Injuries are a part of sports, and unfortunately, they can change the trajectory of an athlete’s career. For Gabby Lotter, her injuries changed more than just her career. They changed her life.
“I went to the doctor and found out I would be needing surgery and that I would be out for pretty much a whole year,” Lotter said. “It’s kind of sad that I would be missing my freshman year of college soccer.”
Lotter is a former women’s soccer player who won two conference championships with Piedmont University. She tore her ACL for the first time at 18 years-old and battled injuries throughout her college career. It was through facing these injuries, she found the light in a dark tunnel.
“I wanted to work with younger athletes and be around sports. Going through my rehab at Piedmont in the athletic training room kind of just confirmed, OK, yeah, that’s what I want to do.”
In the time she spent in the athletic training room with a torn ACL, torn meniscus and torn labrum, she built relationships with the trainers and the other athletes in rehab. Piedmont became more than just where she got her athletic training degree from. It became home.
“I really saw the staff, coaches and teammates come together to help her,” said Elissa Lotter, Gabby’s former teammate and younger sister. “Whether that was to give her rides to class or just be there supporting her emotionally, mentally through it all. I really think that showed the kind of people and family she has and that it shows Piedmont’s culture.”
Gabby graduated from Piedmont in 2021 and took a position as a high school and college athletic trainer in Louisiana, seven hours away from her home state of Georgia. While she visited frequently, where she was didn’t replicate the feeling she had taping ankles in Demorest.
“It was hard because I was really homesick,” Gabby said. “It just kind of helped me to appreciate what I had at home.”
One year after leaving Georgia, Gabby took a position she was all too familiar with. Gabby now serves as the assistant athletic trainer at Piedmont University. She once sat in the training room to do rehab, now she sits to plan rehab for students in her role just two years before.
“I feel like Piedmont is a homey environment. I feel like everyone kind of looks out for each other. Whereas like, at the Division I level, people still care about each other, but it was just different. I did miss having more of a personable relationship with the people that I worked with. So that was kind of what brought me back.”
Gabby is currently an athletic trainer for Piedmont men’s basketball, baseball, men’s soccer, men’s and women’s track and field throwers, and cheerleading. While those are her primary sports, she’s always willing to help another athlete and is constantly spending time with Piedmont students and staff inside and outside of the athletic training room.
“I think [Piedmont] brought her some really close friends that have become family, or else she wouldn’t have come back,” said Elissa Lotter. “Gabby is a very kind and compassionate person. I feel like she is very hardworking and puts in her best effort in whatever she does. She goes above and beyond for athletes.”
Through the hardships of injuries or the heartache of being away from the ones you love, Gabby Lotter found her way back to Piedmont. She found her way back to what she knows best.
“Home is being surrounded by people you love,” she said. “Home is where the heart is.”
