With surprise spikes in glucose and fears of fainting, Sophomore Ella Troy does not let her Type 1 Diabetes put an end to her athletic lifestyle. Playing both basketball and lacrosse, Troy proves herself to overcome anything. 

Inspired by her family’s participation in lacrosse, Troy picked up the sport at a young age and still plans to play in the future as well. 

“I played defense…I’ve played it for like 10 years… but my siblings played too,” Troy said.

As a multi-athlete, Troy notices differences in the ways her diabetes affects her performance between basketball and lacrosse. 

“In basketball, it affects my blood sugar, but it doesn’t affect my playing time or my playing. But in lacrosse, it’ll affect it highly and it’ll affect the way I play. So it’s different for both of them,” Troy said. 

In preparation for an endurance-filled match, Troy takes precautions for her diabetes to prevent her from exhausting herself if her blood sugar happens to be too high. 

“Before the games, I’ll have to take my extra insulin, which is something to help it [blood sugar] get back to level,” Troy said.

When first diagnosed on Oct. 24, 2017, feelings of disappointment flooded Troy’s mind.  Yet, despite all the hardships, she chooses to have a benefit-of-the-doubt mindset. 

“At first it was definitely like ‘ why this happened to me’ and all that, but you can’t really do anything about it. So I think on the positive side,” Troy said. 

At any given moment, Troy’s glucose level can spike and cause an emergency situation. Having lived with Type 1 Diabetes for seven years, she has developed an intuition that is in tune with her body. 

“I just have to be aware. If something’s going wrong, I can feel it, and then I’ll have to figure it out,” Troy said. 

Although Troy is extremely independent when it comes to taking care of her body, she can always rely on the support from her family and teammates before she begins the rough and tiring sport. 

“Definitely my parents and my close friends… [and my] team they all know and they’ll help me out if they notice something,” Troy said. 

Alongside her in defense is senior Bella Donofrio, who has strengthened her friendship with Troy as they have been playing together for over a year. 

“We met last year when we both made varsity. Because we are both on defense we are playing with each other 24/7 and we are with each other every day,” Donofrio said. 

Although her teammates are ready to help Troy at any given moment, Troy takes leadership in taking care of herself before or during games. Along with the support of her team, is the help of her mom who jumps into action if necessary. 

“She is really independent with it and it’s good because she knows what she’s doing, not a lot of people know how to deal with it …if she needs help I’ll be there but I know her mom is always there for her. I know one time her mom was on the sidelines and had to help her but she’s pretty good with it so she just helps herself,” Donofrio said. 

As Donofrio is leaving the world of lacrosse as she plays her last season, she shares her love and luck for Troy’s athletic future. 

“I love her. I want her to be captain in lacrosse, I want her to make varsity basketball, she is so athletic. I just want her to be successful in everything because she is such a hard worker,” Donofrio said.