Everything happens for a reason. Somewhere in the middle of her 40-lap swim at the Salem University Tigers Tri-Meet on Oct. 22, between the sounds of a cheering home crowd and the music playing in her head, Alyssa Discepola drew on familiar words of inspiration.

Everything happens for a reason.

Even if you can't see what that reason is yet.

Almost two years ago, five games into the sophomore season of a burgeoning collegiate softball career, Discepola was hit in the head by an errant throw in the outfield. A random occurrence that inflicted Alyssa's fifth concussion, having suffered three in high school and another in her freshman season.

Three different doctors delivered the same crushing news.

"I went home, and my doctor told me, 'you're never going to play again,'" Discepola said.  "It was such a dramatic change in my life. I'd played softball since I was a little kid."

On the softball field, Alyssa Discepola's swing was almost second nature. As a freshman in 2015, she led the softball team with a .379 batting average, earning Great Midwest Athletic Conference All-Conference Second Team and All-Freshman Team honors.

Before her last concussion, Discepola was hitting .471 with nine runs on eight hits and two homeruns with six RBIs for a blistering .941 slugging percentage.

"She was a really good softball player," Athletic Director and Head Softball Coach Steve Potts said. "She put up good stats, played hard and was very versatile. She could play anywhere. She always brought a positive energy to the team."

Concussions are a different beast from most injuries. A torn ACL or broken wrist are things an athlete can mend and rehabilitate. Any diminished ability can be explained by that injury and be reasoned to be temporary.

With concussions, there are no scars or casts to mark the damage. Everything is internalized. With a concussion, there is nothing to physically fix.

The arm strength to throw a softball, the speed to cover the outfield and base paths, and that natural swing…they all still exist. The risk on the softball field simply poses too great a threat to make use of them.

"It was heart-wrenching when she was told she could never play a contact sport again," Michelle Discepola, Alyssa's mom, said. "She had big dreams and goals in softball."

Discepola returned home unsure of her future, too devastated to call her coach and personally tell him the news, and ready to quit school.

"I didn't want to call [Coach Potts], I didn't want to do anything," Discepola said. "I just wanted to give up.

"The last concussion was the toughest, from the headaches and my memory to getting up and finding something to do because I couldn't play softball anymore."

In the moment, there was no clarity in why the game was taken away from her. Only some darkness, hazy memories and crippling headaches.

What there was were a handful of coaches and a mother too invested in Alyssa to let her quit.

"It was a tough moment, but you know, there's a purpose for everything," Potts said. "God has a reason for everything. We may never know what that reason is, but eventually the light will come on and reveal what it was all for."

When Potts received the first phone call from Alyssa's mother following the doctor's sad news, he had an idea of what it was before he answered. He'd expressed some frustration in an inability to help her to Robert Bullion, the head coach for the men's water polo team, who had an idea.

"We were starting a swim team, we needed girls and she needed something to keep her focused and motivated," Bullion said. "I told her I didn't care where she's at right now, we'd get her wherever she needed to be."  

When Discepola steps to the starting block this weekend to compete with the rest of the Salem University Tigers swimming team at the Eastern College Athletic Championships—a three-day event in East Meadow, New York from Dec. 1-3—she won't be the fastest swimmer at the meet; but in many ways, her path from point A to point B in the pool will cover less time than any other swimmer at the meet.

Every swimmer Alyssa competes against will own a decade's head start. In her time at Salem University, Discepola has dabbled in everything from soccer to bowling and cross-country, filling in the gaps for rebuilding programs, but swimming is a completely different sport.

"Never competing in a sport like basketball or soccer and picking up a ball and shooting around is one thing," Swimming Head Coach Rick Johnson said. "Picking up competitive swimming for the first time at 20 years old is unheard of.

"You're talking about grueling work, pushing your body to the limits every day just to get a little success. Swimming is like life that way, working hard every day just to move forward a little and a lot of days you go backwards. That's swimming."

Now a year in, Discepola's story isn't the sudden and meteoric rise to swimming championships of Hollywood. But it is one that perfectly suits Johnson's description and deserving of admiration—countless hours of arduous work to improve five minutes in the 500, dropping from 13 minutes to a little over seven in less than a year.

"I don't know a lot about swimming, but I know it takes a lot of work," Potts said. "So, for her to come in and compete at the college level in that short a time is a testament to her and how dedicated she is to a cause, knowing she'll see things through. I can't say enough about Alyssa, she's a great kid."

It hasn't been easy. Alyssa admits there are times she wanted to quit.

On the softball field, her talent seemed to come as natural as breathing, which is something she literally had to relearn how to do in her new sport.

"It's so physically and mentally hard, and the hardest is the breathing," Discepola said. "In softball, you can breathe whenever you want and here, you have to learn to time your breath for every three strokes instead of one."

Her first attempt at a turn in the pool was interrupted by water flooding her nose. For a year, Discepola worked with Bullion, who coached the swim team last year, during practice and Johnson, who took the job this season, in her own time.

"I didn't know how to swim competitively. I knew how to freestyle, but my technique was horrible," Discepola said. "One lap and I was out of breath. So, when I came back to school I knew I had to give it my all."

Discepola's first event was baptism by fire, in the water.

"We threw her to the wolves and asked her to be a distance swimmer," Bullion said. "I don't think she knew what she was getting herself into. She asked what a 500 was and, when I said 20 laps, she said, 'oh my God.'"

"But it didn't matter what we did, even is she had to get out of the pool and throw up, she finished every practice. Nothing stopped her. She stayed motivated and did everything we asked of her."

And it was a baptism of sorts. When her softball career ended, Discepola sold most of her gear. But it wasn't until she hit the water that she truly moved on.

"I have a better mindset than I did before. I went through [losing softball], I can do anything now," she said.

Across the world and in every religion, water holds a sacred place—mostly as a means of purification. It's something that washes away all the unessential and reveals what is most important.

For Alyssa, it's not the sport that matters. It's the work ethic and determination.

On the softball field, Discepola's game seemed to come naturally because it was far closer to a finished product. Every move was polished, and the end result was like an oil painting—bright, vivid and opaque colors blended perfectly together.

In the pool, her work more closely resembles a water color painting in that every brush stroke is visible and transparent. There's no hiding the mistakes, but one can build on top of them.

The seams in her work are apparent. To a trained eye, the flaws in her technique are visible. But so, too, is the improvement and work.

In the pool, Alyssa might not have the skills mastered to the degree she had in softball, but the water has revealed a work ethic that strikes to the very core of who she is in a way that's admirable for all to see.

"When I played softball, I woke up and swung a bat every day. I went to the batting cages every day because I wanted to be a good hitter," Discepola said. "Now, I wake up to go work in the pool for three and a half hours trying to push myself a little more to keep up with the fastest in the pool.

"It doesn't always work out in my favor, but I try. I get mad at myself because I want to be like them, but they've been swimming for 12 years."

Johnson sincerely believes, based on her work ethic and improvement so far, Discepola would be a force had this been her first sport.

"She's a great kid who brings a hard-nosed work ethic to practice every day," Johnson said. "She demands excellence at all times and it's infectious to the team. Every coach dreams of having a kid like Alyssa in their program. Every time she hits the pool, it's a better swim. It's constant improvement with her."

"Alyssa isn't going to always be the fastest in the water, but she hits her personal goals every time," Bullion said.

Discepola will be competing in the 50 freestyle on Saturday morning, the 100 backstroke in the evening and 100 freestyle on Sunday looking to move closer towards some personal goals.

"This is my life now," Discepola said. "I have the same dedication, I'm still setting goals, they're just redirected towards something else."

And she still has some attachments to her former sport. When she steps on the starting block, she says she imagines herself in the batter's box, exploding out of it like she'd just hit the ball.

In her mind, the sounds of spring and summer course through her head. During her 1,000 freestyle in the home meet, Tim McGraw's "Something Like That," from the album A Place in the Sun played in her mind on repeat as competitors and former teammates gathered around cheering her on.

"I know swimming and how swimmers think, and when I told them she was a softball player who'd just started, it kind of floored them," Johnson said. "They know how hard this is. It's not your everyday, run-of-the-mill thing you just wake up and decide to do."

When Discepola finished the event, one of her competitors swam over to express her admiration.

"It's heartwarming to know they had that respect for her," Michelle Discepola said. "She's a very strong young woman with a great future ahead of her. You have to believe there's always something else planned for you, and her saying is, 'when one door closes, another opens.'"
 

Alyssa is a criminal justice major who currently works at a police department in dispatch. She'd like a career in the field but is unsure of what capacity; only that her experiences at Salem University have prepared her to handle anything that comes her way.

For now, she swims and helps with the softball team on the side, setting an example for everyone who meets her.

"I think it's built her character. I always tell kids, 'adapt, improvise and overcome,' and she's a perfect example," Potts said. "She's realizing her goals of getting an education and competing at the college level and has turned this into as positive a situation as she could.

"She may not realize it, but she's a role model for my team."

Everything happens for a reason. Alyssa may not know what that is yet, but it's revealed a lot about who she is as person. For now, that's enough.