Indiana University Athletics
L'Hommedieu Speaks at IU Athletics Excellence Academy Groundbreaking
4/29/2017 2:59:00 PM | Women's Soccer
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana Women's Soccer freshman goalkeeper Sarah L'Hommedieu was invited to speak at Friday's official groundbreaking for the IU Athletics Excellence Academy. IU President Michael A. McRobbie presided over the ceremony. Others making remarks at the event included Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Fred Glass, Senior Associate Athletic Director Mattie White as well as Rashard Fant (Football).
For more information of the IU Athletics Excellence Academy, click here.
Below is a transcript of L'Hommedieu's speech:
"Like most athletes here at IU, I started looking at colleges not long into my high school career.
At 14 I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for in a school or what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. What I saw in IU was a beautiful campus, a school with world-class academic opportunities, and first-rate athletics. When I began to make my decision, people told me that I would just know what school is right for me. It would just be a feeling that you get, like you're home.
For me, this moment of clarity came as I walked down those very stairs and looked at the wall at the words right behind us: We are part of something bigger than ourselves. I may not have known what I wanted to do with the rest of my life but I knew that I wanted it to be in service of something greater than just myself.
I'm a freshman here on the IU women's soccer team, and first let me say what an honor it is to represent IU every fall on the field. It is truly a dream come true.
One of the things that I love about soccer is that when you step on the field, you're no longer an individual. No matter how good of a player you are, you cannot win or lose a game alone. Everything you do is in service of your team, of each other. When we focus and when we really play together, we become an extension of one another. I think that's why they call it the beautiful game.
This is a special experience, and I feel a great privilege in having the opportunity to cultivate that connectivity with such wonderful teammates. The Excellence Academy has made that beautiful connectivity an aspirational goal for all of our athletes, a chance for all 24 sports to become an extension of one another, one team.
Our athletics director, Fred Glass, has been a leader and role model for this philosophy. He has always been willing to listen, truly listen, to the issues facing his athletes. As a freshman, I sat in meetings where Fred Glass would personally review a SAC (ph) group proposal. He would ask us questions, listen to our concerns and challenge our conclusions. He helped us work with each other and without fanfare, we knew that he believed in us in our abilities.
He helped to strengthen our arguments and our policy, and later empowered us to reach out and present that same proposal that IU Athletics lifeline policy at the Apple Conference in Virginia last winter. I truly grew from this experience and I am so thankful for the opportunity to present an idea that can benefit athletes here at IU and across the country.
As an athlete, we are given a gift. Our athletic ability gives us a platform from which we are able to reach out and affect change on a greater level than others. The Excellence Academy has been there to give us support to learn and grow so that we can use that platform in the future.
This summer the Excellence Academy has given me wonderful opportunity to travel to Vietnam with a program called coach for college. This program is one that teaches English, math and science, as well as a variety of sports in a rural village that lacks the resources to maintain regular year-round school for their children.
I am very excited for the opportunity to teach, but more importantly, for the opportunity to experience a culture and an environment that is so unlikely my own. We come here as students, but for all of us there will be a final whistle, a final game. The Excellence Academy allows us to develop as people and as leaders, and when we leave this school, we will leave as ambassadors representing Indiana University with our best selves, forging our connections with each other as students, athletes and Hoosiers.
I am so very thankful to so many of our leaders here for the opportunities I've had here. I thank President McRobbie for his continued commitment to excellence and his tireless work for the athletes and all students here at IU. I think Fred Glass once again for supporting the Excellence Academy and giving me the chance to talk to you all today about its impact on me. We are thankful for all the work you do improving your athletes on and off the field.
I am forever grateful to my coach, Amy Berbary and Sergio Gonzalez for pushing us as players on the field and supporting us as young women off. I would also like to thank senior assistant athletic director, Mattie White and Ms. Lisa Franz for the unbelievable support that they have showed not only me but my teammates from all 24 sports.
Finally, I would like to thank you all of you, the Indiana Board of Trustees and all the donors here today for building us a home where we learn our subject and our sport, but more importantly, how we can be a positive force in this world once we step off the field and out of this classroom for the last time. It is because of people like you that we learn to be a part of something bigger than just ourselves. Thank you."
For more information of the IU Athletics Excellence Academy, click here.
Below is a transcript of L'Hommedieu's speech:
"Like most athletes here at IU, I started looking at colleges not long into my high school career.
At 14 I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for in a school or what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. What I saw in IU was a beautiful campus, a school with world-class academic opportunities, and first-rate athletics. When I began to make my decision, people told me that I would just know what school is right for me. It would just be a feeling that you get, like you're home.
For me, this moment of clarity came as I walked down those very stairs and looked at the wall at the words right behind us: We are part of something bigger than ourselves. I may not have known what I wanted to do with the rest of my life but I knew that I wanted it to be in service of something greater than just myself.
I'm a freshman here on the IU women's soccer team, and first let me say what an honor it is to represent IU every fall on the field. It is truly a dream come true.
One of the things that I love about soccer is that when you step on the field, you're no longer an individual. No matter how good of a player you are, you cannot win or lose a game alone. Everything you do is in service of your team, of each other. When we focus and when we really play together, we become an extension of one another. I think that's why they call it the beautiful game.
This is a special experience, and I feel a great privilege in having the opportunity to cultivate that connectivity with such wonderful teammates. The Excellence Academy has made that beautiful connectivity an aspirational goal for all of our athletes, a chance for all 24 sports to become an extension of one another, one team.
Our athletics director, Fred Glass, has been a leader and role model for this philosophy. He has always been willing to listen, truly listen, to the issues facing his athletes. As a freshman, I sat in meetings where Fred Glass would personally review a SAC (ph) group proposal. He would ask us questions, listen to our concerns and challenge our conclusions. He helped us work with each other and without fanfare, we knew that he believed in us in our abilities.
He helped to strengthen our arguments and our policy, and later empowered us to reach out and present that same proposal that IU Athletics lifeline policy at the Apple Conference in Virginia last winter. I truly grew from this experience and I am so thankful for the opportunity to present an idea that can benefit athletes here at IU and across the country.
As an athlete, we are given a gift. Our athletic ability gives us a platform from which we are able to reach out and affect change on a greater level than others. The Excellence Academy has been there to give us support to learn and grow so that we can use that platform in the future.
This summer the Excellence Academy has given me wonderful opportunity to travel to Vietnam with a program called coach for college. This program is one that teaches English, math and science, as well as a variety of sports in a rural village that lacks the resources to maintain regular year-round school for their children.
I am very excited for the opportunity to teach, but more importantly, for the opportunity to experience a culture and an environment that is so unlikely my own. We come here as students, but for all of us there will be a final whistle, a final game. The Excellence Academy allows us to develop as people and as leaders, and when we leave this school, we will leave as ambassadors representing Indiana University with our best selves, forging our connections with each other as students, athletes and Hoosiers.
I am so very thankful to so many of our leaders here for the opportunities I've had here. I thank President McRobbie for his continued commitment to excellence and his tireless work for the athletes and all students here at IU. I think Fred Glass once again for supporting the Excellence Academy and giving me the chance to talk to you all today about its impact on me. We are thankful for all the work you do improving your athletes on and off the field.
I am forever grateful to my coach, Amy Berbary and Sergio Gonzalez for pushing us as players on the field and supporting us as young women off. I would also like to thank senior assistant athletic director, Mattie White and Ms. Lisa Franz for the unbelievable support that they have showed not only me but my teammates from all 24 sports.
Finally, I would like to thank you all of you, the Indiana Board of Trustees and all the donors here today for building us a home where we learn our subject and our sport, but more importantly, how we can be a positive force in this world once we step off the field and out of this classroom for the last time. It is because of people like you that we learn to be a part of something bigger than just ourselves. Thank you."
FB: Nico Radicic - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Drew Evans - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Bray Lynch - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Spring Practice - Curt Cignetti Press Conference
Thursday, April 16