On the Rise: Isabella Trostel

By: Olivia Austin

Before junior Isabella Trostel became a gymnast at Michigan State, she already went by the nickname "Biz."

According to Trostel, her parents claimed she was always running around the house with endless energy when she was little. What started as "Busy Bee" slowly shortened to Biz over the years.

Now, she doesn't even go by Isabella.

"Everybody calls me [Biz]," Trostel said. "I get so caught off guard when I hear Isabella. I'm like, This is so random.'"

That same restlessness is what ended her up in Mommy and Me classes at two years old, and later competitive gymnastics when she turned five. From that point on, she worked toward one goal: to compete in college.

Trostel grew up in Westerville, Ohio, just outside Columbus. Choosing a school in Michigan came with plenty of jokes from people back home, but for her, the decision was easy.

"MSU was actually my number one," Trostel said. "I did everything I could to get here."

Her freshman year of college came with more struggles than just adjusting to campus. While doing her final pass in her floor routine, something felt wrong as soon as she punched off the floor. Her right ACL was completely torn and had a root meniscus tear.

"I honestly wanted to finish the routine, I didn't think anything of it," Trostel said. "I thought I tweaked my knee and then I was like something still feels a little bit off."

But the road to recovery wouldn't be easy. This wasn't the first time.

Four years earlier, Trostel completely tore the same ACL while competing on vault just a week after her older brother, Nicholas, suffered the same injury. The siblings underwent surgery just a week apart, and navigated the recovery together.

"It was just us going through it all, together and [we] pushed each other,'" Trostel said. "So I was like, 'OK, I need to do everything I can.'"

Because Trostel had already undergone ACL surgery before, the tunnels in her knee had widened. Instead of immediately reconstructing the ligament, the doctors first performed a bone graft, filling the tunnels with donor tissue so they could complete a more stable reconstruction four months later.

Trostel was out almost two seasons, far longer than a first-time ACL tear, after undergoing both surgeries and the long recovery process.

For someone nicknamed "Biz," because she was always moving, the stillness that came with the injury was the hardest part.

"It just tears your guts out," MSU Head Coach Mike Rowe said. "Her parents would come to every home meet knowing that there's no way she was going to be in it. They would just get teary-eyed because they know how much she wants to be doing this and be a part of it."

Even the smallest milestones along the way were celebrated by her teammates.

"The team was all for it, and they were always pushing me for my rehab to get to where I need to be," Trostel said. "Every day I would do something and they'd be so happy for me.'"

Unable to compete, Trostel remained present in practices, cheering on and offering advice to teammates.

"When that was really all she could do, she did it," Rowe said. "She wasn't asking for a captain badge or anything by doing it, she was just offering what she could to help. It makes a difference."

Progress came slowly, but there were moments that reminded her she was moving forward. She was finally able to return to her favorite event: beam, after passing her Biodex Test, which measures knee strength and determines whether an athlete can safely begin returning to activity.

"That was the biggest thing for me," Trostel said. "I felt like, 'Okay, I'm on the rise and coming back.''

The first day Trostel returned to the gym after being cleared to train, Rowe noticed how much she had changed. She was back to being a "busy bee."

"You would have thought we had two suns in the sky. It was like the kid lit up," Rowe said. "She turned into a completely different person and her talent level just soared."

The moment Trostel worked toward for nearly two years finally arrived.

Trostel stood on the beam for the first time in competition since her injury on Jan. 10 at the Sprouts Farmers Market Invitational. Receiving the highest MSU beam score that day with a 9.925, the moment couldn't have meant any more to her.

"I actually teared up after my routine," Trosel said. "I could not have asked for anything else. Going out and hitting my first routine back was so surreal."

Her teammates felt it too. Some of them teared up with her as they rushed over to hug and high-five her after the routine, celebrating the moment together.

"I wasn't used to getting high-fives after I do a routine, I'm used to being the one giving one," Trostel said. "I honestly didn't know what to do with myself. I was like, 'What do I do?'"

After measuring progress in the little things - walking again, being able to take the brace off and returning to her favorite event- Trostel is now consistently back in the lineup and focused on continuing to grow and potentially breaking into other events.

The experience fighting her way back from another setback, changed more than just her gymnastics and will help her in the future, especially as a Special Education major .

"It's definitely helped her develop into a leader in many different ways that is going to take her past Michigan State," Rowe said. "She'll have her own voice, her own platform to stand up, help people. She has all these good core values that just kind of rise to the top. I think because of what she went through, made her into who she is now."

Michigan State University Athletics

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