correlation with a concussion, I felt like myself again before leaving the hospital. My friend, Jaime, who was at dinner with me, was amazing. She caught me before I could injure myself, got help from other people in the restaurant, and called 112 (the 911 of Portugal). I had not experienced any recent head trauma, which was reassuring. But for whatever reason, I had an episode and needed time to recover once again. The aftermath of my seizure was much smoother this time around. I took 72 hours to return back to training. I saw a neurologist, who upped my medication dosage. I had some symptoms with the change in dosage, but I was able to adapt within a couple weeks. I feel very fortunate that I did not have the same process and effects as the first seizure. But, I still don’t know the cause of this one. It could have been lack of sleep, having traveled to Madeira a few days prior for a game, or it could have been stress. I recently had needed to take some time away from playing to rest due to a nagging patellar tendon and, as any athlete knows, when you are injured you are under increased stress. Eventually I may be able to pinpoint the cause, but for now it really doesn’t matter. I have taken steps to really prioritize my recovery. Along with my medication, I try to get 8-9 hours of sleep a night. My nutrition has become a huge part of my daily routine – tracking my macros for optimal performance and recovery. I started working on reducing stress with journaling (which I have done off and on for the majority of my life) as well as using mental imagery. And the big two, since my seizure I have completely cut out alcohol consumption (which was not hard) and reduced my daily caffeine intake to ~90mg or less a day, roughly equivalent to a cup of coffee daily (this one was way more difficult). My job depends on my body. Taking better care of myself, especially as I enter my mid-20s, has already had a positive impact on my performance and my overall health.  For anyone out there who comes across a friend or teammate who has epilepsy, here are a few helpful tips in the case someone has a seizure:
Link to donate to the Epilepsy Foundation: https://give.epilepsy.com/page/33651/donate/1 If you want to support our coverage of Minnesota women's soccer, you can start for as little as $2/month on Patreon or by sharing this piece to social media!
Author: Emily Bunnell  All I have ever wanted to do since I was four years old was play soccer. When adults would ask me “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I responded, like many other young kids, “I want to play professional soccer!” Well, play soccer and drive an ice cream truck around my small town. Since August 1, 2023 I can officially say one of my dreams came true; I am a professional soccer player! My name is Emily Bunnell, I am 25 years old playing professional soccer in Portugal. I signed a one-year contract with Clube de Albergaria in first division Portugal. Born and raised in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, I grew up playing for Bangu Tsunami which would eventually turn into Minnesota Thunder Academy. I also attended and played for East Ridge High School. I committed to play DI soccer at Baylor University in my sophomore year, before I even had my driver’s license, and ended up playing there for two seasons. The next season I played at University of Minnesota, and then three more seasons at Seattle University (yes, I played six collegiate seasons but that story is for another day). In July 2023, I flew to Portugal for a two-week trial with Clube de Albergaria. After my trial period, I was asked to sign for the 2023-24 season. I was elated, I could finally call myself a professional soccer player!  This season, like any other, has had its fair share of highs and lows, but I am so grateful to have had my rookie season here with Clube de Albergaria in Portugal. My teammates here are awesome, and I have a community of friends playing professional sports all over the world to help me navigate it all. Before arriving in Portugal, I had an idea of what life was like for a female professional soccer player, but as usual, there was no way I could be prepared for all I would experience. You may wonder, “What life is like for a young soccer player playing professionally overseas?” There is some routine, but always a surprise or two in my daily life. Liga BPI season runs from September through May consisting of 22 match days along with several Cup games throughout the season. The most consistent parts of my week are my training and gym sessions. Today, Wednesday March 27, I had a pretty structured day. So a day in the life of a professional female soccer player can look like this: 8:30am- Wake up and begin my day with coffee and water before leaving for the gym 9:00am- Begin weight session, today I did a bike workout and upper body focused lift 11:00am- Leave the gym and head home for breakfast. I decided to stop on the way home at the local farmers market to restock on fruits and vegetables for the week. 2:00pm- Ate lunch and met up with a teammate to go volunteer at a local elementary school. The club has done a campaign around gender equality in sport. We have been going to various schools with information on gender equality in sport and then get to play with them for the afternoon.  4:30pm- Returned home from the school. I had a meeting with the club’s treasurer to take care of some tax documents, probably the most normal (and boring) part of my day. 5:00pm- Took some time for myself at the local cafe. I had my normal coffee order, an abatanado, which is similar to an americano. Here I work on my Portuguese, read, journal, and started writing this blog post! 7:30pm- Meet at the club center, called the Sede, to take the vans to training. Typically I will get to the Sede early to bike and do other activation exercises. Today, I will be with the athletic trainer during training due to a nagging case of tendonitis. We do not play this upcoming weekend, so it is a good week to get in some extra recovery!  Training is from 8pm-10pm 11:00pm- Arrive home from training. I will shower, eat, and try to be in bed as quickly as possible. I take my sleep recovery very seriously, so most nights I will be asleep by midnight. And that is a day in the life of a professional female soccer player! Not everyday looks the same, like with any job. Some days I am able to make a day trip to the beach while other days I am so tired I need a nap before training. And trust me, being a female soccer player is not always glamorous. There have been hardships in my first year, but I get to play the game I love. My teammates have been a light in this journey, they make the hard day easier and the good days filled with memories I’ll cherish forever. |