By Marc Raimondi
Nicole Carroll felt alone in the world. Isolated. Like there was no one to talk with, no one to turn to. Like there wasn’t anyone going through the same thing she was.
Carroll was always a big girl, heavyset. But it didn’t become a problem until middle school. It was there, at Bayside’s MS 158, where other kids looked at her funny. They talked behind her back and, maybe worse, mocked her right to her face.
“I used to get made fun of a lot,” Carroll says now. “That caused me to eat more. And when I ate more, I got bigger.”
It was a vicious cycle and not one easily circumnavigated by an adolescent. Carroll, a kind soul who made up in self-awareness what she lacked in self-confidence, got by for a while. She graduated from 158 and moved on to Bayside HS, where she joined the girls’ soccer team as a goalkeeper. Last year, her sophomore season, Carroll was named to the TimesLedger All-Queens PSAL girls’ soccer First Team.
But while she was finding success on the soccer field, the same demons that haunted her during middle school lingered.
“I looked at myself and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ ” Carroll said.
The teen’s weight reached 278 pounds last July. It certainly wasn’t helping her become a better goalkeeper, and there were health issues — Carroll has a history of diabetes in her family.
But more than all that, she needed to make a change for herself. She researched camps for people with the same problems on the Internet and found one — Camp Shane — in the Catskills. Last August, she made the trip upstate and spent three weeks there, exercising and eating right.
She’s followed the same guidelines since returning, watching what she eats, joining a gym, rollerblading and, of course, playing soccer. In a little more than one year, Carroll has lost 58 pounds.
“Now when I look at myself in the mirror,” she said, “I like what I see. I’ve gained a lot of my self-confidence back.”
Childhood obesity is a serious issue in the United States. According to WebMD.com, among kids from 2 to 5 years old, 12 percent are at risk of being overweight and 14 percent are already overweight (in the 95th percentile). Among kids from 6 to 11 years old, 18 percent are at risk of being overweight and 19 percent are overweight. Among kids from 12 to 19 years old, 17 percent are at risk of being overweight and 17 percent are overweight. All those figures are up from the last survey done in 2000, the Web site said.
Carroll, 16, said she is not done losing weight. Her doctors told her the healthiest way to do it was slowly and she has her sights set on 175 pounds as an immediate goal.
“I really think I’m going about it the right way,” said Carroll, who dreams of playing collegiate soccer. “Losing all of it at once, there’s a greater risk of gaining it all back.”
Bayside coach Joe Corrado calls Carroll one of the most popular girls on his team. He’s not surprised she’s been able to accomplish so much.
“She’s always been extra hard-working on the field,” he said. “When she puts her mind to something, she’s gonna get it done.”
Along the way, she’s rid herself of that alone feeling. And with all that losing, she has gained at least one thing: the label of a role model.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Marc Raimondi by e-mail at mraimondi@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
