Completed Event: Women's Soccer versus #1 Stanford on December 5, 2025 , Loss , 0, to, 1
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Bradley's New Role: Lends Her Voice to Sideline
9/2/2010 8:45:00 AM | Women's Soccer
By Michael Tomko, GoDuke.com
DURHAM, N.C.-- On the soccer field and in the classroom, senior captain Kendall Bradley has shined for Duke.
“If you could draw out the ideal Duke student-athlete, Kendall Bradley's picture is right there with it,” head women's soccer coach Robbie Church said.
She earned ESPN the Magazine All-Academic District III second team honors last season and was an All-ACC Academic honor student as both a sophomore and a junior, all while starting 27 career games on the soccer field as a center midfielder.
The Durham, N.C., native never expected to have to choose between academics and athletics heading into her senior year, but five concussions over her three years at Duke, with the most recent coming during a team training session in March, has put an end to her athletic career as a Blue Devil.
“Pretty much for the rest of the semester I had headaches,” Bradley said. “It was tough academically because I couldn't go to as many classes as I would have liked. I was able to kind of pull it out, which was important because I am applying to medical school, so I need to keep my grades up.
The headaches continued even after the spring semester ended, leading Bradley to schedule both an MRI and a neuropsychological evaluation, which is a five-hour exam to test your cognitive ability.
“I took the neuropsychological evaluation and a lot of my results were still very, very high, which is what you would hope for as someone who wants to be a doctor, but there were a few areas that were average and my doctor said that those were because of the concussions,” Bradley said.
In addition to the medical tests, Bradley had the MCAT's scheduled for the summer. She was forced to study in thirty-minute intervals to prevent the headaches from becoming too intense. Eventually, she was able to study for longer intervals, but eight hour study days consisted of more than a few breaks to prevent and quell her headaches.
“They start out with an intense amount of pressure in your head,” Bradley said. “I always described it as my head just felt full… Then it's kind of a stabbing pain that won't go away.”
When the first week of July rolled around, she was called into her physician's office and told 'you would be crazy to continue playing if you want to be a doctor. Your next hit could significantly put you back.'
For someone who has been playing soccer since she was four years old and can talk about her last goal of the 2009 season as if it happened just minutes ago, walking away from soccer was not an easy decision, or one that she ever dreamed of having to make.
So when the news came down that she would not be medically cleared to play this season by doctors, it took a rather difficult decision out of an aggressive and competitive midfielder's hands.
“I know it's the right thing, but it's hard to let go,” Bradley said.
Especially when that player's favorite part of the game is heading the soccer ball.
“Being a center midfielder that is kind of my job to go up and win the ball in the air,” Bradley said. “That is just part of the job. I love just being able to get up and win a ball over someone who is three or four inches taller than you. It is all in your timing. It is all in your mentality.”
Bradley can't imagine another coach being as understanding and supportive as Church has been through this entire situation.
“I talked to Robbie, and Robbie is the nicest guy in the world,” Bradley said. “He cares so much about his players. They are people first and soccer players second. He said you are still a member of the team, you are still a captain and we still want you to be as involved as possible.”
Church envisions that Bradley's role on the team this season as a mentor to the younger girls could be invaluable to the squad.
“She is the MVP of the preseason,” Church said. “We have had a wonderful preseason and the kids have done absolutely fantastic, but for her, she has just thrown herself into this team. On the field, we give her things to warm up the team, she gives advice to the team, just every way possible [she is involved].”
Bradley still attends every practice and participates in every drill that doesn't involve contact. During the fitness test, she dropped back in the pack to help motivate the girls who were falling off the required pace to push them to make the required times.
“I am still part of the team, but I just don't play,” Bradley said. “It's hard to watch, but I definitely wouldn't want to completely leave the team because they are my family. They have been my family for the past three years.”
And since she has eliminated participating in contact drills the past month, the headaches have subsided.
“It has been a huge relief,” Bradley said.
While her love for soccer started at a very young age, her passion for medicine began during her senior year of high school. She spent three weeks shadowing Dr. Alison Toth, the Director of Duke Women's Sports Medicine Program and Orthopaedic Surgeon. She immediately felt at home in the operating room.
“There is something that is so thrilling and exciting about it,” Bradley said. “Some people might give me a hard time because they think it is a little boring to go spend a day in the OR on a day off, but after those three weeks I knew this was what I wanted to do.”
“We want the best for Kendall,” Church said. “We would have loved to have her on the soccer team that would be great, but we always want what is the best for Kendall. She has got future plans of being a doctor. She has been a wonderful student for us here. She has been a wonderful player for us. She has been a wonderful leader.”
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