Emily DeRoehn (Old Lyme, Conn.), a junior defender at Johnson & Wales University, has already experienced quite the Division 3 soccer career.
Her accolades list includes being named the 2022 Great Northeast Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, the 2021 GNAC Tournament MVP and a 2022 First Team All-Region player. She’s also tallied 12 goals and five assists in 39 games (36 starts) for the Wildcats as the program’s now won three straight GNAC titles.
But there’s a world in which she may not have played collegiately, even despite a strong youth career at Southeast Soccer Club and in Connecticut high school soccer.
"I got to the point in my senior year where I was still deciding if I wanted to play or not because I didn’t necessarily know what I wanted for my education," said DeRoehn. "It came down to the fact that I was, like, 'I don’t think I can give this up.'"
