Gabriela “Gabby” Schenone has played softball her entire life. From playing T-ball in a city rec league to becoming a starting third baseman for Santa Rosa Junior College, Gabby stands ready at third, a drop-step away from a grounder or a line drive to the left side.
Head coach Madison Green said Gabby is an integral part of the team.
“Gabby brings heart to everything she does — whether it’s in practice, during games or just supporting her teammates off the field,” Green said.
Ironically, Gabby’s heart — and other health challenges — almost ended her softball career. But through grit, perseverance and a positive attitude, she fought for her place on the field.
How it all began
Gabby is a local transplant from Rohnert Park. At age 5, she started her softball career with the Rohnert Park Girls Softball Association by way of T-ball in the spring at Magnolia Park.
Affectionately known as Papa Joe, Gabby’s grandfather Joe Schenone started coaching her in T-ball and remains one of her biggest supporters.
“I just want her to know how proud I am of her,” he said, overcome with emotion. “She continues to work hard for what she wants, and it’s all we can ever ask for.”
With a family full of softball players, it wasn’t long before Gabby joined a local travel ball team — the Rohnert Park Rebels — at age 8. She played with the Rebels until age 14 when she began travelling with the Petaluma Steel Breeze.
Former Bear Cub Haley Wyatt (2022-2024), who also played for the Rebels and Steel Breeze, has been on teams with Gabby since their childhood.
“Playing with Gabby over the years was some of the best softball years of my career,” Wyatt said. “She’s been my longest teammate and friend on the field and to end up playing together at the JC was just so amazing. It made me feel like we were 10 years old again playing for the first time together.”
She spent three years with the same teammates before ultimately rounding out her local career with a return to the Rebels, but not before receiving a life-altering diagnosis.
A heart so strong
When Gabby’s little brother Vincent ‘Vinnie’ was born, the doctors noticed an abnormal heartbeat. Gabby’s mother, Kristina, was referred to Stanford pediatric cardiology where Vinnie was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic heart condition where the heart muscle becomes abnormally thickened, making it difficult for the heart to pump Blood.
Because HCM is genetic, Gabby was tested and monitored with semiannual and annual check-ups along with her brother.
On March 23, 2015, Vinnie was taking a routine after-recess lap around the blacktop at Evergreen Elementary School in Rohnert Park when he went into cardiac arrest and collapsed just a few feet from his sister.
Two Evergreen teachers, Joaquin Bernal and Erin Scull, performed CPR on Vinnie until two Rohnert Park police officers arrived to take over compressions. An automated external defibrillator (AED) was not immediately available at Evergreen, making it more difficult to revive Vinnie.
One of the responding officers, Justin Thompson, described the call as unimaginable.
“It’s never easy to hear that the call is for a kid who’s down,” Thompson said. “We happened to be around the corner and just booked it all the way over.”
Just steps away, Gabby watched the heroic efforts to revive her brother and airlift him from Santa Rosa to Children’s Hospital Stanford for emergency placement of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD).
After finding out that an AED was not avail- able at the time of Vinnie’s cardiac arrest, Gabby’s grandmother, Gloria Acevedo-Schenone, along with Joanne Chapman of the Coastal Valley EMS agency, spent years advocating for AEDs to be placed all over Rohnert Park.
Chapman’s efforts involved working with Save Lives Sonoma (SLS), whose mission is to save lives by increasing cardiac arrest survivability in Sonoma County by teaching “hands-only” CPR. AEDs were later placed in locations such as the community center, public library, outdoor fields and most importantly — schools.
Diagnosis and treatment
At the beginning of her freshman year of high school, Gabby began experiencing episodes of tachycardia — or a heart rate over 100 beats per minute. As a child, Kristina says that Gabby could always feel those flutters in her heart but would never appear during medical tests.
“People don’t realize that EKGs only work for that exact moment that they have [the EKG monitor] on,” Kristina said. ”They were never able to see them until she wore a Zio patch for two weeks and then they were able to see them.”
Within a week of receiving the patch, Gabby experienced five episodes and doctors gave her a diagnosis — ventricular noncompaction with arrhythmia.
Kristina headed to her daughter’s school to deliver the news. This likely meant that her softball career would be over.
“Having to take her out of class to tell her killed me,” Kristina said. “But I knew I had to tell her or she’d be going to practice that day and who knows what could happen. There was no way I could wait.”
Heartbroken at the thought, Gabby knew there had to be a way to get back on the Field.
After meeting with her cardiac team, they devised a plan that would potentially allow her to play with limitations in place. Like Vinnie, she’d need to undergo surgery to have an ICD placed that would deliver shocks for her arrhythmias, and she’d have to take medication that would affect her ability to keep up the same pace as her teammates.
“My team really helped me through so much of it,” Gabby said. “They surprised me with these red shirts that said ‘Wear Red for Gabby’ on the day I was having my surgery. There was also a bracelet that I still wear whenever I can.”
On the day of her surgery, another teammate’s mother surprised Gabby with a FaceTime of her teammates wishing her luck before she had her device implanted. Six months after surgery and extensive rehab, Gabby was set to start for Rancho Cotate High School’s softball team with a newly minted ICD, but tore her meniscus, benching her for junior year.
She recovered from the tear and had a monster last year of high school. During one of Rancho Cotate High’s “Friday Night Lights” games, coach Green watched Gabby play and recruited her for the Bear Cubs. Gabby’s mom could not be prouder of all that she has overcome.
“The way Gabby has been able to navigate through all of the obstacles that life has thrown at her, it’s such a blessing,” Kristina said. “I’m so proud to be their mom. It hasn’t always been easy. I’ve always said faith over fear. We have definitely been tested as a family, but we’ve come through stronger each time and for that I’m so grateful.”
Bear Cub territory
Gabby graduated from Rancho Cotate in May 2022 and began attending SRJC the following fall. On her first day of strength training, a familiar face crossed her path, bringing her experiences full circle.
Thompson, the first responder who took over compressions on her brother, now stood in SRJC’s weight room. He had retired from the police force in 2019 prior to working with the SRJC softball team as an athletic trainer.
For Gabby, the room went still the moment she saw Thompson. “The first day of my freshman year, I guess he was the new trainer. We walked in and I kept thinking this guy looked so familiar to me. I asked him if he saved a little boy’s life way back when and he said yes.”
For Thompson, the moment was equally special. “I’m sitting in the weight room doing strength and conditioning after being invited to work with the team,” Thompson said. “And then [Gabby] walks in and tied it all together. It didn’t dawn on me, but they introduced her and said, ‘This is Gabby Schenone.’ And I wasn’t prepared to hear that. I sat and I just lost it.”
Gabby continued to practice with the team, participated in fall ball scrimmages and took courses to further her transfer process. However, two days before opening day, she tore her ACL during practice.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Gabby said. “I was so close to stepping onto the field. I couldn’t really do anything because of my leg so I found ways to keep my arm strong all season to stay in shape for the following year.”
Since then, Gabby has remained healthy in her two full seasons with the Bear Cubs.
After nearly seven years with the implanted device, Gabby makes sure to take the extra steps to protect herself. Her grandmother Gloria even went as far as finding a specific undershirt and shield combination to protect the device in case she were to field a ball near her chest.
She has been the starting third baseman both years and continues to be a strong asset to the team.
“She is always the loudest one in the dugout and everybody’s No. 1 supporter during game time,” Wyatt said. “Gabby has such incredible determination and drive for the game which makes her somebody I look up to and somebody who I am so thankful I had the pleasure of playing with for the last several years.”
While softball has been a large part of her life, she now faces unexpected decisions as the time to transfer looms.
Although uncertain about her immediate next steps, Gabby hopes that one day she will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in education and a job teaching kindergarten.
“With [Sonoma State University] shutting down their athletics program, I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet,” Gabby said. “I had hoped to stay close to home and have a chance to try out for the team but now I don’t know. I really want to continue to play if I can.”
