Victoria LaRoche - 2018 Senior Athletic Awards Dinner Speech

Senior Victoria LaRoche (Hudson, N.H.), a four-year member of the Saints Women's Soccer team addressed her fellow student-athletes as the "senior speaker" at Emmanuel's Senior Athletic Awards Dinner on May 8, 2018. Tori's remarks are as follows:

I would like to begin by giving out some well-deserved acknowledgments. First, to Brendan McWilliams, for a successful first year as Athletic Director at Emmanuel College. To Andy, Dan C, Dan R, Trevor, Olivia, and Denitra, for all of your administrative work and behind-the-scenes effort that makes EC athletics as successful as it can be. To all of the coaches, for giving your time to these amazing student athletes and helping them continue to be a part of the sport they love. To the athletic trainers, for being available for any and every injury, whether it be a blister, a sprained ankle, or even almost physically stopping someone from trying to play goalie when they had an enlarged spleen- thank you, by the way, for not letting me literally put my life on the line. To the staff and faculty, especially Dr. Rissmeyer, that have supported us as student-athletes among the many other roles we take on. And to the families and friends, for your endless support and dedication to these athletes. If it weren’t for all you did, none of us would be here to celebrate such an achievement tonight. Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to my parents. You have given up so much of your time, so much of yourselves to help me be the most successful athlete that I could. You’ve endured the hardships and the celebrations alongside me for the past 17 years and I will forever be grateful.

When Dan Campagna reached out to me a few weeks ago to ask if I wanted to speak tonight, I did what any diligent EC student would do; I accepted and then pushed off writing this until the last possible minute. I would blame it on studying for finals, but the truth is that it’s tough to write about this. And by this, I mean or official status as NARPs. For those of you who may not know, NARP stands for “non-athletic regular person”, which is a very sad but fitting title that has been bestowed upon us all.

A lot of people tend to assume that there is only sadness in regard to leaving this student-athlete role. I disagree. There definitely is a lot of sorrow. We all had that moment where the whistle blew in our last game, we crossed the finish line for the last time. I even had to deal with an earlier exit than expected. This September, in the early stages in my last ever soccer season, I was told that I had mono. Due to this, I had to spend over a month of my final moments as a student athlete on the bench. It was hard. I knew the day was coming eventually, but I had to deal with it so much earlier than I wanted. I never got a formal goodbye since I didn’t know that random September game would be my last ever. But even through the sadness, I saw this new NARP title as a challenge. If you remember, the R in this term stands for regular, but there is nothing regular about any person sitting in this room. Our pasts have molded each of us in such a unique way. Over the countless years of our athletic career, we were preparing. Yes, in short term, we were preparing for games, meets, competitions, tournaments, showcases, you name it. But all of these were stepping stones. They were minor checkpoints in the grander scheme. Every minute we spent in the athlete role, we were working to become the best person we could be. We spent hours upon hours in insane heat, in freezing rain, in early mornings and late nights, all to build character. The challenge we now face is to continue to encompass this throughout the rest of our lives.

When we joined teams, we were handed a role as student-athletes. Be dedicated, be a team player, be able to multitask, be a role model to other students, and so on. We’ve all heard it so many times before, but in our future careers, we aren’t going to be handed those guidelines. No one is going to immediately expects us to have certain values just because we played a sport or two back in the day. We need to show what we are made of. I believe that we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the sports that we played, to emit these values. I don’t believe that we put in all of the hard work, all of the sacrifice, just to forget everything the second we cross the stage on Saturday.

Imagine the biggest game, the biggest showcase, the biggest meet that you have ever been in. Remember all of the work and sacrifice that you put into this. Maybe you had to miss a friends birthday party so you could go to practice, or miss out on going to that movie with your friends because you had to wake up early and train for your timed two-mile. Now imagine getting to that game, that meet, that performance, that you put so much work into, and deciding to sit out for the whole thing. That is the equivalent of moving on from Emmanuel and not continuing to portray the characteristics that you have gained from being a student athlete.

There are so many ways that we can get a leg up in our futures just by embracing everything we’ve learned from our athletic experiences. You can be the intern at that law firm that is able to multitask better than anyone else in the office. You can be the research assistant at that lab who’s leadership skills shine. You can be the teacher at that school that focuses on teaching the class how important teamwork is and inspiring a new generation to share their values with others. There are so many ways that we can honor all of our hard work and continue to benefit and help others benefit from it, rather of just mourning it as part of the past.

If you ever need motivation to push yourself to continue building upon that character, look back at your career. Not just the technical aspects and the hard work, but to what else helped shape you. Think of the friends you’ve made along the way. Remember the coaches that instilled this love and passion for your sport into you. Maybe it’s pretending an orange peel is a pair of dentures while your waiting for your next game to start. Maybe its putting on a performance for your parents at the hotel during your tournament in another state. Maybe it’s decorating your mom’s minivan and carpooling to the championship game while blasting your favorite pump up songs -sad that we didn’t know “Lit Lit” by 5Up yet. It could be the first time you felt independence and slept away from your family at an overnight skills camp. It might be attending your first professional game and seeing your idols play the sport you love. Remember the little things that made you love being an athlete. We all came to Emmanuel and played a sport because we wanted to. There is no money, no fame that comes from being an DIII athlete. You’re here because of these little moments that have continued to shape us well into our terminal years of being athletes.

 We’ve seen a few championship banners raised by the men’s lacrosse team and women’s cross-country teams. We’ve had trophies come home with our dance team. We’ve broke records and then have broken them again in running, jumping, and throwing. We got to see our gymnasium dedicated to an amazing coach. The class of 2018 has also seen a lot outside of the athletic scope. We were an instrumental part of ECDM raising over half a million dollars for Boston Children’s Hospital. We survived the Loretto flood of 2014 and the St. Joe’s fire extinguisher incident of 2016. We’ve lost baby Jesus and have seen the subsequent chains and cameras be added as an essential part of the nativity scene. Instead of being born one year later, we were so lucky to be able to graduate on Emmanuel’s insignificant 99^th year and miss out on the new residence hall- even though we got all the splendor of paying for it and dealing with construction for three years. We did all of this, sacrificed so much, and went all in, just because we wanted to.

Encompass the values you’ve worked so hard to gain for that 10-year-old version of yourself who is falling in love with the sport. Do the best you can with the tools you’ve received for the coaches and the role models that pushed you. Work as hard as you can for your teammates that have helped you along the way. Be the best NARP you can be, just because you owe it to yourself.

Thank you.