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St. Margaret School in Pearl River welcomed home one of its own Jan. 17 and sent her off to Sochi in style. There were some misty eyes, and a few throats appeared to have lumps in them at times.
St. Margaret’s gym, bedecked in red white and blue, erupted into cheers and chants of USA! USA! USA! when Josephine Pucci, a defenseman for the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team and a St. Margaret alumnus, entered to the musical accompaniment of the theme from “Rocky.”
But it was more than just a chance for the 260-plus kids, almost all dressed in USA T-shirts or other star-spangled paraphernalia, to let off some steam and meet a famous Olympian on a Friday morning. The love was apparent between the teachers, administrators and students of St. Margaret and their somewhat overwhelmed hockey heroine.
Ms. Pucci, now 23, attended St. Margaret from kindergarten through eighth grade, graduating in 2005. She has maintained close ties to her elementary school as a tutor and mentor, and now as role model, as she has pursued her academic and athletic careers virtually to the pinnacle of each. She is currently a student at Harvard University as well as a U.S. Olympian.
“Josephine was always truly a team player. Never selfish, and boys and girls, she never said an unkind word to another child. She’s truly a role model that you can model your life after,” said Mary Mulderrig, Ms. Pucci’s former social studies teacher, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, as she introduced her former student.
“Today we’re wishing the girl we love good luck when she plays for the country we love.”
Ms. Pucchi briefly took the podium, once again to raucous cheers and the familiar USA chant.
“You guys are awesome,” she said beaming at her reception. Then she offered a few words of inspiration to her rapt audience. While dispelling notions that she was always an A-student, she said that being perfect wasn’t the point anyway.
“I wasn’t a perfect student,” she acknowledged. “I did get some Cs and there were tests where I didn’t do well. But I worked harder and got into Harvard. And with hockey I played on teams where the coach hasn’t played me. But I worked harder and now I’m going to Russia...I think the best thing is not to be discouraged and just always give your best no matter what you are doing.”
She told them about how she had to come back from adversity, a third concussion suffered that caused her to briefly leave Harvard during fall 2012 semester to come home and recover. She is now back in school and was named to the U.S. Olympic team during a ceremony watched by millions after the New Year’s Day NHL Winter Classic.
After her talk she took questions from the students and lingered to autograph their t-shirts and hand-painted posters.
Dean Tobin, a sixth-grader and a peewee defenseman for the local Ramapo Saints, the same club Josephine once played for, waited patiently for his chance to meet his heroine and get his picture taken with her. He told CNY he hoped to emulate her one day.
“She’s good in school. She’s good at hockey. She’s a little bit of everything,” he said. “She’s a good role model because he can teach kids what you can do if you dream.”
After posing for pictures, Ms. Pucci told CNY, “I honestly wasn’t expecting this. I’m just so humbled by the whole thing. I was blown away walking into the room. I mean St. Margaret’s really is a big part of me. Even when I had my concussion and spent a lot of time home I really fell back on the Church and my family and I came to Mass a lot.
“This is definitely a special place for me. It’s a second home and a second family. I’m just so thankful for the teachers that helped me. They gave me such a strong foundation and the confidence to go forth.”
St. Margaret’s principal Carolyn Slattery was all smiles as she surveyed the scene. “This has been such a wonderful experience for all of us,” she said. “To have a student come back to us who has achieved such a wonderful goal.” She recalled how she met Ms. Pucci when the recovering hockey player dropped by the school one day last year and offered to help in any way she could. “She said, ‘Mrs. Slattery, what can I do for the school?’” the principal recalled. “I said you could tutor some of our children. I mean, Harvard! I knew she could do the job.”
The principal promised the students another opportunity to gather in the gym and cheer on their heroine when the USA plays archrival Canada on Feb. 12. The two nations have long dominated women’s Olympic hockey and are expected to once again vie for the gold in Sochi.
But Ms. Pucci said she and her teammates can’t afford to look solely to Canada. The European teams are beginning to catch up.
“They’ve been our biggest rival for years now,” she said of the Canadians. “We’ve played them six times this year and every game’s been a battle. So we can’t take them lightly. But Finland beat us one time this year so we’re going to have to be ready for each and every game.”
That said, she is optimistic.
“I think we’re definitely a team with a lot of speed and I think that’s going to help us on the (larger) Olympic sheet. Our forwards are so creative and as defensemen we’re working on transitioning quickly. On the big ice, that’s something that’s really going to be to our advantage.”
