Adele’s hit song “Hello” from her latest album 25 broke an internet record this week, needing only 87 days to reach one billion hits on YouTube. And while Wisconsin senior guard Tessa Cichy hasn’t quite taken a billion hits in a Badger uniform, she’s not far off. Like Adele, though, Cichy recently received an abrupt “hello from the other side.”
Her broken heart became apparent less than 48 hours before the New Year when Cichy contracted mononucleosis and encountered a glimpse of what life without basketball will be like.
While at home for a few days just before her final semester of college was about to begin, Cichy felt she had a sore throat coming on. Assuming it would pass, just like any other sore throat or common cold, Cichy returned to school, but was surprised to see her health continue to deteriorate.
While on the surface her sore throat had devolved, it had actually just evolved into a rash that initially started on her chest and eventually moved up to her neck and facial region. And while it didn’t really itch, when Cichy’s rash spread to her face, she knew something was wrong.
She went to her local physician and, after taking blood, her doctor informed her she had contracted mononucleosis.
Cichy was perplexed. How could simple a rash and sore throat evolve in mono, especially during basketball season? Her doctor even told her “it was the weirdest case of mono she’d ever seen.”
But no matter how unusual her symptoms were, Cichy was unable to play and it couldn’t have come at a worse time for both herself and the Badgers.
After five days of practice, Cichy was fully prepared for the Badgers’ Big Ten opener on New Year’s Eve against Indiana when she was told the news. To make matters worse, her brother Jack Cichy, a linebacker for the Badger football team, was about to play in the biggest game of his UW career: the Holiday Bowl against USC later that evening.
Jack was suspended for the first half of the game due to a targeting penalty issued a few weeks earlier in the second half of the Badgers’ win over Minnesota, which prompted Tessa to tweet out #freejack multiple times throughout the Badgers’ first 30 minutes of action against the Trojans.
Little did the world know that only hours later the more accurate hashtag would be #freetessa.
And Tessa needed to be freed.
The next day against Indiana, she was barred from entering the locker room. She couldn’t even sit on the bench, and instead was forced to sit just behind press row, across the floor from her teammates. Initially she was banned from even showing up to practice, but after receiving word she could enter the building, she was informed she had to sit alone in one of the corners of the Kohl Center.
When the team hit the road for Big Ten play against Michigan State and Rutgers, Cichy stayed behind in Madison, watching her teammates play on TV.
For Cichy, the experience showed her a glimpse of what her future holds, but it came just a little bit earlier than she could have ever anticipated.
“Knowing that I didn’t have that much time left, it was tough not being out there. My timetable is very short because I’m a senior, and having that cut even shorter was very depressing for me,” Cichy said. “It was a very eye-opening experience too. It was like, ‘oh my gosh, this is what it’s going to be like when the season’s over.’ So it kind of put things back into perspective for me a little bit.”
Cichy’s epiphany was profound for someone who had been playing organized basketball since she was six years old. And while she loves competing, her bonds with her teammates are what she will truly miss the most.
“It’s the competition, I love it. But being a part of a team is so much fun because not only is it exciting for your own successes, but you have other people cheering for your successes. And you get to cheer for other people’s successes,” Cichy said. “To me that’s what’s most fun about it. Someone does something well, you all work together, scramble, play defense and get a stop, that’s exciting and that’s what I’ll miss the most.”
Cichy hadn’t missed a game due to injury or illness since her seventh grade AAU team. And after a four game absence to start the Big Ten season, head coach Bobbie Kelsey eased Cichy back into the lineup by having her come off the bench, something both agreed was necessary after almost a month of inactivity.
Wednesday night in the Badgers’ 75-62 loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Cichy started for the first time since contracting mono. Not only did Cichy hear her name in the starting lineup for the first time this calendar year, but she never left the floor, playing the full 40 minutes for the first time this season. Cichy finished the game with 10 points and two rebounds, but struggled defensively, especially for her standards.
Nevertheless, Cichy is enjoying her final stretch with the Badgers, knowing full-well both that the end of her career is coming and what it’s going to feel like.
“[My goal is] just to have fun and make the most of the opportunities both that I’m given, and us as a team are given,” she said. “I do want to have fun and obviously winning is fun.”
