Roman Fabrizio - 2023 Senior Athletic Awards Banquet Speech

Senior Roman Fabrizio (Salem, N.H.), a four-year member of the Saints Men's Volleyball program and two-year member of the Men's Golf team addressed his fellow student-athletes as the "senior speaker" at Emmanuel's Senior Athletic Awards Banquet on May 8, 2023. Roman had the following to share:

Good evening to all my fellow senior athletes, coaches, and administrators.

It is with great pleasure to be speaking to you all tonight. I’m glad we can all gather here to celebrate all our accomplishments over these past 4 years and hope everyone enjoyed their time as a Saint as much as I did. First and foremost, I want to thank Dan Campagna and Athletic Director Berry for giving me this opportunity to speak tonight.  I also want to thank the athletic department as a whole, all the coaching staffs, and everyone that helps behind the scenes from athletic trainers to Gameday staff, none of us athletes would be able to do what we do without your guidance and support.

Our time here as student-athletes here hasn’t been a traditional one I would say, as most of us lost one or two seasons of play due to covid. But with our resilience, Saints teams have won multiple conference championships ranging across all sports from women’s basketball to men’s lacrosse, to women’s track & field. Along with these accomplishments, multiple student athletes were named to their perspective sports all conference teams, all academic teams, and all tournament teams highlighting their accomplishments on and off the field.

Personally, I’ve always been an athlete, playing a variety of different sports from hockey to soccer, basketball to football, recently being introduced to the sport of golf but most notably volleyball. Sports and competition have been a passion of mine since a young age and will be for years to come. Because of this I knew I wanted to continue playing the longest I could. Going into high school I wanted to play basketball in college, it was something I was very passionate about. I played for my High school, AAU programs, and summer leagues all trying to better my game especially my post moves. Knowing I wanted to be a three-sport athlete, I participated in cross country in the fall, basketball in the winter, and decided to drop baseball for volleyball in the spring. I came into volleyball tryouts not knowing a lick about the game but wanting to learn, when cuts came, my coach told me I was the next to be cut- but he would give me a chance. Hearing this made me want to work that much harder at not just learning the game but mastering different skills of the game and prove that I could succeed at the sport. By the time my sophomore year came I was a starter on Varsity and was really beginning to fall in love with this game. After my sophomore year of high school, I realized that if I wanted to keep playing basketball I would either have to change to a guard or grow half a foot to keep up with the other bigs in the paint. Realizing my potential in volleyball and the love I had gained for the sport I decided to stop playing basketball and start playing club volleyball in the winter. When my junior season came around my coach asked if I was ok with being moved to setter, going from a middle hitter to a setter was a very daunting task for me, if anyone knows volleyball middles aren’t known for having the greatest hands…. I remember going home and talking with my dad about my coach wanting to make me into a setter, I enjoyed being able to hit and get big kills and wasn’t too sure about transitioning to only setting the ball. The setter is like the quarterback of the floor without all the recognition, so realizing my coach had the faith in me to lead the team I knew it would be the best thing for me and my team going forward and never looked back. I ultimately finished my high school career as a NH State champion, NH player of the year, and a first-team all-state selection and named to the Eagle Tribune All-Century Team.  I was honored to have been recruited by numerous colleges but chose to commit to Emmanuel to study accounting and play volleyball. 

Coming to Emmanuel, I knew wanted to get a great education while being able to grow and excel in my sport. Meeting coach Bori and my teammates before coming to campus I knew this place would allow me to do both. Just as I did in high school I worked hard and pushed myself to be better not just for myself but for my teammates. Losing half of my first season as well as being told the news I wasn’t going to have a sophomore season hurt, but my teammates and I still showed up every day to practice and get better, knowing we won’t have any games. My mindset changed after realizing I only had only 2 more seasons of volleyball left, I looked forward and tried to make them a great two seasons. Coming back from covid was an adjustment I’d say not just for myself but everyone in this room especially student-athletes. Being away from our perspective sport for almost a year was something we all had to battle with both mentally and physically. Being without competition and sport for almost a year really felt like a part of me was missing. Just like i faced adversity in sports in the past, this was a whole new type of adversity as it was the adversity of not having sport, competition and team commradotry I decided to take my time home and away from volleyball to start really mapping out my future. I looked at different routes to take in the accounting field and started looking for internships with a few of the Big 4 accounting firms in Boston and started applying. Coming into my junior year I was able to join the golf team along with being named men’s volleyball team captain. Joining into a new sport was something that intrigued me, so I jumped at the opportunity. As that fall went on, I began the interview process at 2 of the big 4 accounting firms for internships the following summer in 2022. In my interview they specifically asked how being a college athlete had helped refine or build skills that might be used in the workplace. I went on to explain about all the skills I’ve learned and continued expanding on such as Leadership, time management, teamwork, and ways to overcome adversity. I noticed the interviewers really enjoy hearing about all these skills and how transferable they are to the workplace. All these skills I gained from being an athlete and I’m sure many people in this room could say the same, being an athlete in college really shows employers the passion you have and how hard you work for it. As a student-athlete it isn’t always the easiest but it is very rewarding from all the relationships, applicable skills, and fun you get to have. A few weeks post interviews I was accepted at both firms and decided to choose to intern at Ernst & Young. In summer 22’ I completed my internship and recieved an offer to return to Ernst & Youngs Boston office this fall.

A big fear of mine coming into college was not having a job after school so having this secured made my senior year more enjoyable. Last fall when I got on campus, I heard about a new club that wanted to start a chapter at Emmanuel, so I helped initiate the club The Hidden Opponent. This club helps advocate for the mental health of student-athletes, which is very important in a post pandemic environment. The club has introduced me to members of various athletic teams I haven’t interacted with before and it also helped build relationships between athletic teams. To wrap up my senior year I lead a team of mostly freshman and sophomores to multiple wins and program accomplishments with many of us recieving individual conference recognitions.

In closing I want to say that everyone in this room should be proud of their accomplishments and contributions to their respective programs here at Emmanuel and their time here as a Saint. Nothing can ever take that away from us.

Best of luck in all you do and in all you do - do your best!!

WATCH Roman's speech below: