Field Hockey
Favorite athletes: Erin Matson or Sophia Gladieux, both field hockey players
Favorite teams: Phillies or Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Springfield junior year and tying New Hope-Solebury this year.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Janet getting stung by a bee during a game.
Music on playlist: Drake, Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey
Future plans: Play field hockey at Widener University and majoring in education
Words to live by: “Everything happens for a reason.”
One goal before turning 30: Travel to Hawaii
One thing people don’t know about me: I love country music.
By Mary Jane Souder
Bri Rocha was looking for her own niche.
With an older brother who excelled at soccer and an older sister with a passion for fashion, the Lower Moreland senior found exactly what she was looking for in field hockey.
“I started with soccer, but soccer wasn’t my thing,” Rocha said. “Then I did some softball, it wasn’t my thing either.
“I started field hockey in middle school in seventh grade. It was what the school offered in the fall, and I thought I might as well try it, and I loved it. I liked it because it was a sport no one else in my family did. It wasn’t soccer like my brother, it wasn’t fashion like my sister. It was my own thing.”
Rocha’s love for the sport has never wavered, and she will be continuing her field hockey career at the next level at Widener University.
“Freshman year, I didn’t even think about playing in college,” she said. “I also wasn’t playing indoor yet.
“Sophomore year I went to a tournament in Florida. They said – you can email coaches, let them know you’re going, so I started emailing. They can’t talk to you until you’re a junior, but they would come to the games. Junior year, it was the same thing. I had a tournament in Virginia. Widener was one of the colleges I emailed – my brother helped me a lot with the emails. I just fell in love with Widener when I visited them.”
Rocha committed to Widener this past summer.
This fall, field hockey became a respite of sorts for Rocha when her mother – Gilberta Rocha – lost her courageous two-year battle with cancer one week before the team held its special Stick it to Cancer Night on Oct. 2. The night honored Rocha as well as longtime LM field hockey coach Carol Lusignea, who passed away in November of 2022, also from cancer.
“Her mom was so looking forward to coming,” LM coach Janet Lutter said. “Bri never missed a practice. When her mom passed, it happened to be Yom Kippur, so she was out four days that week and was back that Monday for (Stick it to Cancer Night) with her family. She played great.”
During those difficult days, the hockey field was Rocha’s safe place.
“I would go and just play,” Rocha said. “Sometimes it was not wanting to leave the house but also wanting to hang out with my friends. That whole week – it’s crazy how much you miss being on the field.
“(Stick it to Cancer) was a week after she passed. I went to school that day but ended up leaving during second period. That whole week, you don’t really get much sleep, and I did not want to be in school, so I ended up leaving early and went home. I came back that night for the game, and that was the first night I saw my teammates since everything happened.”
A bake sale was part of the night’s fundraising event, The baked goods were wrapped and tied with a green ribbon, which represented liver cancer.
“When I brought the cookies home, I took part of that ribbon, and I put part of it on my sneaker,” Rocha said.
A reminder that her mother is always with her.
A passion for field hockey
Rocha’s hockey career began innocently enough in her quest to find her own thing, and it was undeniably ‘her thing.’
“My brother will watch soccer and say – there are similarities,” Rocha said. “My dad watches ice hockey, and there are similarities, but field hockey is unique.”
Initially, field hockey was nothing more than a sport Rocha played in the fall.
“When I got to high school, our coach told us there was a club team, so I used to go to their little training sessions,” Rocha said of Philly Hockey Club (previously Mystx). “When I was 16, I tried out for the indoor team, I made the team and I started playing the fall and in the winter.
“Our club team also offered tournaments in Florida, tournaments on weekends in the spring, so I did that.”
As a freshman – the COVID-shortened season, Rocha was a swing player and saw action for both the jayvee and varsity. As a sophomore, Rocha earned a spot in the varsity starting lineup, and she never left.
“She’s my right forward, and she’s very fast,” Lutter said. “She’s great with her stickwork.
“The way we play the game – we bring the ball down the right side of the field. She’s my player that brings it down and crosses it in front of the goal. She’s reliable because she gets it done.”
Rocha opting to play hockey year-round coincided with her mother’s cancer diagnosis.
“Actually, her first chemo – me and my dad were in Florida for my first field hockey tournament,” Rocha said. “Chemo at first wasn’t working, but we switched to different clinical trials – some of them helped, some of them didn’t.
“It was a bunch of trial and errors. That was the majority of it – ups and downs. Before Christmas last year, we moved into my new house during winter break, and she was fine during that time. Her cancer was in remission, but it was always there. It was never going to go away.”
This past summer, her mother’s condition worsened, and she went on hospice in August. Through it all, Rocha remained committed to her team. Her value was underscored when she was away from the team for four days after her mother passed away.
“When she was gone, it was evident how much we missed her,” Lutter said. “She’s a leader on and off the field.
“She said, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do this.’ I said to her, ‘Actually, not that you want to hear this, but the minute you start playing, it will be an hour-and-a-half when you’re not thinking about it because you’re focused on something else. She said after the first game, ‘I can’t believe that actually happened.’
“We went as a team to the funeral. We have a very close family-like atmosphere with our team. We have pool parties, pasta parties. I joke that we’re a growing team. We had 53 on our team this year, and I kept seven developmental players because we didn’t have enough uniforms.”
The Lions - under Lutter - take that family culture onto the field.
“I try to explain to them – we are a team first program,” the Lions’ coach said. “I played for Lower Moreland back when Carol Lusignea was coach many years ago, and it was the same way. It was all about team. I try to explain to them that your leading goal scorer is not necessarily your best player. There are 11 people on the field, and the way we play – one person is not doing everything.”
Rocha’s role was setting up her teammates, and the senior captain did it very well, earning first team All-SOL Freedom Division recognition.
“Bri said to me, ‘I’m not going to score a lot of goals,’ and I was like, ‘But you’re making goals happen because you’re bringing the ball down the field and sending it across.”
Rocha looks to do the same at Widener.
“When I visited Widener, I loved the coach, I loved the team atmosphere,” she said. “It was more of a sit-down meeting with the coach, so I got more of a feel for her, which was really nice.
“I also like that it wasn’t too far from home. That way my dad, my siblings and my aunt and all of them can come watch.”
Rocha plans to major in education with her sights set on becoming an elementary school teacher.
“Even as a kid – I don’t know where it came from, but I always wanted to be a teacher,” Rocha said. “We had my cousins over, we’d play school, and I’d always be their teacher.
“Then in the middle school and the beginning of high school, I did not want to be a teacher. But it just came back. I started babysitting end of sophomore year in the summer, and that made me want to be a teacher again.”
Rocha participates in Mini-THON at Lower Moreland, and in her spare time, she babysits and enjoys spending time with her family. Family has always been in the forefront for Rocha, whose parents were both born in Portugal.
“My dad’s side has family in France, and we’re actually going to France for Christmas,” Rocha said. “I know them, but it’s been ages since I’ve actually seen them. It’s exciting.”
