Arielle Gunderson carries a reminder of her sister wherever she goes.
When she looks at her wrist, she sees a green bracelet with pink writing. On the outside, it says: “Aubrae, forever in our hearts.”
Inscribed on the inside is: “Enjoy life today; yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come.”
The Gators freshman knows the motto too well.
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Arielle and Aubrae grew up in Covington, Ga., a suburb about 35 miles outside Atlanta. Both girls played soccer and ran cross country. Both excelled in school.
“She got in trouble every once in a while, but honestly my parents had it so easy with her,” Arielle said. “When it came to school, she had a much better work ethic than I do. If she could have a 100 in that class, she was going to have a 100.”
The two behaved like typical siblings: arguing, playing, inventing their own games and getting into just a little bit of trouble.
“We used to pillow-slide down the stairs,” Arielle said. “We used to get in a lot of trouble for this, because we wrecked a couple laundry baskets. … We discovered that laundry baskets slide really well down the stairs.”
But on Sept. 26, 2005, while Arielle and her mother, Eileen, were at a friend’s house, tragedy struck.
While at a voluntary cross-country practice, Aubrae tried to cross a stretch of Highway 138 about 200 yards from her school. An SUV stopped to let her pass but blocked her from the view of a car in the next lane.
The car struck Aubrae, killing her instantly. She was 15.
Aubrae’s death had a huge impact on Arielle, who was 11 years old.
“Whenever there’s something traumatic in your life, it’s going to change who you are,” Arielle said.
After Aubrae’s death, Arielle had a difficult time adjusting to her new reality. Large crowds made her claustrophobic, and she struggled to get through school days.
The difficulty of Arielle’s turmoil was evident in her clothing.
“My sister used to dress me,” Arielle said. “I was really a tomboy kind of kid, and she was like, ‘You can’t dress like that anymore.’”
“All of a sudden, I didn’t know what to wear anymore. I went through drastic style changes. I was like that punk, probably-shouldn’t-let-your-child-hang-out-with-that-person (style), to country … and finally ended up back at the way she used to dress me.”
She became impatient with things she deemed unimportant. But one thing kept her focused.
“I went back to practice two days after,” she said. “I literally needed it in my life. I loved soccer beforehand, but it definitely got stronger after that. It was kind of like my outlet.”
But Arielle hasn’t seen the soccer field much in the past three years.
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There were 34 seconds left in the first half, and Arielle’s Conyers (Ga.) Heritage High Patriots were about to go into halftime with a commanding 7-0 lead.
Arielle beat one opponent off the dribble and attempted to cut inside, putting all her weight on her left foot. An opponent slide tackled her from behind and her left knee buckled. Her junior season was done.
“I knew, because all my weight’s there … of course, that’s your ACL,” she said.
The knee injury put Arielle’s recruitment at risk. She was in contact with the Gators coaching staff before the injury and attended UF’s soccer camp. She suffered the ACL tear a week and a half after her unofficial visit.
“Arielle has a great combination of academics and athletics,” Gators coach Becky Burleigh said. “The combination of those two was really attractive to us.”
Although Arielle wanted to commit to Florida, her recruitment took a back seat to rehab as she worked to get back to the field for her senior season.
Once her knee healed, Arielle returned to Gainesville for soccer camp in the summer of 2011, and Burleigh told her UF was still interested in her. Arielle committed that October.
After graduating in the spring of 2012, Arielle played for the Georgia Revolution of the Women’s Premier Soccer League. On June 9, the Revolution faced Mississippi Fuego FC at the Jackson Preparatory School in Flowood, Miss. There, Arielle suffered another setback.
In her second-to-last game in the WPSL before traveling to UF for the Summer B semester, Gunderson attempted a tackle and suffered another serious injury.
“I knew I had injured my knee and was probably going to have to redshirt,” she said.
An orthopedic surgeon told Arielle she had suffered another ACL tear.
“I think ‘not-too-happy’ is an understatement,” she said. “I would probably say anger was the biggest thing. … I was distraught.”
Arielle redshirted her freshman year. Burleigh said she expects her to play a role as part of the Gators’ defense in the future.
“She’s very, very confrontational in her defense,” Burleigh said. “She’s got a really strong mentality, and that’s something we really value on this team.”
Arielle watched her teammates advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament while she focused on getting back on the field for spring soccer.
“It kind of gives you an edge that some people don’t have,” she said. “If they’ve never had the game taken away from them, sometimes you really don’t understand how much you love it.”
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More than 400 people gathered at the starting line at Heritage High’s track on Nov. 24. Many more watched from the stands. They were there for the Aubrae Gunderson Memorial Scholarship 5K Walk/Run.
In the months following Aubrae’s death, some of her cross-country teammates approached their coaches about creating a scholarship run in her honor.
“I had some of the coaches come to me, because people were just donating money; the school was being sent money in her name,” Dan Gunderson, Arielle and Aubrae’s father, said. “It was all kind of a blur. The coaches were real helpful in putting it together.”
The 5K has been held the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the past seven years. The $1,250 scholarships are awarded to two Heritage student-athletes each year, and an additional scholarship is available to other students in the county.
“A parent complained to me that the scholarship didn’t go to the best athlete; I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re missing the point. It’s for student-athletes,’” Dan said, emphasizing the word “student.”
But the 5K is not all business. One of the events is the “High Heel Hustle,” where participants don stilettos and, at the shout of “Ready, set, clearance sale!” run a 40-yard dash.
“It is one of the funniest things you’ll ever witness in your life,” Arielle said. “My cousin Kenny has his pair and has since painted them to have blue racing flames.”
The Gunderson family is also involved in the Aubrae Gunderson Invitational, a cross-country meet Heritage hosts every September.
The race was originally named the Patriot Invitational but was renamed in Aubrae’s honor. The race was the last she ever ran.
The Invitational hosts hundreds of runners each year. For four years, one of those runners was Arielle Gunderson.
Each year she ran, Arielle set personal records.
“I just had so much invested there that it was always my best run,” she said. “It’s a cool feeling to know that so many people know her, and remember her, even if they never met her.”
Arielle Gunderson honors the memory of her sister through her participation in the Aubrae Gunderson Invitational. Arielle set a personal best in each of her four runs.
Arielle Gunderson has yet to play for UF after suffering a second ACL tear in June.
Arielle Gunderson is expected to play a role in the Gators’ defense next season.
