Shooting star
Tessa (Roche) Casey had lasting impact on the pitch as a Panther
Tessa (Roche) Casey was a fierce competitor with a nose for the net who continually worked to improve her game.
She starred for five seasons at UPEI, helping the women’s soccer team make the playoffs each year and going to the nationals twice.
Roche, who led the Panthers to the conference final in 2006, 2009 and 2010, was an Atlantic University Sport (AUS) firstteam all-star five times and firstteam all-Canadian twice while being the conference MVP in 2009 and 2010.
Now she is among Panthers legends as a member of the UPEI Sports Hall of Fame.
Casey thanked the university for the honour and her coaches and teammates for a great career filled with many memorable moments.
“If you never saw our team play back then I can assure you the amount of work that my teammates put into a goal that I got credited for was most often more impressive than the goal itself,” she said.
The selfless scorer found the back of the net 46 times in 65 games in her AUS career.
“I used to call her the fox in the box. If it was around the net, she could score,” said Mike Redmond, her head coach for five seasons at UPEI.
He said she came from an athletic and supportive family and was driven to improve.
Redmond said she would bring a notebook to meetings before practice and write down things she could work on. She watched a lot of video on opposing teams and worked on exercises and drills to enable her to break defensive lines.
“Tessa was one of the most feared strikers in Atlantic University Sport,” he said, calling her a tireless worker with a deadly shot. “The quick-footed forward was opportunistic off the ball and had a phenomenal first touch that made fools of defenders.”
Casey also played hockey for the Panthers in the early days of the program.
She called herself a grinder on the ice and enjoyed working hard and spending time with some
of her best friends without the pressure to score.
Casey thanked her family for always being there for her, especially her parents, Glynda Peardon and Everett Roche, for managing teams, driving her across the region, instilling a strong work ethic and igniting a competitive drive.
“The amount of love and support I always had makes me feel so lucky,” she said. “I couldn't have achieved anything without you guys. So for all the times the younger me didn't say it, thank you and I love you.”
She also thanked husband
Adam Casey, a well-known curler, for his love and support and for being so proud of her athletic achievements.
Redmond said Roche was identified five or six years before going to UPEI as a player they were going to watch and wanted to recruit to UPEI.
The competition was tough with Cape Breton and St. FX both trying to land the star striker.
Roche committed to UPEI and Redmond started her slowly as a rookie on a team with stronger scorers up front.
“I loved having my whole
family here,” she said. “My nana was at every one of my games, my little sister at every one of my games, you don't get that when you go somewhere else.”
A few games into her rookie season, Roche made a memorable impression at UNB.
“She scored a howitzer and I think that’s when we all kind of looked and said, it’s time,” Redmond said. “You have to let the horses run and when they’re out of the barn, let them go. She did phenomenal here.”
She went onto score 15 goals in her rookie season, setting the stage for a Hall of Fame career.