Miami High volleyball star perseveres after personal tragedy, injury in Surfside collapse
Deven Gonzalez walks onto volleyball courts these days much like she has most of her life.
She spikes the ball. She digs. She passes. She cheers with her teammates when they score a point or celebrates from the bench if it’s not her turn in the rotation.
The court is her happy place. A place she has worked hard to recover. A place where she isn’t constantly reminded of how much she has lost.
“It’s been relaxing and soothing since I lost so much from my past,” Gonzalez said. “It’s [a reminder] of how my old life was, being able to at least regain something has given me ease. It’s my coping mechanism and my safe place being able to enjoy what I love to do again.”
On the outside, it would appear as if life was back to normal for Gonzalez, a 17-year-old junior outside hitter for Miami Senior High.
It’s not.
Not since she and her mother, Angela, survived the collapse of the 13-story Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside on June 24 of last year.
Gonzalez lost her father, 45-year-old Edgar Gonzalez, in the tragedy.
Gonzalez sustained severe injuries to her left leg in the collapse as well.
Playing volleyball again was in doubt … at first.
Gonzalez never wavered that she would be back. And 16 months later, she has played a vital role in leading the Stingarees to what’s believed to be their first 20-win season in girls’ volleyball and the regional quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
“It was devastating to see what happened. Even though she’s not 100 percent, it’s still been great just to see her walking around and doing what she loves,” said Miami High coach Nick Baumgarten, who is a second cousins of Gonzalez. “I call her my ‘little miracle.’”
Gonzalez’s life changed in a heartbeat when she and her parents fell an estimated 40 feet when the building collapsed.
The miracle came when firefighters were able to save Gonzalez and her mother from the rubble.
Gonzalez’s mother spent five days in a coma before waking up on her birthday to find out her husband wasn’t as fortunate.
Gonzalez, who was about to enter her 11th grade year with the potential to be one of the top players in Miami-Dade County, had a broken femur and needed multiple surgeries just to walk again.
Gonzalez’s best friend on the team, Lisa Melenciano, was among Gonzalez’s teammates who rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital as soon as they heard what happened.
“I pulled myself out of class and I felt like I needed to get in contact with her and find her,” said Melenciano, a 5-11 senior middle hitter. “Me and my other teammates, we were there as long as we needed to be.”
For two weeks, they were constantly by Gonzalez’s side as she dealt with heartache and physical pain.
She spent two months combined in two hospitals undergoing physical therapy just to walk again. Doctors would later clear her to participate in some light drills and volleyball-related activities, but without jumping or diving.
“I could still work my upper body until my lower body caught up, but my coaches worked with me so I didn’t forget my skills,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez attended a Miami High match last October and took part in a “ceremonial first serve.” She wore an old blue Columbus football practice jersey that belonged to her father, a former linebacker for the Explorers who would go on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Florida State, a master’s in finance from FIU and a law degree from St. Thomas University before becoming an attorney for the Hidalgo Firm, specializing in contracts and real estate.
The motivation to truly return to the game she began playing at age 11 began in earnest that day.
“[Playing volleyball] was just another loss that I was not going to allow her to experience, not right now anyway,” Angela Gonzalez said. “Sometimes it’s hard to see any good out of anything, but it makes me happy seeing how hard she’s worked to get here.”
Gonzalez wasn’t able to play club volleyball earlier this year as she typically does for Tribe Volleyball in Deerfield Beach.
Instead, she worked on getting her strength back in her injured leg and regaining her confidence and basic skills on the court.
Doctors cleared her to resume full activity just before the end of the summer in time for Miami High’s season. And as a bonus, Gonzalez was able to reclassify as a junior for 2022-23, thus regaining the year of eligibility she lost.
“It was a mix of wanting to make my dad proud, and I remember my parents used to tell me it’s one thing to quit and then 15 years from now wonder what could have been or keep going until I can’t and once I’m an adult look back and not have any regrets,” said Gonzalez, who wants to study psychology or law, like her father, in college.
Gonzalez is fully aware she isn’t the player she was prior to the injury.
It isn’t just the scars from the surgeries that run down her left thigh, visible when she’s in uniform on the court.
There are days where jumping or making certain moves on the court that were commonplace in the past don’t come as easy yet. The bigger struggle for some time was having the confidence to even try.
“When she first got back her range of movement was limited, but it’s progressed as she’s gotten stronger,” said Baumgarten, who has coached the Stingarees’ volleyball team for the past six years and is a long time girls’ basketball coach at the school along with his parents and brother, Sam. “I think the biggest hurdle was on the mental side. To go through that type of trauma and learn to trust herself and make a move without thinking about it is tough. It may take a while longer for her to get there.”
Gonzalez said: “There are some practices where I feel like I’m back to how I was and sometimes I feel like I’m a different player. I have some of my same attributes, but I also had to change a bit too.”
One of Gonzalez’s biggest challenges every day is coping with the still fresh wounds of losing her father and the effect everything that happened had on her life. Her father formed a close bond not just with her, but her teammates and coaches as well.
“It was very hard not only on her, but on all of us because Edgar was a part of all our lives,” Melenciano said. “For me, I always saw him as a father figure and someone I could go to who would welcome me with open arms. He was a very helpful man and a very kind man as well.”
Gonzalez still talks to a counselor and has managed to find the balance between coping with what happened and moving on.
“Some days I kind of forget what happened and everything seems fine and I’m living like a normal teenager, but then it hits me,” Gonzalez said. “I do get a little down and depressed, but there are a lot of people that are there for me and help me through it. It’s like a see-saw.”
Although Gonzalez’s former self on the court isn’t fully restored yet, she remains a key contributor playing at both the outside and middle for Miami High, which faced Weston Cypress Bay in the first round on Wednesday night.
On the Stingarees’ Senior Night, Gonzalez let down her guard for a few moments and cried when memories of the times before last June came rushing back. But as they had been throughout her comeback, her teammates were there to help her through once again.
“The fact of how much she’s gone through even before the injury and the amount of hustle and strength that she has, it’s literally unstoppable,” Melenciano said. “It’s an inspiration for the girls and for me as well because it shows that even with something that stops you, you can still fight through it. She’s a special cookie that one. She’s a light on this team and she’s amazing.”
