Abby Stack had 146 absences in her eighth-grade year due to a heart condition called POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which affects her nervous system, causing numerous other issues throughout her whole body. For many months before her diagnosis, her doctors hadn’t known what was wrong, causing her to be in and out of the hospital constantly. That same year, she would have to give up lacrosse, a sport she had been playing since 5th grade.
After months of hospital visits and new medications, Stack was able to take the field once again as a freshman, a year later. Though she could play again, it was still a struggle for Stack. Stack voiced, “Even that was an adjustment because, unfortunately, part of that process was trial and error when it came to playing the sport again.” Meaning,
For Stack, depending on her medications at the time, her doctors never knew how it would affect her, which became hard as an athlete.
Her life with POTS, and the hospital visits that came with it, became Stack’s reality and made it difficult to do simple tasks like running the field. Prior, she had been physically capable. She could run plays and stay out on the field for long periods, but simple things like running were a struggle; however, she got past that despite the challenge.
Stack had always loved lacrosse, and it was never a hard choice whether she wanted to play or not; she always found a way to keep going despite the difficulties she encountered along the way.
“[I was] happy that it happened to me because I seriously don’t know where I would be without that experience,” stated Stack.
Stack has a positive outlook on many things in her life, and this quality is something she experienced firsthand from a former Senior captain from 2024 of the Morgan girls lacrosse team, Ava Schmidt. Schmidt is a good friend of Stack’s and has influenced her a lot. Stack described Schmidt as one of her biggest role models and hopes to carry the positive energy she had previously displayed to the team with her role as captain this year.
Ava was always a very positive influence on the team. I watched her talk to all the freshmen last year and be a friend to everyone, and even people that I would see not be the nicest to her, she would always be so gracious and add everything with a smile,” said Stack. Having watched Schmidt communicate and act so positively, Stack was influenced to act and perform the same way to everyone while she is captain.
Schmidt was not only a positive person on the team, but she was also a responsible captain and organized the winter league for the first time for Morgan, which motivated Stack to continue the opportunity this year.
It was easier for Stack to focus on running the Winter League since, unlike many others, she only plays Lacrosse and no other sports throughout the year.
Winter league taught Stack a lot about leadership and the importance of making decisions for the team.
“One time I decided to cancel our game over some bad weather, and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, though some were, but I knew it was the right choice for the team.”
Stack plans to use the leadership skills she previously learned from Winter League this coming season. The Morgan girls lacrosse team is losing over five players this year, not including the seniors who graduated from the previous year. Stack, as a junior captain, hopes that now that she is in a higher role, she can use it to rid the team of that energy. She can step up and end the negativity, and she plans to do that by hosting more fundraisers and having more fun activities with the team.
In previous years, “we just played lacrosse, the team wasn’t very connected off the field,” said Stack. She plans to have more fundraisers this year and more team bonding opportunities to attempt to eliminate negativity.
Co-captain Lili Luciani said, “I’m really excited to be co-captains with her. I feel our dynamic will be great since we are close friends off the field, which will definitely help us in the season.”
Co-captain Cora Dunham stated, “I’ve seen Abby show great leadership already through winter league and the start of the season, and I’m excited to see how me, her, and Luc can lead our team to success.”
Stack sees a lot of potential in the team this year and pictures the team going very far throughout the year based on how well the team performed in the previous winter league sessions. Though Stack had gone through struggles to get to the point she is in today, she is excited for this coming season and ready for this role in leadership with the team.
