Long and winding road

BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider

MADISON, Wis. -- In 72 hours Nikki Greenhalgh will give a graduation speech to her fellow Wisconsin student-athletes, but right at this moment, all she has are random thoughts waiting to be put to paper.

Prior to every commencement exercise on the Madison campus, those who compete on behalf of the Badgers and earn their degrees gather for a separate graduation reception. This winter's ceremony took place Friday at Heritage Hall where more than 40 student-athletes from a dozen sports were acknowledged. It's a prelude to the school's winter commencement exercise, which will be held Sunday at the Kohl Center.

The two-hour gathering for student-athletes, their families and coaches has multiple functions. It's a time to bask in the glow of a great individual achievement. It's a moment to appreciate friends that made roughly the same journey, albeit different sports. It's an opportunity to give thanks to those who made the path a little smoother, whether it be a tutor, administrator or an assistant coach.

Greenhalgh, a forward on the women's soccer team from Novi, Michigan, and Michael Caputo, a strong safety for the football team from Imperial, Pennsylvania, were chosen to give presentations to their peers. Bridget Woodruff, the Director of Student-Athlete Development, said they were tabbed in part because they're confident and well-spoken and have unique experiences to share.

While Caputo's story is pretty well-known – he overcame a serious neck injury to serve as an award-winning captain and earn a degree in Life Science Communication – Greenhalgh's is similarly compelling.

Three days before she spoke to her fellow Wisconsin student-athletes – she said she knows 95 percent of them well – Greenhalgh was asked about the theme of her speech. She said he hadn't written it yet, but it was clear she'd given it great thought and it was going to be powerful.

"Still trying to figure out what personal stories I want to talk about from soccer," she said. "I have a few, just talking about my ups and downs a little bit."

Greenhalgh grew up near Detroit, but was a fan of the Badgers in part because her grandparents both graduated from Wisconsin in the 1930s and her father, Paul, grew up in Baraboo.

"I fell in love with the place," she said.

But when Greenhalgh arrived in Madison for her first semester in 2011, she was "completely overwhelmed" by the size and scope of her new world.

"I had no light at the end of the tunnel," she said. "I just kind of got dropped off and had to figure it out."

Not just in the classroom, but in her chosen sport as well. Greenhalgh was a standout on two state championship teams and was a two-time all-state selection at Novi, but that carried no weight with her new coach, Paula Wilkins, or new teammates.

"I came in big-headed a little bit," Greenhalgh said. "I was expecting that it was just going to be like high school and I had to learn very quickly that it wasn't. And I had to work a lot harder.

"It's obviously a time of growing up and finding your identity."

So how did Greenhalgh find her way? How did she evolve from an insecure teenager with questionable priorities to a decorated college graduate with a job at a Fortune 500 company waiting for her?

Greenhalgh will look out into the audience of graduates and is sure to see heads nodding as she relates her story. Every one of the attendees – from Caputo, Alex Erickson, Jordan Fredrick, Darius Hillary, Bart Houston, Joel Stave, Dan Voltz and Derek Watt in football to NCAA track star Kelsey Card, All-America swimmer Aja Van Hout and All-Big Ten Conference softball standout Maria Van Abel – can relate in some way.

"You quickly realize you're not the best and in four years it's all over, so what do you do?" Greenhalgh said.
If you're Greenhalgh, you stop clinging to a rigid plan. You seek out and find other passions – in this case biology, the sciences, theater and art history – and let your soul explore.

"I just started becoming really focused with that and soccer wasn't the only thing making me happy," she said. "It was other things."

Greenhalgh excelled in the classroom, earning Academic All-Big Ten honors four times. She attended meetings of Athletes in Action, a well-known faith-based organization, and St. Paul's Catholic campus ministry.

"I met a lot of really cool people and had some really cool experiences with people outside of athletics," she said.

Like most of her fellow graduates in the room Friday, Greenhalgh had a topsy-turvy career. She played in 11 matches as a freshman before sitting out the 2012 season following knee surgery. She saw action in 18 matches in her second season, but only 12 as a junior.

"I was completely humbled," she said. "In high school it was all about me and I quickly realized that it can't be about me anymore."

It wasn't until her final season that Greenhalgh saw the fruits of her labors bloom. She said she found common footing with Wilkins and, through hard work, made her way into the lineup. That effort was validated when she scored the winning goals against Loyola and Michigan and was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament team.

At some point Greenhalgh will scan the crowd and find Tim Rosenfeld, the assistant coach whom she credits with lighting her path.

"He really taught me to live in the moment and play big in the moment because pretty soon the moment's going to be gone," Greenhalgh said. "Pretty soon I'm going to be done and my soccer career is going to be over.

"I didn't quite get that until probably last year – my fourth year. I didn't understand the weight that carries."

In the midst of personal success Greenhalgh learned an enduring lesson about selflessness.

"Because I was humbled throughout my college career leading up to this point, I enjoyed the glory, but nothing compared to playing for the team," she said. "When we won the Big Ten championships – we won the tournament last year and the (regular-season) championship this year – that was way more rewarding than any goal I scored or any statistics that I had."

When Greenhalgh arrived on campus, she filled out a student-athlete questionnaire from the Wisconsin Athletic Communications office that asked about her personal interests and other curiosities. She doesn't remember saying that her favorite time period is the 1960s or that her secret addiction is watching Jerry Springer. She faintly recalls noting that she liked Broadway musicals and that her fantasy career would be that of a talk show host.

"Wow, I've not read that in four years," Greenhalgh said.

So, how did she get here from there? How did Greenhalgh go from being a lost, intimidated kid to pursuing and landing a job with Stryker, an international orthopedic medical technology firm?

"I relied a lot on my teammates to kind of assist me and reach out to them when I need help," she said. "Also, I tried to branch out to other things outside of soccer. Probably the biggest thing that I learned being in college was living in the moment."

Many more await.

University of Wisconsin Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Nikki Greenhalgh

Related Videos