BIG MAN ON CAMPUS
Towering Darien TE Kevin Roche has 17 Division I offers
DARIEN — On Sept.1, 2023, Darien junior tight end Kevin Roche announced his first Division I football offer.
It was from Columbia and over the last eight months the offers have continued to pour in. He has 17 total Division I offers, including ones from Vanderbilt of the SEC and West Virginia of the Big 12.
“It’s been a whirlwind for sure,” Darien coach Andy Grant said.
Roche entered his junior season with limited varsity experience, and at the time wasn’t sure if he would try to play football or lacrosse at the next level.
He was named to the GameTimeCT 50 Players to Watch for the 2023 season, but that was based off potential.
The rumors of a 6-foot-8 tight end from Darien were intriguing, even if they were incorrect — he’s actually 6-9.
“You can’t teach 6-foot-9,” Grant said. “That body type is desirable (to college teams).”
Roche got off to a slow start in the fall, but ramped it up with his teammates, helping the Blue Wave reach the Class L championship game. He finished his junior season with 47 catches for 634 yards and four touchdowns.
Sophomore quarterback Ben Rolapp watched the noticeable growth by Roche.
“Obviously, the hands and the catch radius was there, but his foot work really stuck out at the end of the season,” he said.
That wasn’t always the case for Roche. He saw time on special teams as a sophomore, but didn’t crack the offensive lineup like he wanted, but he did open the eyes of Grant, who was the defensive coordinator at the time.
During the week of the Greenwich game, the team’s seventh game of the 2022 season, Roche was used on the scout team to shadow the play of 6-6, 250-pound Greenwich tight end Dominic DeLuca — now at Wake Forest.
“We started to see this effort and intensity and this body that wanted to catch this ball,”
Grant said. “We knew we had a player and it’s been great to see that development since then.”
Two days after the 2023 season ended, Roche was back in the weight room and decided that he would not play lacrosse in the spring — the first time since he was 5 years old — and focus solely on football.
“I wanted the spring to work out and I wouldn’t have time to do that with lacrosse,” Roche said. “It’s different but it feels great to be able to work at this.”
Since his commitment to just football he has put on 20-plus pounds of muscle to reach 240 pounds. He concentrated on speed training and said that he is much faster than he was last season.
On Jan. 26 he picked up his second Division I offer, from West Virginia, and the next 15 have come since then.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “I can’t complain, it’s a lot but I am blessed with the opportunities that I have.”
Despite all the offers and attention — which brings ribbing from his teammates — the 17-year-old hasn’t changed.
“They’re life-changing opportunities but I tell myself that I am not the best player in the country and I am not a five-star (recruit) so I need to work to get there,” Roche said. “If it’s not going to happen by college then (by) the end of college. I want to be the best in the country.
“Once it gets to your head, you take your foot off the pedal, and you can’t do that.”
His effort hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“It’s been great to see his attitude not change,” Grant said. “He wants to be one of the best he possibly can, but he is still one of the dudes.
“You can coach him hard, coach him with excitement, so it’s been a real pleasure to have him around.”