{"id":2180,"date":"2015-11-19T12:47:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T12:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/?p=2180"},"modified":"2015-11-20T16:47:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-20T16:47:38","slug":"rachel-rockwell-16-signs-with-providence-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/2015\/11\/19\/rachel-rockwell-16-signs-with-providence-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Rockwell \u201916 Signs With Providence College"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Chattman Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Facing a roomful of family and friends on Friday night, the normally stoic Rachel Rockwell was suddenly overcome by the emotion of the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank you all for coming,\u201d she began, and added through tears, \u201cI\u2019m just so happy!\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost as one, the entire roomful of hockey players began to laugh and cry along with her. For this tight-knit team, the success of one teammate\u2014or in the case of the Friday night ceremony, the success of three\u2014is a moment of celebration for all.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Ms. Rockwell signed a national letter of intent to play with Providence College, a small Division 1 school that both she and her parents described as a \u201cgreat fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo by Chattman Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Providence just so happened to be the alma mater of Coach Christa Talbot, who beamed as first Ms. Rockwell inked her committment, then teammates Delaney Belinskas \u201916 and Morgan Fischer \u201916 signed with Boston College and the University of Connecticut, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a family for the last four years,\u201d Ms. Rockwell explained of the hockey team during an earlier interview. \u201cWe\u2019re one of the closest teams on campus. We never leave each other\u2019s sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

That bond had formed through years of fierce competition and encouragement. The team eats\u00a0their meals together and sends little notes of support to each other through group texts, Ms. Rockwell said.<\/p>\n

\"rachel-rockwell-16-signs-with-providence-college_23084091331_o\"<\/a>
Photo by Chattman Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ms. Rockwell said she had been drawn to that same spirit of unity at Providence College, where she found the community similarly welcoming and close.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted a school that had a good student-teacher relationship,\u201d she said, adding that Providence students were \u201coutgoing, warm. It reminded me of Williston.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Rockwell, who is considering majoring in education at Providence, has been a Williston tour guide and proctor. She was on the discipline committee for a year and has captained the cross-country and track teams. She also won the javelin event in New England her sophomore year and came in second in the 100-meter hurtles. In her junior year, she and Ms. Belinskas were named to the All New England Second Team in hockey.<\/p>\n

With a family that included both a grandfather and uncle who had played competitively, Ms. Rockwell said that hockey had always felt like a legacy, especially since she began skating when she was three. Still, she mused that part of the intense unity between them\u00a0was forged through playing \u201csuch a strange sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHockey players are a different type of athlete\u2014intense and so competitive all the time,\u201d she said, adding with a laugh, \u201cYou have to be kind of crazy to sacrifice yourself on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing a roomful of family and friends on Friday night, the normally stoic Rachel Rockwell was suddenly overcome by the emotion of the moment. \u201cI want to thank you all for coming,\u201d she began, and added through tears, \u201cI\u2019m just so happy!\u201d Almost as one, the entire roomful of hockey players began to laugh and … Continue reading Rachel Rockwell \u201916 Signs With Providence College<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ncaa-commitments"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2208,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions\/2208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}