FAMILY CONNECTION
Three Roches inducted into university’s shrine on same night
Trio of Roches inducted into UPEI Sports Hall of Fame.
Tessa (Roche) Casey entered the UPEI Sports Hall of Fame with a pair of her uncles.
Albert and his brother Gordie were members of the 1984-85 men’s hockey team while Tessa was a dual-sport athlete at UPEI, playing both soccer and hockey.
“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “I was always really proud of my last name.”
“It’s a great night for all of us,” Gordie added. “To see Tessa’s tenacity over the years and her ability to go get what she wanted.”
Gordie and Albert were among six children in the Roche family growing in Cardigan.
“We’re all one year apart, so you had a game ready at any point in time,” Albert said.
He went to UPEI first and Gordie followed him after his junior career.
“It was a natural next step to come out here,” Gordie said. “I knew a lot of the guys playing here and it was good to finally play with some of the guys you had played against all the years growing up.”
Growing up in Waterside, Tessa often heard about the sporting success of her family members.
“If something happened (people would) say, ‘Oh, she’s a Roche . . . I expect that. Oh, from Cardigan, I know all of your uncles and which one is your dad’,” she said.
Albert said he was not surprised to see his niece shine in the Atlantic University Sport.
“She was a phenomenal athlete. She was a great hockey player, great soccer player,” he said, noting her blistering speed and creativity. “She had that determined nature of not knowing her own ability to excel. She just kept pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing.”