'I'm really glad that I was here': Field soccer's Adriana Bright relishes health, success

One of the lasting images of the 2023 Portage County girls soccer season will be that of Adriana Bright making the solitary walk — in this case, limp — to take and make the game-winning penalty kick that delivered a sectional championship for Field.

The context made the moment.

Long considered one of the Falcons' leading talents, Bright was limited the past couple seasons as she battled mysterious fatigue and illness that turned out to be postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, better known as POTS.

It took time to figure out the illness.

It took time to figure out the solution.

The remedy arrived just in time for Bright to make her impact at Kenneth W. Lohr Stadium, as she finished second on this year's team with 17 goals.

"She went [from] where she could only play about five minutes hard to playing 80 minutes," Falcons coach Jason Schindler said. "I've had so many coaches go, 'What year is she?' Well, she's a senior. They're like, 'Where's she been?' I'm like, that's her story."

It's hard not to wonder what could have been. Schindler ponders what it would have been like to pair Bright with Cassie Wilde, who had 19 goals as a senior in 2022 and 37 the prior year.

Backing away from the hypothetical, however, Schindler can't help but smile.

"She's an inspiration," Schindler said. "She never quit, so that's kind of what's awesome."

A mysterious problem plagues a young Adriana Bright

Danyel Bright, Adriana's mother, was flummoxed.

Schindler was perplexed.

No one knew quite what to make of Bright midway through her high school career.

"She would be tired or she would have dizzy spells or she just didn't feel well," Schindler said. "I'm like, 'Alright, go sit down.' If a kid's not feeling well, don't power through. Just go sit down."

Still, all that sitting got frustrating, both on and off the field.

"It was really hard for her because she wasn't able to do a whole lot because she was just exhausted," Danyel Bright said. "She couldn't keep up with her friends. All she wanted to do was sleep.

"If she stood up too fast, she would fall down. She would always have to lay down to kind of get her heart rate back to normal, so it was a long haul."

While they worked to figure out what was going on, venturing from one doctor to the next, Bright tried to play soccer her junior season, but nothing went right.

"Last year was a really difficult year," Bright said. "We still haven't figured out what was going on with my heart. It was beating way too fast. I was seeing stars. I couldn't breathe and then I got injured during a scrimmage. I strained my patella in my knee and then I was out for almost the whole season. [When I] came back, I was just out of shape. I wasn't there."

Adriana Bright's journey back to stardom

Junior year featured dark moments.

But there was light at the end of a long tunnel.

The Bright family originally went to Pulmonology convinced that she had a breathing problem. They went to her regular doctor and couldn't find anything. They went to Cardiology, which in turn sent Bright to the Syncope Clinic, where her condition was finally diagnosed midway through her junior year.

In retrospect, it all seems so simple.

Danyel Bright has POTS.

Of course, that's what was bothering Adriana.

But Danyel's POTS had never led to anything quite like what Adriana was dealing with and she wasn't sure if it was hereditary anyway given no one in the family aside from Danyel had been diagnosed with POTS — until Adriana's diagnosis anyway.

"Mine's not as severe as hers," Danyel Bright said. "I get where sometimes I feel like I want to pass out, but not as soon as I stand up like she does."

The diagnosis was a big step, but Bright was still far from limping down the pitch to knock home a game-winner. This summer is when things really started to click, as Bright found pills and a diet that worked for her, greatly increasing her salt and water intake.

Once out of the tunnel, the sky brightened almost immediately, as she found Field's first day of training surprisingly doable. Gone were the dizzy spells that sent Bright to the bench.

"We ran, we sprinted and I wasn't getting tired and I was just going," Bright said. "We scrimmaged, I was just going. I was like I'm finally back. It was kind of a huge relief."

Bright scored in Field's third game of the 2023 season, a critical goal in a 2-1 league win over Woodridge. That ended up being the first of five straight games in which she scored.

"This year's a completely different kid, that's all I can say is a different kid, a different player," Schindler said. "I'm thankful that it is and it's for herself. She's living up to her potential, like I know I'm better than this, and she actually is living up to that potential."

And when she scored on that chilly sectional final night, Bright felt nothing but gratitude.

"When we played our first game, I was really glad to be back," Bright said. "Tonight was just one of those nights where I'm really glad that I was here."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Adriana Bright relishes health, chance to star for Field girls soccer