- Fort Calhoun wrestler Anna Rae Hartline was diagnosed with diabetes at age 10.
- She's competed in more than 20 matches this season for the Pioneers
- "She's going to be setting records and people are going to know her name."
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
HARTLINE: I had to urinate a lot. I was constantly drinking water, fatigued and my parents thought it was more of a psychological thing.
IN 2017, WHEN SHE WAS JUST TEN YEARS OLD, ANNA MAE HARTLINE KNEW SOMETHING DIDN'T FEEL RIGHT.
HARTLINE: We went to the doctor & I was diagnosed with diabetes & I was in the hospital for three weeks.
DESPITE THE DIAGNOSIS, HARTLINE STILL TOOK A SHOT AT HER DREAM OF WRESTLING AT THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL.
HARTLINE: Sports, after originally being diagnosed, is kind of difficult because there's a pretty long period after you're diagnosed it's call the honeymoon, where you really don't have a lot of control over your blood glucose at all. This has been the first year that I feel like I've been in control with my blood sugar as well as trying to do sports.
WHILE SHE'S BEEN ABLE TO WRESTLE IN MORE THAN 20 MATCHES THIS SEASON, ANNA MAE HAS TO CONTINUE TO CONSTATLY MONITOR HER BLOOD SUGAR.
HARTLINE: I wear a CGM or Continuous Glucose Monitor and a pump. So it reads my blood sugar every three minutes and sends it to my phone. If I go low, I get loud beeps.
GOSSMAN: She motivates just through her own day-to-day struggles. When she's having a down day, she steps up and she helps as like an assistant coach. She'll step in and ref during the practices if she is not able to practice. She just brings us a lot of good things.
AND WHILE HER GOAL IS TO ONE DAY BE ON THE MEDAL STAND AT STATE....HARTLINE HAS WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR OTHER STUDENT-ATHLETES DEALING WITH DIABETES.
HARTLINE: The best thing I can say is find your group of people, even if they're not at your school. I've gotten just contacts at meets of other kids going through what I'm going through and I've talked to them about how they kind of deal with it. And talking with other kids about it is just the best thing.
GOSSMAN: She hasn't reached her ceiling at all. This year is just the icing on the cake. From here, it's only going to go up. Then she's going to be setting records and people are going to know her name.
