It all started in Little League when Dominic Gonzalez broke his thumb at tryouts. Since then, injuries have always been an issue for Gilbert’s senior catcher.

Gonzalez has been playing behind the plate since he was 9 years old, and injuries have never stopped him from playing the game that he loves.

Gonzalez shattered his left thumb ahead of his freshman season. Then he broke two more fingers his sophomore year. At the beginning of his senior season, he not only hyperextended his knee but suffered a concussion after taking a pitch to his head.

Then there was the major, unexpected injury that occurred on the second day of tryouts during his sophomore year.

“I felt a pop in my elbow and didn’t think anything of it,” Gonzalez said.  “As the day went on it started to hurt a lot worse, I went to the doctors that night and found out I snapped off the tip of my elbow.”

After the doctor visit, he had no other choice than to get surgery in his elbow. During the operation, they had to implant a metal plate and seven screws. He was out of action for over a year, missing his entire sophomore season and the beginning of his junior season.

While Gonzalez’s season was on hold, it didn’t restrict him from going out onto the baseball field to support his teammates.

“I played ball, so for me It’s whether you’re hurt or can’t play you’re still at the field,” Dominic’s father, Ruben Gonzalez, said. “If you still want to be a part of the team you need to be out here every day, rain or shine.”

Gonzalez’s medical history doesn’t stop here. These injuries aren’t the only things that brought him to the doctor’s office. Gonzalez suffers from retinal vasculitis and discovered he was color blind when he was 6 years old.

“He was having issues trying to see certain colors so we had him get tested,” Ruben Gonzalez said. “He’s red-brown color blind. During Christmas, people have that Christmas wrapping with the red and brown together. He can’t tell the difference.”

Green is also a color that looks more brownish to Gonzalez. Due to his color blindness, he has a pair of corrective color blind glasses, but he chooses not to wear them.

“They look weird,” Gonzalez said. “I do want to see the colors but it’s a part of my life. I just live with it.”  

Three years later, when Gonzalez was 9 years old, he took a trip to the emergency room and stayed in the hospital for five days because of a serious case of pneumonia. During this time, he started to realize his vision was bad and would frequently see black dots.

“I get random hemorrhages in my eye, so inside my eye it starts bleeding,” Gonzalez said. “At first it was a couple of black dots and then it started to become into one big one.”

The black dots can vary from a couple of hours to a week for Gonzalez.

When Gonzalez was first experiencing these symptoms, the doctors didn’t know what to diagnose him with since he was so young and didn’t know what caused it.

Since it’s been over a year that Gonzalez had an episode with these black dots, he recently stopped taking the treatment that he was on for five years.

“I’m going to get through this no matter what,” Gonzalez said. “Everything could be way worse.”

Despite sustaining injuries and suffering from health abnormalities, Gonzalez still has his strengths in the catcher’s box.

“He’s pretty good at framing the ball,” teammate Justin Gottardi said. “He’s probably better at framing than myself I would say.”  

Gonzalez’s determination and motivation keeps him going day by day on the baseball field. He will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the fall, where he will be playing Division III baseball as a catcher.

Nothing can stop this young man from doing what he loves.

“My parents especially taught me that once you start something do not give up,” Gonzalez said. “You have to finish through.”