The ongoing pandemic has impacted so many people across the world. For me, I have been lucky enough to have my family healthy and stable. Unfortunately, it had the perfect timing to interrupt the last half of my senior year and hockey season at Providence College. Much like me, many senior athletes had their life’s work taken from them in a blink of an eye. The school athletic department put together a Players Tribune like blog to express the feelings of those who were along side me and my fellow classmates. now that I have a platform of my own I would like to share it myself. Here is the piece I wrote back in April post season cancellation be the start of the pandemic. Check out the stories of the other student athletes from the link below! lots of great stories and memories.
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Providence College Senior Tribune link: https://spark.adobe.com/page/EYuFvEAZr6mIO/
My thoughts from April 2020-
I guess any way you look at it, I was in a 7 year relationship with Providence College. The summer of 2013, I walked into Coach Leaman’s office only to see him unravel a blueprint of what was about to be the renovation of Schneider Arena. For some reason that piece of paper still sticks in my mind today, I don’t know if it marked the beginning of my ties with PC, or if it was the excitement of being on your first college recruiting trip, but from that point forward I knew I wanted to be apart of building something special. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, undergoing 3 shoulder surgeries and having 7 different assistant coaches from commitment to grad definitely poses its challenges. I can without regret say I gave everything I could to this school, program and teammates. We did build and continue to build something special.
The season coming to an end right before you start playing the most meaningful games is heartbreaking. It goes without explanation what every athlete puts into their sport, craft, dream. Honestly, a lot of it is indescribable due to so much effort and emotion put in, much of the time when no one is watching. It didn’t hit me for the first few days. Physically having your bag packed to go play Boston College and then watching as every league in the world gets canceled doesn’t provide much closure at the time. The more I thought, the more I realized I would be alright. There’s always going to be an end, but I remember what happened along the way more than anything. So many stories I could tell, and can’t. All that overwhelmingly topple the ending we faced, and I’m grateful for that.
Going on that Frozen Four run with the boys my junior year has to be the most fun I’d ever had in my life. Being able to knock off Minnesota St. and Cornell, at the Dunk in front of the home crowd has to be the greatest feeling I’ve had. I can still remember it all. Being in the locker room down 3-0 in between periods against Cornell and still feeling the energy to come back, Wilks scoring back door and spinning around in his celly then coming back to the bench, banging his glove against his head along with everyone else. Or going to Ireland for a week over Thanksgiving break to play Maine and Clarkson. Would have never gotten to experience Dublin, Belfast and all Ireland had. It’s moments like those I’ll remember far more than what was taken from us. I’ve been so blessed in my time at PC to have the experiences I’ve had with my team and my classmates. Kasper, Vimal, Kav, Brys, Dewey, Wilks, Zieks, Carly, 3 NCAA appearances, 1 Frozen Four, Hockey East Championship game, 4 Mayors Cup, Ireland, Vegas and so many more. Through it all I made my best friends that I’ll have for life.
Regardless of what my future holds, I know that my time here has provided me with the tools to be a great hockey player, but also a great teammate and friend. The values instilled by Providence are a standard and combination for success and I will never forget what it did for me.
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