The CT Softball Blog

STRATFORD—Katie Sciglimpaglia admits to having just a couple of true passions in her life.

One is softball. Another is her pursuit of a career in physical therapy.

The former Norwalk High School and St. Peter’s University star infielder is spending most of this summer playing for the Stratford Brakettes.

She’s also game-planning and fund-raising for a trip this fall to Dingle, Ireland, where the doctoral students at Sacred Heart University will take part in a service-learning experience that “offers opportunities to develop and run PT clinics for the Dingle community and surrounding areas that do not have access to many physical therapy services, with the goal of giving back to communities that are in need.”

Now 25 years old, it’s been almost a decade since Sciglimpaglia was put on her path to becoming a physical therapist and helping to make a difference in a far-away land.

When she was just 16, Sciglimpaglia tore her ACL. She spent months undergoing physical therapy and spending time in the Norwalk High athletic training room with former Bears trainer Masayoshi Shoji.

“With that first injury, I kind of knew the whole time (that I wanted to get into physical therapy),” Sciglimpaglia said. “It just confirmed my decision. Masa was a huge part of everything. I spent every day in his room, in that athletic training room, and he did tell me before he went back to Japan, he was like, ‘I better see you in the healthcare field.’ So, he is very much a little bit a part of it.”

Sciglimpaglia tore her other ACL her final year in college, too, and once again underwent the rigorous rehabilitation process to get back on the field.

Even now, she’s not ready to give up the sport that became her passion at a young age as she followed in the cleat marks of her older sisters, twins Mary and Patti, both of whom played at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford.

“I don’t know. Every summer I say, I’m going to retire,” Katie said with a wry smile. “I say, ‘This is my last year,’ and then it just doesn’t happen. I finished the season and I’m like, no, I’m not ready. Not ready.”

While she still loves playing, she has also stayed in the game as a volunteer coach for her alma mater at Norwalk High.

Softball has been in her life for so long, she simply can’t imagine a world without it.

What does the sport mean to her?

“It means everything. I don’t even know how to answer that because it’s just been my whole life,” Sciglimpaglia said. “Softball has literally been my entire life, and it’s hard to think about my life without it.”

A three-sport athlete at Norwalk, where she played volleyball in the fall and basketball in the winter, there was a moment, however brief, when Sciglimpaglia pondered maybe playing basketball in college.

“There was a bit where I was debating softball or basketball in college, and then the injury happened, and I was like, no, I think it’s definitely softball,” she said. “It was a sport that I could never say no to. When people are like, ‘Oh, can you come play? Can you do this? Can you do that?’ I always wanted to be at softball. Practice was never a chore. Games were never a chore. I wanted to be there. Softball just means the world to me.”

So does a future career in physical therapy.

A biology major at St. Peter’s, Sciglimpaglia is one year into Sacred Heart’s three-year educational journey to become a physical therapist.

The trip to Dingle, Ireland, is just another step in that direction; just like a travel tournament in Meriden or Southington or Windsor, or a doubleheader at DeLuca Field here in Stratford, was another step in her softball career.

Only now, she’s giving back; a role important to her life be it in physical therapy or on the softball field.

She isn’t quite sure how she will juggle a future in PT and coaching, but Sciglimpaglia is passionate about both, and she hopes to find a way.

“I can’t confirm the retirement yet. It might be another two years of playing,” she said. “I don’t know how long I’m going to play. I really don’t know until summer comes around. But I’m definitely going to coach when I can. It’s going to be tough, especially starting my (PT) career when I graduate, but I’m going to coach 100 percent. I have to give back that knowledge.”

As Katie Sciglimpaglia wrapped up her interview with the CT Softball Blog, she returned to the Brakettes youth clinic where she was part of a staff helping more than 60 young players learn more about the game.

Soon, she’ll be in Dingle, Ireland, giving back.

Beyond that a whole future awaits: On the field, off the field, in the dugout, in a trainer’s room somewhere.

Katie Sciglimpaglia will follow her passions and keep giving back to the sport and the profession she has grown to love so much.

(Editor’s Note: Katie Sciglimpaglia has started a Go Fund Me Page to help bankroll her trip to Dingle, Ireland, and to give back via the program a Sacred Heart University. You can find her page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-a-student-bring-pt-to-dingle-ireland)