Written by Tim Hofftstaetter
I will be interviewing one of the most involved students both in her sport and at Roanoke College. Hope is an amazing resource for students so without further ado here is the interview with The Hope Keller.
Q: Favorite on field memories
A: Hope’s favorite memory is scoring her very first collegiate goal against Eastern Mennonite her sophomore year. This sticks out to Hope because she is a defender, so she often doesn’t get the chance to score so her first goal was one to remember. Another very recent great memory she had was this past weekend versus Virginia Wesleyan when freshman Elyse Cosgrave had her very first assist. Hope loves seeing her teammates succeed and said that is the best part about being on the team. I just want to mention to brag for Hope she is a multiple time all ODAC player, in both her sophomore and junior seasons. She is also one of three captains this season.
Q: Favorite off field memories
A: The field hockey team is a big fan of scavenger hunts as they do a couple a month, they have even done them while traveling, Hope’s fondest memory was doing a scavenger hunt in Lexington, Kentucky because this meant they were able to explore the city. They sadly do not give prizes other than bragging rights, but who doesn’t love to brag? Hope also mentioned that during preseason they always do a lot of really fun team bonding events. Her favorite was this summer when they went tubing on the Roanoke River. They have a team dinner every day of preseason and carry this on throughout the year having dinner before all of their games. During her freshman year, due to covid, teams were not allowed to get hotels and while in Virginia Beach they played about a quarter then the game got delayed due to rain. While waiting, they went on the bus and because there was so much rain it started leaking through the roof of the bus, and after about three hours of waiting they finally called the game a no contest. While waiting they played games on the bus, watched movies, and just had a great time talking too.
Q: Other things you do on campus
A: Hope is the head peer mentor for CLT on campus. This means she helps hire new peer mentors, train the mentors, and create a schedule for study hall to ensure staffing. She is a subject tutor and has the highest certification for Roanoke, she tutors human bio, anatomy, hex classes, and Spanish. She is the president of Toy Like Me which is a club on campus to help raise awareness for adaptive sports and advocate for those with disabilities. She completed research that updated the Attitudes Towards Disabled People scale and is working on recreating a more useful scale, and this research was presented at a poster fair at UVA.
As a final remark for the future, the athletic department please don’t just schedule men’s soccer for prime-time games or pack the MAQ. Most women’s sports teams are scheduled for 3 or 5 during class, practices, and/or dinner.
