FROM FIELD TO FIELD: CSI DOLPHINS ALUMNI MAKE THEIR MARK AMIDST THE COVID PANDEMIC

4/17/2020 11:00:00 AM

When the going gets tough, the tough get to thinking, namely about the happier times. For some health care workers and first responders in our community, those times were spent in a College of Staten Island uniform not too long ago.

“There are definitely some moments nowadays that I take for myself after four or six hours straight wearing a mask when I’m able to splash some water on my face to just reset like I used to do after a big race,” says former CSI swimmer Chris Sorensen. “It does bring me back to when I played. As an athlete, I developed an internal voice that I still use to bring me peace during stressful times, now especially more and more.”

Sorensen is one in a long line of CSI alumni busier than most these days, as a nurse at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. As a pre- and post-operation nurse since November of 2018, his role has changed over the last month as he deals these days almost exclusively with coronavirus patients. He says that the COVID-19 pandemic has sent shockwaves through his entire workplace, whose nurses now deal with hundreds of patients a day, sometimes dozens an hour.

“Typically, as a nurse, we’re dealing with six patients at a time or in a typical tour, but since COVID we’re up to 10 and as high as 16 at any given time,” he said. “It reminds you that you’re one of the many moving parts that make up a system, like your typical team on the field or in the pool. Everyone is working to the same end. We huddle before shifts to game plan on how to be more efficient. Everyone has a role, and no one complains because you know what’s at stake. You realize immediately how being a part of a team in the past has paid off.”

And Sorensen is not the only one, the College of Staten Island claims one of the nation’s finest Nursing programs, and the academic discipline at CSI created dozens of nursing professionals coming out of athletics who have been put to work now more than ever on Staten Island, the neighboring boroughs and in other parts of the state and country. Those health care professionals are flanked by plenty of others serving as EMTs, firefighters and police officers during this time, graduates of CSI and the athletic program. They share a common thread of having built leadership and resiliency trademarks through athletics at CSI, and now more than ever, they are leaning on their years as a Dolphin to get through the hours they spent on their current, professional, teams.

Chris Sorensen now calls Maimonides Medical Center his home away from home these days.

Everyone has a role, and no one complains because you know what’s at stake. You realize immediately how being a part of a team in the past has paid off.

Chris Sorensen, former Men's Swimming athlete

“On the soccer field, the goal is to score goals and win games, and here it’s about getting people healthy so they can go back to their families, but the same principles still apply,” said Lauren Smith, who saved the only multi-goal scoring game of her career for the CUNYAC Championship in 2018, a highlight of her tremendous four-year career. Like Sorensen, she’s moved over from surgical nurse to shifts on the front line of North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. Her Fellowship there bled into her permanent appointment in January, right when COVID-19 started gaining attention on foreign soil. Now it’s the dominant part of her work. She leans on a lot of the training she got on the pitch to guide her now in her professional arena.

"As an athlete in those high-pressure situations, you learn pretty fast that you have to work together to get results,” she explained. “Everyone plays a vital role and just by doing the smallest things you’re helping a situation. You learn as an athlete that no small thing goes unnoticed, and it translates to what I am doing here as part of the team against this illness.”

It has been a unique experience, tells Smith. In that final outing of her CUNYAC career, she was named Most Valuable Player of the City University of New York Athletic Conference’s Women’s Soccer Tournament, won by CSI over John Jay College, 6-2. It was there that she came to the realization that her playing days were coming to an end, and that her new challenges as a nurse were upcoming. She anticipated seeing a little bit of everything, but she admits she’s already seen her fair share because of the virus.

Just weeks into her permanent appointment at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Lauren Smith was immersed into COVID care.

"It’s crazy how I just started and this was thrown at us,” she said. “Every day you’re walking into a new situation and working with new people you may have never worked with before, new patients. No one thought they would be a part of something like this.”

Fellow nurse and soccer alum, Melissa Gelardi, agrees. An NCAA record-holder for assists on the pitch, Gelardi won a CUNYAC Championship during her playing days from 2011-14 and has been stationed locally at Staten Island University Hospital’s North campus, doing what she described as being born to do. After a year in the NICU, she has been working labor and delivery for the past two years. While still stationed in maternity, like her cohorts, her focus has shifted to COVID patients as well. “You have to have strength and courage because we're experiencing a lot. You have patients who are really sick who are alone and just need support, someone to talk to or a hand to hold. You hate to see this happening, and it’s a reality we have all had to get used to quickly.” Gelardi calls upon a lot of the education she received at CSI during these challenging times, some of which never came from a textbook, classroom or laboratory, but rather on the playing field.

“For me, it’s been the frantic pace of time that I liken to athletics,” she says. “When I was playing and studying at CSI, it was 12-hour days just going full speed nonstop, and you learn very quickly to adjust to that type of pace. I’ve learned so much how to balance that thanks to my days as a student playing soccer.”

It’s crazy how I just started and this was thrown at us. Every day you’re walking into a new situation and working with new people you may have never worked with before, new patients. No one thought they would be a part of something like this.

Lauren Smith, former Women's Soccer player

And as most of the athletes contend, nowhere has the similarities between being an athlete and a professional in the medical field been more evident than with concepts of teamwork. While the images of fortitude, perseverance, bravery, and compassion come to mind when thinking about the front-line first-responders these days, there has also been a fair share of fear, trepidation, and an overall sense of loss that has come with their respective roles, and like it was on the field of play, it is then when you rely on your teammates most.

Born to be a nurse, Melissa Gelardi gets a lot of support from her brother, Angelo, and sister, Nicole.

"Seeing all of these sick people breaks your heart,” says Smith. “There’s a side of you that says you’re a professional and this is what you signed up for, and there is another side of this that I never really prepared for, and it can be really sad sometimes. It’s at that point that you lean on your teammates and know that we are all going through it together, and everyone has been so supportive here because we are relying on one another to get through it.”

“I come home upset a lot and I let out a few tears and that’s okay,” tells Gelardi, who credits leaning on her sister, Nicole, a fellow ER nurse at SIUH, for a great deal of support. “We’ve seen so much support from the community too and that has helped. Sadly, it sometimes takes something like this to bring us all together but the support has been overwhelming and it reminds you that you are part of a big team.”

Cassidy Iannariello, a former three-year standout in Women’s Volleyball who has since doubled on the Track & Field team, has been an EMT with Richmond University Medical Center on Staten Island, working per diem shifts while going to class and playing sports at CSI. In early March, when the outbreak first hit American shores, Iannariello was perfecting her work throwing the javelin, now she is trying hard to manage her demanding shifts next to completing her studies remotely since CSI switched to its current, distance-learning, model. She admits that as much as she loves what she is doing, she longs for the “normalcy” of being a student-athlete.

"The news of our suspended season was terrible,” she said. “I was hysterical crying because athletics has been such a big part of my life and I had worked so hard the last year and over the winter. Being an EMT, the athletics part of my life clears my mind, and having that taken away by this pandemic was just awful.”

Now more than ever, athletics could have provided that foundation for Iannariello. Her shifts on the ambulance over the past several weeks have been among the most grueling of her young career.

“It’s one of those things that you don’t truly understand until you see it first-hand,” said Iannariello, who gets a lot of calls for respiratory ailments connected with COVID and for cardiac arrests. “As an EMT, you have to stay composed to help people and the adrenaline rush does take over when you’re doing it, but when it’s over and the magnitude begins to hit, I just want to cry,” she explains. “We’ve gotten so many COVID calls, and you’re trying to do all you can to help people who are sick while also trying to stay safe yourself. It’s overwhelming at times.”

While athletics is often the escape part of the student-athlete balance inherent in the NCAA model that Iannariello used to spell her day-to-day, she, like most of her brethren, finds an exceptional amount of satisfaction in what she is doing, despite the maddening pace. The former President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee knows that some former and current CSI student-athletes are in the same field as she is, and it reminds her that it is a small world after all and that CSI Athletics Alumni, is making it a better place.

Cassidy Iannariello's days as an Emergency Medical Technician are at their most challenging these days.

"It’s an amazing feeling and I love the fact that all first-responders and health professionals are getting the recognition they deserve,” she said. “I hate the reason why we are getting the recognition, but it’s very humbling to hear the things that people are saying and it’s not said in jest. We truly are heroes to a lot of people and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

As an EMT, you have to stay composed to help people and the adrenaline rush does take over when you’re doing it, but when it’s over and the magnitude begins to hit, I just want to cry.

Cassidy Iannariello, former Women's Volleyball/Track & Field standout

Iannariello contends to using athletics as a vehicle for normalcy in the wake of what she does helping others on Staten Island.

And of course, CSI is doing its part institutionally as well. On top of managing an entire Athletics Department and the many intricacies it carries, Director of Athletics Charles Gomes has been a mainstay on campus, serving as a liaison with campus officials and Governor Cuomo’s office in potentially turning the Sports & Recreation Center into a makeshift hospital, both in the gym and in the adjacent facilities. While trying to stay COVID-free, it’s been a sobering deeper dive into the front-line work that is happening in response to the virus, even if talks of building those facilities have tempered thanks to the flattening of the COVID curve on Staten Island.

"An important element of our college's strategic plan is borough stewardship and our administration has lived up to that with a commitment to serving Staten Island by offering our campus as a potential site for a temporary hospital. Recent data from the Governor suggests our campus will no longer be utilized but we know that this entire situation has been fluid and our campus remains prepared to assist in any way possible," said Gomes.

While Gomes is happy to assist in the outreach effort, he deflects to CSI's litany of student-athletes who have been instrumental in the front-line fight against COVID-19. "I know I speak on behalf of the entire CSI campus when I say I couldn't be more proud of our athletics alumni who are serving our community as first responders, healthcare professionals and in a variety of other ways during the current pandemic," he stated. "They are literally on the front lines of this effort and supporting the entire community as true role models. Hearing them reference the impact being a student-athlete had on them and knowing they are part of our alumni base makes everyone associated with our department smile even during the most difficult times."

Gomes is making sure the campus is doing its part, and it calls to mind questions surrounding resources and personnel associated with the pandemic. Gomes knows the sports facility and the residence halls are there as added resources during this time, resources that all of the health professionals maintain they can use more of, especially in terms of manpower and space to operate.

“We’ve never been denied protective gear or anything like that,” tells Sorensen, “but with a lot of nurses getting sick themselves or staying home to protect fellow nurses, it definitely means we have been taking on a lot more patients, being short on staff, and administering the type of care that ICU’s would be used to simply because they are running out of space at times.”

Iannariello agrees. “I’ve been getting a lot of shifts because so many of my colleagues are out sick, and that’s the scary part of this, not having the manpower we usually do. We have what we need in terms of gear, but no one is stockpiling anything because what we have gets used. We’re doing okay and the community has been great. We’ve been getting a lot of help with everyday citizens reaching out to donate homemade masks and I make my own as well. It’s nice to see the community coming together and volunteering to help when and where they can.”

Uniforms for first-responders come with a lot of accessories in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

CSI Alum Victoria Procopio, a 2014 graduate and former Female Student-Athlete of the Year after winning a pair of CUNYAC Softball Championships, recently made a trip back to CSI, to meet with Softball Head Coach Eric Kraut about the school’s open assistant coach position. She was hired, but just four practices in, the pandemic unleashed its fury and Procopio, another registered nurse at Staten Island University Hospital, had to refocus on her new duties as a transplanted operating room nurse.

"It’s been very hectic,” says Procopio, who has been bounced around the hospital depending on what area needs the most attention on any given day. “Since all non-necessary surgical procedures have been canceled, we are basically reporting to whoever needs us most and it’s been unpredictable. It’s exhausting mentally and physically each day because you don’t know what you’re walking into and what kind of day you’re going to have. Every area has different policies and procedures and mentally it’s very challenging. You’re constantly changing and adjusting and it’s truly a minute-by-minute situation.”

Recently Procopio, with tired eyes and yearning voice, took to Facebook, urging her community to stay home to flatten the curve of positive cases, ones that have taxed the medical industry beyond anything they could have imagined.

"Yeah,” she says, “It happened after I was coming home from work at 3:30 PM and there was so much traffic on Staten Island and it makes you wonder where are all of these people going and are they listening to the calls for social distancing? I said to myself, this is really bad. People aren’t understanding how real this is.”

It’s a sensitive subject for Procopio, whose father tested positive for COVID weeks ago, a mild case that did not involve hospitalization. He was lucky, but many others are tempting fate, according to the former softball star turned coach. “When it hits home it’s a completely different ballgame, and when I see people not educating themselves on staying home or social distancing, it gets to me."

Procopio, a nurse at SIUH, is a former CUNYAC Tournament MVP and CSI Female Athlete of the Year.

I was coming home from work at 3:30 PM and there was so much traffic on Staten Island and it makes you wonder where are all of these people going and are they listening to the calls for social distancing? I said to myself, this is really bad. People aren’t understanding how real this is.

Victoria Procopio, former Softball standout and current Assistant Coach

Josh Mercado shares that same mantra. A 2017 graduate and three-time CUNYAC Champion on the baseball diamond, he’s now a New York City Police Officer in Transit District 34 in his native Brooklyn. He’s witnessed dozens of his colleagues stricken down with the virus and believes many came down with the illness when breaking up gatherings of people who should have been self-quarantining all along.

"In our command alone we are down about a third of our force either through positive tests or precautions for those that have symptoms,” he explained. “It takes its toll not just on the shifts we are putting in but all of the extra things we are doing like consistently sanitizing and staying ahead of the virus and checking in with families of those that are out sick to make sure they are okay. It’s a scary time, even for police officers because this affects everyone.”

He admits it’s been a strange time these days. Normally working the “school shift” middays, he finds himself working midnights now to compensate for lack of personnel, on largely unpopulated streets and with traffic at a minimum. Despite this, he knows that he is being depended on more than ever as fear in the public grows, and some in insolation seek an escape. That normally puts him to work breaking up gatherings, no matter how small.

"We’re doing a lot of different things and a lot of it is simply trying to educate people to stay safe and to be smart about what they are doing,” he said. “If you need to be out, do it at a distance, protect yourself, wear protective masks and gloves. Most people understand and are trying, but a lot of young people who should be in school are restless and try to dismiss it and we have to make sure they are doing their part with social distancing.”

Josh Mercado was a CSI Dolphin for three years, winning three CUNYAC Championships. He takes a lot of the lessons learned on the diamond with him in his travels as a police officer in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.

As frustrating as that is given the overwhelming number of illnesses and deaths born out of New York, it comes with the territory for Mercado and his colleagues and is what he signed up for. One thing he leans on is his days as a baseball player, when he got a pretty good taste for the pressure and the commitment it takes to be successful in the wake of uncertainty.

“For me, it’s all about working together as a team,” Mercado reinforced. “Especially as a baseball player, you have to do your part and need to trust others to do their part. You have to be unselfish, and look out for one another if you want to be successful and we had a lot of success. One person can’t do it alone. As a Brooklyn kid who came to CSI I realize that so many of my teammates and people at CSI joined the civil service and to be a part of the health care industry and it speaks to their willingness and readiness to help others. That’s amazing to me."

Mercado, who has chosen to live apart from his family during this time for fear that he may bring the virus home, knows that this pause the nation is taking will help folks appreciate the little things normally taken for granted.

“Man, not having sports right now, seems like a small thing, but I’ll never take it for granted again,” he said. “We forget how much we appreciate going outside, or being inside spending time with loved ones. This time is teaching me to value those little things.”

As a Brooklyn kid who came to CSI I realize that so many of my teammates and people at CSI joined the civil service and to be a part of the health care industry and it speaks to their willingness and readiness to help others. That’s amazing to me.

Josh Mercado, former Baseball player

Gelardi concedes that it is a scary time, but she also keeps perspective. Just like a ball game, this too will come to an end, and when it does, there will be plenty to learn from. "We’ve seen so much support and love come from this and I think what we can learn from this is that we should be doing it all the time as a community. It has the ability to knock out whatever sadness and despair happens.”

Sorensen couldn’t agree more. He gives a long pause when he’s called a hero and chokes up when responding to the outpouring of appreciation that is thrown his way. “None of us go into these professions to be called a hero. I never went into nursing because I thought people would clap for me or cheer when I start and finish a shift, but this movement is so invigorating. It keeps us going back into the fire because the community’s response is like a wind at your back pushing you. It’s like being in an arena where fans are giving you unwavering support. You can’t help but go out there again with even more energy because you’re doing it for your mom and dad, for your community, and for the others who are doing it with you, like your teammates in sports. It’s very powerful.”

“As a police officer it’s kind of strange to hear people thanking us, and I have to tell you, that feels really good,” tells Mercado. “I think people understand that when we are dealing with something like this, we are all in it together, and that makes me very proud to do what I do.”

Like an athlete dealing with a loss, or the end of a long day on the field, Procopio also knows that there is a proverbial light at the end of this dark tunnel. Bigger than a game, she has seen enough grief and despair to know that the game she is playing every day is real, but is confident enough in her abilities, and the ability of those around her, that the storm will eventually be weathered, and many will live to play another day.

Sorensen used to practically live in the water, now he appreciates the few minutes he gets to spend splashing it on his face after wearing a mask for several hours.

I never went into nursing because I thought people would clap for me or cheer when I start and finish a shift, but this movement is so invigorating. It keeps us going back into the fire because the community’s response is like a wind at your back pushing you.

Chris Sorensen

Gelardi (left) & Procopio (right) both feel there is a lot to be learned from this experience similar to when they played the sports they love.

“As an athlete, I was always a big supporter of teamwork, good communication and confidence as the keys to getting through a softball game and I think it still works for now too,” she said. "Teamwork is huge, pandemic aside, you have to work with others or you’re going to have difficulties no matter where you are and what you do. You have to be able to communicate, ask when you need help, otherwise you get nervous and unsure. In softball that might mean I’m not in the right place and I committed an error. In my field now it could be the difference in life and death. We all have fears, but when we face adversity with confidence because we’re together, we can get through the day. I reflect on that as a reminder that we will eventually be okay.”

For now, the CSI brethren in the field saving lives amidst the pandemic are acting in place of those who would be on the field of play at CSI grabbing the athletics headlines, and slowly but surely, it is a fight they are winning, thanks largely in part to the educations they’ve received at CSI. They’re happy knowing that they still represent CSI and a piece of Dolphins Athletics history in their daily battles.

“I’m meeting new people all the time and I’m constantly being asked where I studied and I love to tell people I went to CSI,” said Smith. “I love being able to tell them more about it and making people aware of how great the program is and the people who supported me in athletics are.”

"I am so proud of where I came from,” says Gelardi. “CSI taught me so much, and there’s no way I would have gotten through the tough Nursing program without the help of my directors and coaches and teammates. We got so much support and CSI was always a home for us. I’m so glad I get to offer that support back now doing what I am doing.”

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