“Without a goal scorer, an assist is just a pass,” Sarah Allen said.

The wise words from then-junior Allen after she broke the NCAA single-season record for assists per game are a prime example of the mantra that she made her own.

Photo by Matt Eisenberg

It is only fitting that exactly one year later, Allen, the player described by coaches and teammates as selfless, genuine and uplifting, set the Quinnipiac program record in total career points with an assist.

“She’s the most selfless player I’ve ever played with and she always looks to pass,” Allen’s backup Kayla Fu said, “She has evolved so much over the time that we’ve played together.”

It was Fu’s goal with four minutes left in a game against Wagner that turned an Allen pass into an assist, one that marked her 176th career point and moved her past Allen’s former mentor, Katie Latonick, for the all-time record.

Latonick was a senior when Allen played her first year at Quinnipiac, and it’s no surprise that the players’ careers have turned out so similar.

“Getting Sarah to watch Katie play and play with her was invaluable to Sarah’s development,” head coach Danie Caro said. “Katie was a good leader and mentor, she gave Sarah a blueprint to follow, and she’s definitely followed it.”

To Caro, the blueprint may have related to the field and the game. For Allen, it was much more.

“I watched Katie play from day one; she was always the person that I wanted to be,” Allen said. “Breaking her record is special to me. I saw her after I broke it, and she was really happy for me, so it means a lot.”

Aside from the poetic justice in Allen’s record-breaking point, it was equally fitting that Kayla Fu was the one to finish the play. Fu is poised to fill the void left by Allen in the 2014 season, but knows it won’t be easy.

“It’s definitely a lot to live up to, so I’ll really have to step it up,” Fu said. “It actually makes me a little bit nervous, but I’m ready.”

Allen’s teammates and coaches agree that she is as good, if not better, off the field as she is on it.

“Sarah is just a wonderful human being,” Caro said. “And the way she has befriended the younger players and been such a role model for them, showing them how to be better people, has been really helpful to our team.”

One of those younger players had the benefit to learn from Allen before Quinnipiac was even a flicker on her horizon.

Freshman Katie DeVito was a junior varsity lacrosse player at Glastonbury High School and sat in the bleachers watching her role model lead the varsity team to a 16-3 record and a conference championship.

“Whenever I would get the chance to play in high school, I would always say, ‘Sarah was here on the field’ and ‘Sarah did this from this spot,’” DeVito said. “I always strived to try to get to that level. She was a big role model, and I really look up to her.”

Four years later, DeVito is in position to compete with Fu for Allen’s former spot, feeding cutters from behind the opposing goal, and the freshman welcomes the opportunity.

“It’s fun and exciting to think that I could maybe take her place when she leaves,” DeVito said.

While some athletes may be sentimental or resentful when thinking about their “spot” being filled, Allen continuously shows that she is a rare breed.

“I appreciate seeing everyone have success, and with assists, two people get credit instead of one,” Allen said. “Your team is your family, so seeing everyone happy and successful, even after I’m gone, just means so much to me.”

Will her records be beaten? Not even Allen can answer that, but you can bet she will be more than happy for whichever teammate does it.

In mid-May, Allen will wrap up her degree in Sociology and Education. She will trade the green turf for the green chalkboard, the goals and assists for quizzes and tests, and teammates for students. But no matter how far she gets from the game of lacrosse, the name Sarah Allen will be etched in the Quinnipiac record books for quite some time.

In its sixth year atop the York Hill Campus, the TD Bank Sports Center has seen a variety of events. But on the weekend of April 25-27, it hosted the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association’s national championship for the first time with the host Quinnipiac Bobcats ranked as the No. 2 seed.

Despite losing in the championship meet, Quinnipiac had major schools such as Baylor and Oregon coming through its doors and those administrators were blown away by their preparations for the event, something that head coach Mary Ann Powers was proud of after the national championship.

Photo by Matt Eisenberg

“To hear all these major universities like Baylor and Oregon say how this was an amazing experience for the kids, how does anyone match this?” Powers said. “This University does everything right, top notch.”

Oregon head coach Felecia Mulkey said what made the event so great was putting the student-athletes first.

“It was all about the student-athletes,” Mulkey said. “Quinnipiac University made this a special, special championship for all the student-athletes and that’s really what this is about anyway. I think every student-athlete felt very special like they were at a NCAA championship, which we will be very quickly, so hat’s off to Jack [McDonald] and Mary Ann and all the staff.”

Planning the event was certainly not something that happened overnight, as Executive Director of the TD Bank Sports Center Eric Grgurich said. It took well over a year to plan out the three-day competition.

During the winter season at the TD Bank Sports Center, the men’s and women’s basketball and hockey teams have many games which provide plenty of opportunities to work out logistics of each day. The acrobatics and tumbling team only hosted two meets all season, not exactly a lot of time to plan out how to run the event.

“You really don’t have all the logistics worked out,” Grgurich said. “You’re kind of moving on the fly so the way we’ve been able to pull it off pretty seamlessly is a tribute to everyone putting their hard work together.”

One person both Powers and Grgurich mentioned who played a major role in planning the event was Associate Director of Academics Lyneene Richardson.

Richardson received praise from her entire team, and she said the event wouldn’t have been possible without them.

“I think its been exciting; it’s my first time working with an event on this large of a scale,” Richardson said. “We’ve got an excellent team that I’ve worked with here at Quinnipiac and without them we couldn’t have done it.”

This teamwork really became crucial in the home stretch as Grgurich and many of the Athletic Department employees were traveling with the men’s ice hockey team on its journey to Pittsburgh and were away from the office more than anticipated.

“It put crunch time on us when we get back because now you’re looking at this right down the pike for coming up,” Grgurich said. “So it put everyone into overdrive to get this done the last two weeks we’ve been back.”

Hosting the NCATA Championship for the first time certainly did not make it any easier on this planning committee as well.

“It’s just something we haven’t hosted before, obviously the first time you’re doing things you’re working out the kinks and kind of going to the meetings to get everything squared away,” Grgurich said.

Once the championship weekend got underway, it was the electricity in the building that took over as both championship meet teams, Quinnipiac and Oregon, were well represented in the stands to cheer on their respective teams.

Hundreds of students came out to cheer on their peers, something that Grgurich was happy to see.

“I think the athletes did a great job of getting their roommates and friends to come out and obviously they’re very loyal and into it, so it’s great to here in there,” Grgurich said.

In Quinnipiac’s opening meet, they defeated Azusa Pacific before falling to Oregon in the NCATA championship meet.  With Oregon’s victory, they won their third straight undefeated title.

When it comes to hosting the event again in the future, Powers says she would love to get the honor again but is not so sure if that opportunity will come in the near future, if ever again with the addition of five more teams to the NCATA.

“I think this sport is about to explode,” Powers said. “There was a lot of administrators that were here from a lot of places. It might be a long time before it comes back or they put it in a true neutral territory so who knows. We had it while we could.”

Whether or not Quinnipiac hosts the NCATA championship again, Mulkey pointed out that she would not be opposed to coming back to Hamden again next season.

“Quinnipiac did a phenomenal job hosting this meet, so professional,” Mulkey said. “The facilities are beautiful. I just told an administrator from Quinnipiac I couldn’t be mad if they asked us to come back next year because they did a great job.”

Despite a slow season for the Quinnipiac baseball team, a flock of scouts can be seen every Friday afternoon at the Quinnipiac baseball field. They stand behind home plate, glancing at their notes while checking their radar guns after every pitch the senior right-handed pitcher delivers smacks against the leather of the catcher’s glove.

Derek Lamacchia knows that the scouts are there to watch him and only him. He knows that he has a shot to be drafted by a professional team this June in the Major League Baseball Draft. But he understands that he has come a long way since playing varsity high school baseball at Holy Cross in New York.

Courtesy of Matt Eisenberg

“I really didn’t pitch in high school,” Lamacchia said. “It’s something that was new to me here in my freshman year of college in my first full year as a pitcher. As a third baseman and a right fielder, I didn’t think I had much of a future in Division I baseball. I didn’t see myself as a pitcher or coming this far, so I thank God everyday for this opportunity.”

Despite only pitching 13 innings in high school, totaling 21 strikeouts, walking just three batters and hosting a sub-2.00 ERA, summer coaches came to the 6-foot-3 right-hander and suggested that his future may lie in pitching. He went to several summer showcases, including a showcase at the Long Island Ducks’ facility where he met Quinnipiac baseball head coach Dan Gooley as a junior in high school.

After moving on to Quinnipiac to pitch at the collegiate level, Lamacchia struggled during his freshman year, totalling an 8.92 ERA, allowing 35 runs on 49 hits in just 35 1/3 innings.

“It was a difficult transition coming from playing every single day as a position player in high school to being a pitcher here at the university,” the right-hander said. “There are days here where I’m sitting on the bench itching to get into games because I still feel that there’s something there that I can still play, but I am very happy where I am pitching.”

Lamacchia has improved each year since his freshman season, notably striking out 65 in 61 2/3 innings during his junior year, crediting his success to the development of his secondary pitches.

“As a freshman coming in here, I knew I had a pretty strong arm,” Lamacchia said. “I have been thankful to be working hard and getting stronger but I really think the key has been developing my secondary pitches: my breaking ball, my change-up, and my slider as well. My freshman year, when I struggled to throw those secondary pitches, guys would just sit and wait for that fastball and quite honestly they would just tee off of me.”

As Lamacchia developed what he calls a “plus-fastball” and a curveball to which he is comfortable using, it has taken him some time to develop his change-up. In a meeting with the Quinnipiac ace following last season, Gooley stressed the importance of using a change-up.

“He went off in the summer and used it a lot and then brought it back in the fall and used it in the City Series, and it was very successful,” Gooley said. “Now it’s all part of his repertoire; he has no concern about using it in different pitch selections and I think that’s just added to his value as a pitcher.”

Lamacchia knows, too, that this only makes him more dynamic.

“It’s been a major step in my development here as a pitcher,” Lamacchia said. “As a starter, getting through the lineup the first two times and not showing your full hand, having that third pitch available is definitely something that has worked to my benefit, especially with all the work I put in this fall.”

Although Lamacchia has struggled to pick up the winning decision in games throughout his collegiate career, he knows that the game isn’t entirely in his hands but at the same time doesn’t let losing affect his mindset.

“It’s all about maintaining composure in the time of difficult moments,” Lamacchia said. “I like to try to not show my emotions on the mound of what’s going on behind me regardless of whether we are winning 10-0 or losing 10-0. I think that you can’t show emotions of what’s going on behind you.”

Focus and determination are key attributes that drive Lamacchia to improve each time he puts on his spikes, regardless of whether he is shagging fly balls in the outfield during practice or facing the opponent’s top hitter in a bases-loaded jam. Either way, the senior always looks to help out the younger players, even if he comes off as quirky.

“He’s a little out there here and there, such as the stuff he listens to like the type of music, but he’s a senior leader who brings it to the team every practice,” team captain Chris Migani said. “He helps out the younger guys and will take them under his wing when they need it. He’s come a long way since freshman year. He’s grown up and matured and now he’s obviously our ace and he has a bright future ahead.”

With major league scouts present at every game that Lamacchia pitches in, there are always rumors and expectations from some that he could be the first Quinnipiac player to reach the Big Leagues since Turk Wendell in 1993. But for Lamacchia, ignoring the critics allows for him to focus on the task at hand; off the field, he understands that every little detail is being watched from a scout’s perspective.

“Last year was definitely a bit of a shock for me, especially being draft-eligible and seeing scouts at the games for the first time,” Lamacchia said. “This year, I am more focused on the task at hand focusing on the game while not letting things on the outside distract me from focusing on one pitch or one batter at a time. Obviously I know what’s going on but I really try to not let it affect me or take away from focus.”

Draft-status aside, Derek Lamacchia will continue to prepare for each start with the same ethic that has gotten him to where he is today.

“He is convinced that he can go onward and upward, especially with all the MLB guys that have been in here last year and this year to see him,” Gooley said. “To be honest, I thought he was going to get drafted last year; now what happens this year we’re going to have to wait and see. I just think somewhere along the line, someone is going to give him a chance.”

There’s an old saying that opposites attract. If you said that to some former players of the men’s and women’s Quinnipiac tennis teams, however, they may politely disagree.

Courtesy of Ryan Bean

As head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams, Mike Quitko has seen at least four relationships form that have led to marriages between players on his teams. Among the relationships that formed, two of them have involved current assistant coaches, Nicholas Wormley and Ryan Bean, who both found their wife and fiancé while playing under Quitko.

Other marriages include former players T.W. Goodwin and Liz Axler, and former player Jess Ucello and former team trainer Pete Asadourian.

The closeness of the men’s and women’s teams started, Quitko believes, when the NCAA realigned the seasonal schedules, which allowed both teams to play their seasons at the same time.

This change allowed for one weekly practice that the teams would have together. It is something that Quitko thinks has been helpful to both the men’s and women’s players.

“One of the things I like about it is that the men hit harder in most cases, but they lack consistency,” Quitko said. “The women have consistency, but lack power.”

These practices also gave players a chance to get to know each other.

“So when they hit together, and of course that’s how they get to know each other better,” Quitko said. “‘Do you want to play a little tennis with me?’ or ‘Do you want to hit a few balls with me?’ and then they get to know each other and decide, well that’s their business at that point.”

Traveling to and from matches was also a time when players from both teams could interact with one another.

Courtesy of Ryan Bean

“It’s almost like we travel with dates. There are usually, and we try to keep the same amount of men as we keep the same amount of women, and it looks like when we get off the bus, that’s exactly what’s happening,” Quitko said.

It was important that the teams traveled together, Bean said.

“We play a good number of matches together so to have a sport that usually garners a smaller audience, it’s nice to be able to bring 20 plus players in union to cheer and support each other,” Bean said.

After the matches, however, at the team dinner is when the teams really got to spend time together.

“Our team dinners occur after every away match,” Bean said. “It allows for our players to decompress after a good win or a tough loss. The best thing is that tennis is rarely the topic at the table. It’s because of this that everyone’s relationships grow.”

While playing under Quitko, Bean met his soon-to-be bride Kimberly Piazza. The two met at the first team meeting of the year with Quitko, when Bean was a junior and Piazza was a freshman. They soon became best friends.

“As we continued through the program and the season our relationship began to evolve and we haven’t looked back since,” Bean said. “I strongly believe that if it weren’t for Q’s family atmosphere, we might never have been as close as we were during our college experience.”

The couple is expecting their first child in July.

“Needless to say we are more than happy,” Bean said.

The team’s other assistant coach, Wormley, and his wife, former player Michelle Nagle, are expecting their second child.

For all the benefits that come from relationships between players on the teams, Quitko knows exactly what to do when problems do begin to occur.

“When they break up,” Quitko said. “I put a bandaid on the wound.”

Matthew Peca isn’t sure about how he got his start in hockey, but he is sure about one thing: he’s far from done playing for Quinnipiac.

Just days after he played in the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, Bobcat fans let out a collective sigh of relief as Peca announced his plans to stay for the 2013-14 season.

Photo by Matt Eisenberg

“I don’t think I’m ready to leave yet,” Peca said. “We’re going to be an excellent team next year … hopefully I can make some strides to get better.”

This self-motivational mentality has been a core part of Peca’s play since his time in junior hockey when he played for the Pembroke Lumber Kings.

Though he was shy at first, his teammates say he played with a quiet confidence.

“He wasn’t very outspoken, but he led by example,” Brandon Gagne said, who often played on Peca’s line. “He didn’t really have a lot to say in the dressing room, but when it came to the performance on the ice, that’s when he did his talking.”

Disappointments on the ice served as motivation to improve.

“[Peca] was always pushing himself,” former teammate Ben Reinhardt said. “He learned from the mistakes and he got better. That’s why he’s in the position he’s in now, and is doing as well as he’s doing. It’s because he just wants to keep getting better.”

Former teammate Ted Pletsch echoed what Peca has repeatedly stressed throughout this season, about bouncing back from bad games and keeping a level head.

“He’s definitely a guy who doesn’t get too low on the lows,” Pletsch said.

Through his example, Peca encouraged his teammates to improve their play.

“It was exciting to be around a guy like that,” former teammate Stephen Farrell said. “[He] had so much potential and had so much going for him that he kind of pushed a lot of the older guys to be better as well.”

A 16-year-old Peca found himself playing with guys who were three to four years older than him – quite a change from what he was used to growing up.

“I was playing against guys who were just as old as the guys I’m playing with now, and I was much younger then,” Peca said. “I kind of had to adjust to the older, more mature fellows. But it was fine. They helped a lot and they made me grow up quicker.”

His young age was but a number. He matured from a soft-spoken kid to a more vocal part of the team, becoming assistant captain his last year in Pembroke.

“He was a real leader for someone who was only 17, with guys like myself who were three years older,” Reinhardt said. “Everybody had nothing but respect for him.”

When Peca was in junior hockey, he was faced with many options, including pursuing major junior hockey with the Ontario Hockey League or going to the NCAA for college hockey, something he didn’t know a whole lot about.

But for Peca, Quinnipiac was an easy pick.

His reasoning was, in a way, threefold: a beautiful campus with a promising hockey program, a head coach willing to take a nine-hour drive for a personal recruiting visit, and the opportunity to pursue a college education while playing the sport he loves.

Peca’s attitude towards education runs in his blood. His mother teaches senior kindergarten and had him in class as well.

“Yeah, she got me when I was young,” he said, smiling.

His teammates from Pembroke say he consistently prioritized academics.

“When he was in Pembroke, school came first before hockey,” Pletsch said. “That’s definitely a big part of who he is and how he operates.”

Peca’s teammates remember him bringing his backpack on the road to do work to and from games.

“If I was trying to sleep, he would always have his light on, and he’d be flipping through his notebooks,” Farrell said, who often sat in front of him on the bus. “It may have been 1 a.m. on the bus, but he’d still be reviewing his homework for the next day or trying to get an assignment done.”

Though he is a marketing major, Peca has always wanted to teach.

“He’s always been instilled with the value that hockey has a shelf life, and even the best players only play to their 40s,” Reinhardt said. “After he signed with Quinnipiac, he said that one of the reasons why it was so appealing was not only for the hockey, but it had a program so he could become a teacher.”

But first Peca has hockey to play and teammates to lead on the ice, as he starts working with the incoming talent to shape the team for the next year.

“That’s what I’m most excited for,” Peca said. “To get new faces in and to not necessarily start from scratch, but to try and pass along the knowledge that we have of what it takes to make it to the national championship … we know what we’re capable of.”

Though Peca came to Quinnipiac already drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning, and after this season has an NCAA tournament record to his name for fastest hat trick and has been featured on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” he always shifts the conversation back towards the team.

“You try not to think about it too much,” Peca said of the swarm of press he received during the ride to the Frozen Four. “It’s nice to get the recognition, but I think every team was taken by it … just having that type of spotlight on your team really prepares you for basically anything we’re going to meet from now on.”

He personifies the old saying that there is no “I” in team.

“He was just a great, all-around, team guy,” Reinhardt said. “You can’t be successful without a team mentality and that’s what he was all about.”

As the team prepares for next year, Quinnipiac hockey fans have high expectations for Peca. But his team mentality and desire to improve his play for the team remain constant.

“I don’t want to set the standard too high … [but] I think it just kind of makes me a little more confident now that I know what I’m capable of doing,” Peca said. “You kind of try to put that stuff in your rearview because you don’t want to let it go to your head.”

Even as his Pembroke Lumber Kings teammates continue their own careers, they have followed his two seasons at Quinnipiac and are hardly surprised by his success.

“I think everybody knew that he was an elite hockey player,” Gagne said. “He wasn’t cocky though. He kind of minded his own business. Watching him grow up, we all knew that he was something special … he’s one-of-a-kind.”

Whether modeling humility and teamwork, valuing an education, or demonstrating his dedication through hard work and self-reflection on the ice, Peca has already become a teacher and has had a lasting impression on his teammates.

“He was a great teammate and he was an even better person,” Pletsch said. “He’s one of the nicest guys off the ice, willing to do anything for anybody else, but especially on the ice. You couldn’t help but notice how great he was.”

Almost everyone at Quinnipiac knows that the men’s ice hockey team advanced to the Frozen Four and eventually the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history. Less students are aware about the Acrobatics and Tumbling team placed second in the NCATA Championships at the TD Bank Sports Center.

Photo by Matt Eisenberg

Even fewer students know about the best kept secret at Quinnipiac. The women’s rugby team’s run to the 2013 Emirates Airline USA Rugby Women’s Collegiate DII National Championship remains a point of pride, yet  goes without much recognition.

The accomplishment is exciting for members of the rugby squad, but the fact that there is little student support is taken with slight disappointment.

“It can been frustrating to an extent, but at the same time, we’re just playing the game we love,” senior fullback Krystin Orrico said. “As long as we know where we’re going that’s all that matters.”

Just two and a half years ago, an e-mail was sent to the entire student body at Quinnipiac stating that there would be open tryouts for a women’s rugby team on campus. About 60 students, including Orrico, jumped at the opportunity to play the sport new to the school.

Prior to becoming the starting fullback, Orrico wanted to play soccer at the collegiate level but took a different route.

“Originally I wanted to go to college for soccer but I changed my mind at the last minute so given the opportunity to play rugby I jumped on it, and I fell in love with the sport instantly,” Orrico said.

It began a transition for Orrico and the current 11 women that still remain on the team, seeing the program in its entirety. It also began a transition for head coach Becky Carlson, the first year head coach of this Bobcat squad.

Carlson said when she was interviewing for the job that she told the committee that they should not hire her if they did not envision the program being one of the top teams in the country by the second or third year.

“I don’t think there was one person in the room that believed me,” Carlson said. “It was all my colleagues, and they believe in the program now. I don’t think it is something that seemed feasible to anyone but at the time me, and now it’s still at times, seems to be something that is surreal for other people.”

Coming out to the program were women with all different athletics backgrounds, from cheerleading to field hockey to lacrosse.

“Having never played the game, they’re playing up against a lot of teams that have girls who have been playing since high school,” Carlson said. “Regardless of or not they’re club programs, they have a lot of rich experience in the game, and I just have a bunch of crossover athletes that just want to play the game,” Carlson said.

After the first season of the program, they finished just 3-6-1 and were blown out of several matches. But in their first offseason, Carlson told her Bobcats that success was just around the corner, and all they had to do was follow the example set by her and assistant coach Michelle Reed.

“I said, ‘If you really want to win, you can win, and I’m going to teach you how to do that. Trust what’s happened in the process. If you trust Coach Reed and I to take you through this process and you do everything that we tell you to do, you can be a national champion.’”

After telling the team this, Carlson said that about 85 percent of the squad actually believed that it was possible. According to Orrico, the players weren’t positive, but they trusted Carlson.

“Our coach always told us she was going to get us this far and we were kind of like ‘Oh we’re still new to the game, we don’t know,’” Orrico said. “But we worked really hard on it and did want it.”

Photo by Matt Eisenberg

With the program at the NCAA Division I level, it brought the opportunity for the school to recruit players that had far more rugby experience, and players like Orrico feared they might not be on the team for long.

“I thought that we’d be able to get far in the first two years, but I just wasn’t sure if I’d be on the team still when we got this far,” Orrico said.

But Carlson was not just going to abandon the players she spent a whole season teaching the sport of rugby to, and she trusted their abilities as rugby players to compete.

Despite low expectations of the Bobcats in the 2012 season, they opened the season with a huge victory over Eastern Illinois using the Rugby 7s format, winning the series 2-1. And the victories have kept coming, propelling the Bobcats to the national semifinals at Stanford, where they lost to Winona State University.

Yet, very few people are aware of the remarkable season the rugby team has had.

“It would be tremendous to bring home the championship and represent the university, it would just be another chapter in the great story that not too many have caught on to,” Carlson said.

Sudden success can sometimes be difficult for teams to handle, but these Bobcats have not changed their demeanor throughout the season, according to Carlson.

“We’ve maintained a level of humility this whole way through that we don’t just automatically think we will win, but we believe we are capable to win. That’s the biggest thing that we play every game like it is the national championship,” Carlson said.

Even though this kind of success may only have existed in the imaginations of players like Orrico, it is completely a reality.

“It’s just a huge accomplishment to see my team work this hard and to put in this much effort; it’s kind of just like a pay day” Orrico said. “Everything I’ve worked for is coming to an end. It’s just a really good feeling.”

There was one who thought this kind of success was possible from the get-go, no matter how far-fetched it may have seemed at the time.

“Two years, that’s a little extreme, I think, for saying we’d win the national championship, but I’ve definitely thought that since day one,” Carlson said.

Made of twigs, thread and feathers, dream catchers remain a gift of sincerity. They ensure infants and young children peaceful sleep and dreams while trapping nightmares. The bad dreams remain in the web until the light of day evaporates them into air, never to bother the sleeper again.

At any given moment, Jamee Jackson shows bits of his 17 tattoos. Some are visible daily, some are not. When he donned his Quinnipiac basketball jersey for the last time this winter, the first piece of art he got on his body showed on his arm, and it will show for the rest of his life.

On Jackson’s arm is a dream catcher, a full circle complete with feathers and beads. In the center where a piece of thread typically creates a web is a basketball. Above reads, “Dreams do come true.”

Jackson said the inspiration came after he began getting the phone calls that would change his life, the phone calls that would allow him to go beyond a high school graduation, the phone calls that would push him further than he or anyone in his family could have known.

For Jackson, the dream that came to fruition was not only being able to play basketball at a collegiate level, but even the opportunity to receive a college education, one that will be complete come May 19.

“Nobody ever said anything about college,” Jackson said “Nobody went to college. I didn’t even know how to get to college. It was so far-fetched.”

photo by Matt Eisenberg

Growing up in Newark, N.J., Jackson’s mother sought to protect her children in an area that did not allow for carefree days of childhood.

“It was tough,” he said “My mom wouldn’t really let us outside much because it was a bad neighborhood.”

Jackson and his family moved around from New Jersey to Rhode Island and back to Newark for his sophomore year of college. The moves were in part because of job opportunities and in part because Jamee and “[his] brothers were bad,” he said laughing.

Then Jamee found basketball.

“I always played basketball in the parks, but I never played organized basketball,” Jackson said.

By his sophomore year of high school, Jackson began getting noticed by college scouts. He grew through basketball in order to move on to college, and according to head coach Tom Moore, once he arrived at Quinnipiac, the sport became a way for him to grow as a person.

“He’s really matured a lot,” Moore said. “I don’t think we’ve had a person who has grown more as a person than Jamee has.”

Sporting the blue and gold for the first time on a team in which James Feldeine, Justin Rutty and James Johnson filled roster spots helped Jackson find strong guides for his Bobcat beginning.

“The team was so accepting and so friendly,” Jackson said. “In other locker rooms, you’ll have groups, and maybe these guys don’t get along with these guys. They were like a family, and I like that feeling.”

Once the big names eventually graduated and the once-fresh faces became the leaders, Jackson recognized a change in him.

“It’s like day and night,” Jackson said. “I got in trouble freshman year in the dorms, little silly stuff. Everything just got so much better. I’m so much more confident in the classroom, on the court, out and about. It comes with getting older.”

Through the seasons, Moore sees both the good and the bad play a role in his athletes’ lives. As far as Jamee’s trying times, Moore thinks they have only made him stronger.

“It’s easy to go through this mentoring thing or this coaching thing with young men or young women when everything is going smoothly,” Moore said. “I think you learn a lot about kids when they hit a rough patch.”

While his early days at Quinnipiac mirrored that of his childhood, Jackson’s opportunities only began on the court. His true defining characteristics are the product of his major.

…

The legend of the dream catcher begins with the vision of a Lakota elder. A spider appeared to him and began to spin the web, explaining that the cycle of life from infanthood to old age.

In everyone’s life, he explained, good and bad forces are thrust in all directions. The good forces are a guide, and the impressionable go with the bad forces to dangerous places. He still spun the web.

When he finished, the spider explained that bad forces would remain in the web while good forces will be used to reach goals.

On his way to a basketball career, Jackson steered away his own negative forces, and as a sociology major, he hopes to help other kids do the same. Ideally working with inner-city kids, Jackson hopes to be the positive force, guiding his mentees in a way he was not.

“I just try to be a role model for them,” Jackson said. “I tell them that, ‘Okay, you can go to school.’ Tell them my story that I didn’t always think I could go to school. Nobody told me, and maybe if I give them a head start, they could turn out better than me.”

Jackson already has experience with working alongside young kids with The Tom Moore Basketball Camp. Through his love of basketball and his will to help, Jackson already proves himself as a role model.

“It means everything. I can’t even explain it,” Jackson said. “I have people, I have a lot of people there for me – my older brother, my mom, my biggest fan, my dad – so I just try to keep it going. Everyone needs somebody to push them, make them feel good.”

Moore credits his effectiveness to his light-hearted, kid-like nature.

“He’s an emotional, fun-loving kid who you love going to practice with, you love going to the gym with, you love going to games with,” Moore said.

While Jackson said “he fits right in” with the kids, another Bobcat before him chose the same career path with a much different approach. Jeremy Baker, a 2010 graduate, also found a career in social work but with a more stern attitude, according to Moore.

“Jeremy is a little more serious, a little more guarded,” Moore said. “He doesn’t show as much of his personality outwardly as Jamee does, but they both have very good values. I think athletics and basketball did a very good job of developing skills for that. They see probably a lot of themselves in young people.”

Despite their differences in their approach, Jackson keeps in contact with Baker and sees his impact.

photo by Matt Eisenberg

“He’s relentless, he’s tough and I kind of model that a little bit as far as my game,” Jackson said.

Having seen both Jackson and Baker come through the program and the impact athletes have on children, Moore knows that “kids naturally look up to athletes,” and that this make their word that much more valuable when trying to mentor or resolve conflict.

He also knows that as graduates, there are opportunities available that stretch far beyond what any classroom can prepare a student for.

Whether Jamee goes overseas to further his basketball career or jumps right into social work, the “world is [his] oyster,” according to Moore.

“It’s exciting and your path can go in a lot of different ways, and I think Jamee is no different than any college graduate nowadays,” Moore said.

…

According to Native American legend, giving a dream catcher as a gift shows great respect and love. It means that someone cares so deeply that he or she wants to ensure peace of mind.

Jamee Jackson’s dream catcher is almost complete. Some threads may be missing, therefore some negative energy may still trickle through as years go on. But there are always more dreams that will be filtered through to existence, no matter how big or small. As he sits weeks away from completing one such aspiration, Jackson is on the brink of a new hope.

By passing down his faith to the children he has and will mentor, Jackson represents not only the product of a dream catcher, but also the giver of one. Through the field of social work, Jackson will help steer the kids that he meets on a path of good choices, one that will help them to catch their dreams too.

History of dream catchers from 

Dream-Catchers.org

Quinnipiac baseball first baseman Vincent Guglietti (East Haven, Conn.) has earned this week’s athlete of the week honors with his productive weekend versus Wagner, and his multi-hit game against the University of Massachusetts.

Courtesy of quinnipiacbobcats.com

The 6-foot-5-inch sophomore went one for four with a walk and a strikeout in game two the doubleheader against Wagner on Saturday April 27. Then Guglietti had a big day in Sunday’s tilt, going four for five with two doubles, three runs batted in, and one run scored.

He had another big day on Wednesday May 1, going three for four with a double, two runs scored, a walk, and three runs batted in. The productive game included a two-run homerun, which Guglietti crushed over the scoreboard in right field. The Bobcats eventually lost, but the homer tied the game at three in the bottom of the fifth inning.

He is batting a robust .667 over his last five games, and has knocked in six of the last 17 Quinnipiac runs. He and the Bobcats hit the field again this at LIU-Brooklyn this upcoming Friday, May 3.