Lauren Koury wanted to know the person underneath the cap.
At the beginning of the 2025 girls water polo season, the Sierra coach handed out pieces of paper during a parents meeting and asked two questions. First, she simply wanted to know what they hoped for their child that season. The next question, however, had nothing to do with the pool.
What's one thing about your daughter that I may not know?
Sharon Gonzalez knew exactly what to write about her daughter, then-freshman Lydia.
Lydia beat childhood cancer.
Koury didn't get the chance to read it until after the meeting. She could see where Lydia was now, preparing for her first season playing water polo — she just didn't know what the journey to get there had looked like.
As she grew closer with
the Gonzalez family, she learned.
'Only 300 babies a year'
Thirteen pounds, six ounces.
According to the Mayo Clinic, a baby weighing more than 8 pounds, 13 ounces is considered to have fetal macrosomia, or, more simply, is considered a larger-than-average baby.
Lydia was born July 5, 2011, in Baltimore, Maryland, well beyond that threshold.
Eleven days in the neonatal intensive care unit followed. Even after she went home, the complications continued.
Six weeks after her birth, they finally learned why.
Lydia had Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome.
"Only 300 babies a year are diagnosed with it," Sharon said. "It's not inherited."
Sharon had never heard the name before. The doctor explained what the diagnosis meant, but amid all the unfamiliar information, one part was impossible to miss.
Her newborn daughter had a higher risk of developing childhood cancer.
That risk became reality March 13, 2012.
"The whole family got a stomach bug," Sharon said. "For her, on the fifth day, she spiked a fever. They thought she had a bladder infection. That night, they did blood work and found that her white blood cell count was through the roof."
Lydia was sent to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Then came the diagnosis.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
"So many times, we're so immersed in the X's and O's that we forget to think about the people behind the X's and O's," Koury said. "Kids can learn from her story. It shows why we're here and why it's so much more than sports."
'She's a miracle'
One month in the hospital was the expectation.
Lydia's stay became much longer.
On April 13, 2012, sepsis caused her heart to stop for three minutes. Doctors told Sharon she could lose her daughter that night.
"It was either let her die or put her on ECMO, even with the high risk of a brain bleed and stroke," Sharon said. "I said I'd rather have her one more day than lose her that night."
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was the choice.
Lydia survived.
Two months later, Lydia nearly died again.
On June 13, 2012, a severe allergic reaction to a chemotherapy medication caused her face and tongue to swell, threatening her breathing. Sharon was alone in the room when she noticed. No nurse was in sight.
She was later told that if she hadn't, Lydia wouldn't have made it.
Again, Lydia survived.
"I knew I battled cancer, but I never really understood everything I went through," Lydia said. "When she explained it all to me, I was honestly shocked."
Later that fall, the hole in Lydia's back from her leukemia treatment had finally healed. Another lumbar puncture was needed, and doctors went through the same area.
Lydia developed spinal meningitis, and had Sharon waited to bring her in, doctors told her Lydia could have suffered a seizure and died.
Instead, Lydia survived once more.
"Each time we never really knew if she'd make it," Sharon said. "She's a miracle."
'Another chance at life'
Between the ages of 8 and 10, Lydia stumbled across something in her room that carried a history she couldn't quite remember.
Her Beads of Courage.
Every procedure, hospital stay and part of her treatment was represented by a different colored bead. Lydia had enough to stretch them across her room.
She turned to Sharon.
Her mom began explaining the story behind the beads and everything Lydia had gone through to get where she is today.
Slowly, Lydia started to remember.
The oncology ball. The red dress she wore.
Her first friend at the hospital, Lammi, who died at 3 years old.
Meeting her hero, Doc McStuffins, at a Make-A-Wish event at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
And, more than anything, March 13, 2014.
Her final day of treatment. The day Lydia was declared in remission.
"I'm grateful that I've been given another chance at life," Lydia said. "My faith in Jesus means everything to me because if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be standing here today."
'Don't give up'
Finding her Beads of Courage did more than bring back pieces of Lydia's childhood.
It changed the way she looked at the life in front of her.
Life was too short to sit back and watch.
"I feel like sports really got me out of my comfort zone," Lydia said. "I felt like a new person in a way."
That didn't make taking the first step easy. There was plenty for Lydia to overthink.
Her asthma. The many other cognitive effects. The scars.
Through seventh and eighth grade, she watched.
Her older brother, Erik, had gotten into water polo because of their cousins and tried to persuade Lydia to give it a chance. She couldn't quite bring herself to do it.
The summer before her freshman year, something changed.
"I'm just going to do it," Lydia told herself.
It wasn't easy. Lydia had never swum for fitness before, and now she was learning to do it while navigating the physicality of water polo.
The struggles showed up.
So did Lydia.
"What was really fun to see was that she showed up every day with a huge smile on her face," Koury said. "That girl is just so happy to be around everyone."
How could she not be?
The scar on Lydia's neck from the tumor once made her a target. Other kids made fun of her for it.
Sharon gave it a different meaning. Her "battle scar."
Not something to hide. Something to wear with pride.
Now, her teammates embrace the scar. Lydia does, too.
"She's a superhero," Sharon said.
Three times, Lydia's family didn't know if she would survive.
Years later, the girl who once hesitated to jump in is preparing for her sophomore year on Sierra's varsity team.
No longer sitting back, no longer watching.
Just living.
"Don't give up," Lydia said. "If you have an opportunity, take it. Life is too short to sit back and watch."
This article originally appeared on The Record: A miracle in motion: Childhood cancer survivor Lydia Gonzalez embraces every opportunity
