September 14
Before our home opener against Alfred on Saturday, Coach Jennings focused our pre-game talk on a former Vassar soccer player that no one on the team has met, but whose story the returning players got to know last fall- the Class of 2000’s Robb Rolfing.
If you look around the Vassar Athletics website, you’ll see Robb is our second all-time leading scorer in both goals and points, and recorded two of the five highest-scoring seasons in Vassar history when he tallied 15 goals in 1998 and 13 more in 1999. He also scored both goals, including the overtime winner, in Vassar’s first-ever NCAA tournament game victory (a 2-1 win over Cabrini College). As we found out before last season, Robb died on June 30, 2007, while fighting in Iraq. Our team had a ceremony for him before our second-to-last home Liberty League game against Union last year, and his parents came all the way from South Dakota for it. While we had all but been eliminated from the playoff race, we responded with what may have been the best performance of my career at Vassar. We were unlucky not to score, but we managed a 0-0 tie against a strong Union team who also brought their best on that day. While we’ve probably managed better results, the standard of play on both sides was as good as I’ve ever seen at the Division 3 level.
As the freshmen have not heard Robb’s story yet, Coach Jennings took the opportunity to tell his story to the team again and to show the freshmen some pictures of Robb in action for Vassar. It is clear when Coach Jennings or any other member of the Vassar community talks about Robb just how much of an impression he made on them when he was here. While his impressive goal totals say something about his success for the Brewers, he’s been described as one of the most dedicated, hard-working and team-oriented players to ever suit up for Vassar, regardless of statistics. Hopefully his story will give our team a little extra motivation this season as we try to accomplish what no Vassar soccer team has ever done without Robb- qualify for the NCAA tournament.
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as a parent who was present for the breakfast that vassar college and andy jennings organized to remember this vassar hero, it was a memorable and touching time...
everyone needs a hero, and i believe the vassar soccer community surely has one now.
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