The last three seasons leading up to the 2023 campaign for the University of Bridgeport, a Division II program which now competes in the Central Athletic Conference, have been highly successful ones for Head Coach Dawn Stearns and the Purple Knights’ program
Two years ago, Bridgeport won its first regular season title in school history and was victorious in an NCAA tournament game for the first time in three decades. In 2022, the team went 36-16 and was poised to build off of that in 2023, especially with the return of star pitcher Kaite Burawski.
Burawski was second in all of DII last year with 354 strikeouts in 218 innings and compiled a 25-8 record with a 1.80 ERA. Opposing batters hit just .184 off her and she recorded 11 shutouts with 29 complete games and even came in late in games sometimes to record three saves.
The Hartley, Delaware native, who has already received her Associate’s Degree in Dental Hygiene, was poised to have another explosive campaign and lead her team after throwing for close to 70 percent of the Purple Knights’ total innings last year.
“We’ve won three conference championships,” begins Coach Stearns, “and Kaite has been an integral part of the last two. She started and even closed games for us and that takes stamina.”
In last February, the team travelled to Florida to compete in The Spring Games, but Kaite wasn’t there—at least in person, although she followed every game closely and was in constant contact with her teammates.
The reason?
In November, she began feeling like something was wrong in her body and, during the Christmas break, her health worsened and medical tests revealed she had a rare form of ovarian cancer which would ultimately lead to the removal of a two-pound cyst followed by a schedule of four rounds of chemo–which currently is halfway done and should be completed by the end of May.
According to Coach Stearns, her ace pitcher had a cancer marker reading of 5,000 when the normal is between 6-9, showing just how afflicted she was by the terrible infection that infiltrated her body.
“Now, it’s at a ‘9,’” the head coach continues, “and they think they have 95 percent of it all. Kaite, for her part, is all about ‘go get’em.’ She’s working out in her basement and working hard to stay in shape.”
Like the true competitor she is, the athlete immediately became focused on when she could return and if her coaches and teammates would have her back.
“The first words Kaite said to me after finding out she was sick,” Coach Stearns remembers, “was her asking: ‘I’m coming back and I still get my scholarship, right?’ For her it’s all about getting back onto the field and being with her teammates. Her attitude is: ‘I’m going to beat this, keep working out and hopefully come back to school early, as early as August.’”
The pitcher still has two years to compete collegiately thanks to this year’s redshirt year as well as the missed COVID season.
And while Kaite is in recovery-and-return mode, this year’s team has been forced to play on without her. Admittedly, it’s been tough as the Purple Knights are currently 5-10 including their 4-6 recent play in The Spring Games in Clermont, Fla.
“In January, we found out (about Kaite being out for the year) and there was nothing we could do at that point, it was too late,” Coach Stearns explains. “Our freshman pitcher, who was expected to be No. 2, was forced to be No. 1 and a kid with a torn labrum has had to throw for us, too.”
“We’ve been in every game since coming down for The Spring Games, but we were not prepared to play a 56-game schedule with three pitchers… especially one with a torn labrum.”
The 14-year coach at the Univ. of Bridgeport continues:
“It’s been hard on our team, for sure, because much more is expected from every person—we have to score more runs, play better defense and the players have had to raise their game with the absence of Kaite. Still, I think it will be much better when we get back home, in conference. Overall, you’d have to say the players on this team have been real troopers.”
Ironically, Coach Stearns set up the 2023 schedule to be challenging for the team but also to get national attention for her star pitcher.
“My strength of schedule is off the charts,” Stearns adds, “and we’ve played the No. 1 team in the country as well as top teams nationwide to showcase Kaite, but she’s obviously not here. Even when it comes to The Spring Games, I made this schedule down here for Kaite and wanted to get her attention and votes for All-American consideration in tournaments where people in the North and the South would see her.”
*** Be sure to scroll down to read Kaite’s own words of her experiences ***
As the late Beatle John Lennon once wrote: “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans” and those previously well-intended Bridgeport team and player plans were forced to drastically change.
On December 23rd, Kaite underwent surgery to have a 15-centimeter tumor removed from her ovary after having been diagnosed with an endodermal sinus tumor (yolk sac germ cell) that has only been seen in one percent of the population.
Stunningly, the removed tumor—as the pictures show—was the size of the surgeon’s fist and weighed two pounds.
A family friend, Jennifer Price, started a GoFundMe for the ailing athlete and those wanting to make donations to offset the medical bills, travel and rehabilitation costs can do so by clicking HERE.
But from trials and tribulations often comes growth, appreciation and, especially in this case, the opportunities for others to show great love.
Everything the University of Bridgeport team has done over the last few months has been accomplished with Kaite in mind:
- The official team photo touchingly had an empty chair with her #17 jersey draped over it in honor of their friend. “It was the team’s idea,” explains the head coach, “of not taking a team photo with Kaite being represented because, without her, we wouldn’t nearly be as successful.”
- The softball and even the baseball team created and placed #17 stickers on their batting helmets.
- And the Purple Knights softball squad dedicated the season to their beloved teammate.
In no way, however, has the Bridgeport team stopped communicating with their missing compadre—quite the opposite, in fact.
“Kaite’s like the Team Mom,” laughs Coach Stearns. “She watches the games, and our kids and coaches call her to get her insights and hear about what we’re doing right and not so right!”
The love between all in the Bridgeport community towards the recovering student-athlete isn’t just about wins and strikeouts on the field–her coach believes it’s more about whom she is off the field.
“Kaite is very driven and smart,” the Bridgeport leader concludes, “and she has got all the skillsets for success: she works her butt off, runs constantly, wants to be better every day and continually works hard. Kaite is a wonderful teammate and they miss her terribly but call her daily and she’s a big, big help, especially with the younger players. It’s her way of staying engaged.”
And, from an outside perspective, this story—although tough in many ways—is so valuable and important in two ways:
- First, it demonstrates the importance of athletes, especially younger ones, being in-tune and listening to their bodies, particularly the warning signals the body can (and will) provide. Parents and coaches: it would be a very wise idea to sit down with your players and share this story with them. While there is a time and place to power or work through an injury, there is also a great lesson here in respecting danger signs that can literally be felt to save a life.
- Second, Kaite’s story and its impact on those around her show how much good that the love and support of those around someone can be and how beautiful it is when those in unfortunate circumstances can see and feel the love that others have towards them. Sometimes it takes a difficult circumstance or trial in life for people to share what they might have been uncomfortable expressing otherwise and, in this story, it’s wonderful how the love has buoyed up both sides.
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
*****
In Kaite’s Own Words…
Here, in Kaite Burawski’s first-person account, are her thoughts on this health experience, what she’s learned and how she’s doing as of today…
Thank you so much for wanting to spread awareness about my situation and for everyone else who has, is, and will be going through what I am going through. It means so much to me to be able to get this out so other girls and women can be aware and also advocate for themselves.
I have never had any health issues before this and was doing what every other college athlete was doing: going to class, practices, and preparing for the spring season. I also was working part time as a dental hygienist, since I had graduated in May 2022 with my Associates Degree in Dental Hygiene.
Around Thanksgiving 2022 was when I began feeling symptoms. I had been doubled over in pain one night and I thought it was just cramps. It went away and I ignored it because I had to go back to school and finish the semester out.
The rest of the semester in December I had a dull ache over my left pelvic region. One night, I was lying in bed when I felt that area and noticed there was a bump; however I decided to wait until I went home to Delaware to get it looked at. I began noticing other symptoms, too, such as frequently having to use the bathroom and loss of appetite.
Then, at the beginning of December, I got sick with a runny nose, cough, and fever but tested negative for everything at an urgent care in Connecticut. These symptoms continued and would not go away. I had a fever for 14 days straight, which tended to be around 101 degrees, and, sometimes, medicine would not bring it down.
I could not work because I was so tired, went home for Christmas break and, finally, visited the doctor’s office. They sent me for an ultrasound where my left ovary could not be visualized. My doctor got these results and sent us to the emergency room that very night so they could do a CT scan and bloodwork for different tumor markers just in case it was cancer.
On the CT scan, they could not see my ovary. All they saw was a mass and said it was more than likely an ovarian cyst and sent me home. They said that, because I was not visually in pain, they could not assume it was anything very serious.
That didn’t seem right to me as it felt like something was wrong and something was in me that should not be there. A family friend who works at the hospital found a doctor who would look at my case and they sent me back to the emergency room on December 23rd.
He ultimately decided to do surgery that night and he removed a 15 cm, two-pound tumor as well as my left ovary. He had to cut down my abdomen because it was too big to remove with any minimally invasive techniques.
The test results came back on December 28th as a germ cell tumor and a form of ovarian cancer. The ovaries have germ cells in them that can turn into eggs or be sent out to other places in the body to turn into other cells or tissues for the body use.
Mine decided to turn into cancer within my ovary and grow on the outside of my ovary. In the picture of my tumor, my ovary is inside of the tumor. My tumor is called an Endodermal Sinus Tumor, also nicknamed Yolk Sac Tumor. It occurs in just one percent of ovarian cancer diagnoses and is very aggressive.
It also tends to be misdiagnosed as cysts because there are rarely ever symptoms until it grows into later stages. I am very fortunate that mine was staged at Stage 1c, that I noticed my symptoms and we kept advocating that something was wrong.
On January 10th, I had a chemotherapy port placed in my chest and I began chemotherapy on January 23rd.
I am getting a regimen called BEP which is three different chemotherapy drugs. I must go through four cycles of chemotherapy and each cycle is three weeks long, so 12 weeks total of chemotherapy.
I am currently halfway through and I have just completed Cycle 2. Symptoms I have had include nausea, stomach pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, hair loss, and my skin drying out.
However, through all of this, I have not stopped lifting weights and trying to stay moving. I do not want this to stop me and I want to be able to come out of this and be able to get back to where I was before this or even better.
The hardest part of this was feeling like everything was taken from me. I was so excited for the softball season this year. We had just come off an amazing season last year and I wanted to do even greater things this year with my team.
I felt like I had let my team down and all I want to do is be able to be there for them. They just finished their trip to Georgia and Florida and I watched every single game and they called me and talked to me throughout the trip. They had shirts and bracelets made for me and wear teal ribbons in their hair and on their gloves for ovarian cancer.
The support from all across the softball world has been amazing. I did not know I had so much support from so many places—so many schools sent me flowers, cards, and notes showing their support.
My coach said so many people have come up to her asking about me and sending well wishes and one team even did a prayer circle for me. Our baseball team at UB even had stickers put on their helmets with my number.
The support at home has been amazing as well. A friend had t-shirts and bracelets made and so many people have helped out through a meal train and sending care packages.
My message for any player or girl reading the article is to never take for granted getting to play as it can be taken away in just a few words.
Enjoy every moment whether it be playing on the field, hitting, or cheering for your teammates. And if you feel something is wrong, keep fighting and advocating for yourself, even if no one will listen.
You know yourself best!
— Kaite Burawski, Univ. of Bridgeport Softball
