Three surgeries in nine months. For most athletes, that would be enough to step away from their game entirely. For Fairfield graduate student Grace Slater, it was the beginning of a different kind of season. Last year, she believed it would be her final season for the Fairfield Stags, which made her play through a broken foot and a torn ACL. She pushed through the pain because she thought it was her last opportunity to step on the field with her best friends and teammates.
“I thought it was my last year,” Slater said. “So, I just wanted to give everything I had.”
She did.
Scoring hat tricks in both the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) semifinal and championship, she was a main part of leading the team to its 2025 MAAC title win in May. She earned MAAC All-Championship team and All-MAAC Second Team honors, recording 45 goals and 19 assists, while only playing in 16 games due to injuries.
And then came the surgeries. Three of them. At least nine months of recovery, and the thought that she might never step in the game again.
It wasn’t until October 2025 that Slater found out she had been granted a fifth year of eligibility. Knowing she would need the entire 2026 competitive season to recover, when the season started, her role this year looks different. For someone whose whole identity revolves around competing and being on the field, the shift from being a player to something closer to a coach was not natural. It was uncomfortable.
“It’s hard to be a leader if you’re not on the field,” she said.
But her teammates started to realize that she could have an impact on the team in different ways. Her teammate Haley Burns, also a graduate student, describes her as the “heartbeat” of the team. “Her presence and knowledge have taken us this far.”
Because of her own experience, Slater has both the mindset of a player and now the broader view of someone with a new perspective, seeing the game from the sideline.
“She knows what it’s like to play with us,” said junior teammate Katie Repp, who consistently asks for advice and coaching points from Slater, just like many other teammates. She was hesitant to speak up at first, but as time passed by, her voice grew stronger. “You’ve seen her grow, stepping more into a coaching role now,” added Repp.
She currently works closely with both the goalies and the offense, and offers insight that only someone who has been in those high-pressure moments can provide.
From the outside, an injury can look simple unless you have experienced it. There is more behind standing on the sideline and being expected to smile, and wanting what is best for your team.
That is not the reality.
Obviously, there is the physical pain, months of rehab, frustration, setbacks; people can see that. But there is also the mental battle of watching your team play and practice without you.
“It seems like I’m fine,” she said, “but that’s not really how it feels.”
Slater has now watched almost two seasons from the sideline due to injuries, and this experience changes your.
“It puts things into perspective”, she said. “It makes you grateful.” Grateful for the time she was and can step on the field and play. Grateful for her teammates. Grateful for coaches who continue to involve and support her, and for a community that never made her feel less important when she couldn’t play.
If you change your perspective, this experience has given her opportunities. Opportunities to step into new roles. If you had asked her a year ago whether she would see herself coaching one day, the answer would have been uncertain. But now? “Yes.”
She has learned that leadership doesn’t require a jersey on game day and that her impact isn’t limited to goals or assists.
She thought last season was the end. Instead, it became the beginning of a new role. She learned how to lead without playing, and this makes her an even greater influence on her team and the game now, and when she can return to the field in 2027.
