Stickin' With Sam

Charlett (left) and Sam Stevenson.

(For her final blog post before heading back for her sophomore season at Richmond, Sam asked that I write a story about her lacrosse relationship with her sister Charlett.         — Dave Ruden)

It didn’t take Sam long during the recruiting process to decide that she wanted to continue her playing career at Richmond.

But she was not the first person in her family ready to commit.”

“When I visited I wasn’t sure what I was going to do; she decided she wanted to come before I did,” said Sam, pointing to her younger sister Charlett.

There was just one problem. Charlett was a freshman at Darien High School.

“I loved it; it is gorgeous,” Charlett said of Richmond. “Right now it is my top choice.”

If Charlett continues on her current path, it is quite possible she will follow in Sam’s footsteps.

Charlett was a captain of the Darien junior varsity team last season and is looking to play a more considerable role next spring. Toward that goal, Charlett has been spending a great deal of the summer working on her game. She has attended camps at Richmond and the University of Virginia, as well as playing for the Chargers summer program.

“She has the potential to be better than me,” Sam said. “We will see how that goes.”

Charlett, at 5-foot-9, is already the same size as her sister. She started playing lacrosse in the 5th grade, three years earlier than when Sam started.

Charlett is the middle of five children (Sam is No. 2), and said she has looked up to her older sister.

“She’s probably helped me the most with lacrosse,” Charlett said. “She just knows the game better and gives me things here and there.”

That doesn’t mean there are not periods of sibling rivalry.

“She does remind me of me a little bit,” Sam said. “She’s as aggressive as I am and as competitive. We compete about who has the better clothes. I know I do because I come home and she’s wearing half my wardrobe.”

Lacrosse has truly been a family sport: their cousin Kendall was one of the stars of the Fairfield Ludlowe team this past spring.’

While Charlett has put in many hours this summer, so has Sam, who is coming off a strong freshman year at Richmond and this season will be moving from attack to midfield. She has spent considerable time working with a trainer to get in better shape to meet the added demands of her new position.

Sam said it has been fun working with Charlett and watching her develop.

“It’s really cool and I love helping her,” Sam said.

And what would it be like to have her sister as a teammate at Richmond for her final season?

“That would be absolutely awesome,” Sam said. “That would be the perfect way to end college.”

I am glad to say the project Sam and I embarked on last year, to offer an inside view of what it is like to be a freshman athlete at the Division I level, is going to be extended as Sam has agreed to continue to write this blog through her sophomore season.

Sam and I shot this video yesterday to catch everyone up on what she has been doing this summer.

— Dave Ruden

We were really disappointed how we didn’t come out with an Atlantic 10 championship a week ago Sunday. We lost to Massachusetts in the final and we’re looking forward to coming back next year and getting another shot at them.

I can’t believe how fast this year went by. It was even quicker than high school. In general it was a great first-year experience as a college student. I learned a lot about being independent and not having your parents there doing everything for you, so I’ve grown a lot that way. And I learned a lot about time management being the key to surviving at the college level.

For a lacrosse standpoint, it was a really big transition from high school to college. You learn a lot more, how to be more aggressive and how your life really does revolve around lacrosse. I got a little taste of that playing volleyball at Darien but not as much during the lacrosse season.

I was really happy with how I contributed to the team. I still think I could have done much more, but overall I was pretty happy. I didn’t really think I’d be able to make an impact on the D1 level as a freshman and then realized I could. The hardest change was the time commitment you have to make, with the training, practices and juggling school work and everything. It was pretty tough.

My coach at our end-of-season meeting said she could definitely use my size in the midfield and how it will be an advantage to our team, so I will be changing positions so I can see both ends of the field. It might not be fun busting my butt this summer, but I think it’s going to be great. Now I will see so much more of the game because you are more involved, not just on defense but transition and attack.

Mary Flowers did an amazing job for us this year as a sophomore. She was the A-10 Midfielder of the Year. I’m hoping to try and have the same sort of success.

I’ve been on defense for some reps so I have played both positions, but not continuously. The big thing is you have to be in a whole lot better shape.

I definitely am going to train at BlueStreak this summer and will be looking into getting a trainer for me and my sister Charlett, who is the captain of the Darien JV team.

School ended on Friday with my last exam, but I am staying down here for another week. I am at Myrtle Beach right not for what is called Beach Week, where almost all of Richmond comes down and rents houses and hotels. We are out on the beach all day and hang out at night. It’s nice to relax.

Looking back it was a great first year of college and I’ve grown as a person and Division I athlete, and I can’t wait to succeed and improve even more during my next three years at Richmond.

I hope you all have a good summer.

Editor’s Note: This is Sam’s last post. I want to thank her for all the time, effort and care she has put into this project. Despite a busy schedule, she always made herself available, even when there are times I know she had more pressing matters to attend to. She put the same dedication into her blog that she did playing lacrosse and everything else in her life. When I came up with this idea for a freshman student-athlete to write a year-long blog about the experience, I thought I found the perfect person in Sam.

I was right.

— Dave Ruden

Former Darien High School star and Advocate blogger Sam Stevenson picked the right time to have her best game of the season.

Stevenson scored three goals to help lead Richmond to a 15-13 win over Temple this afternoon in the semifinal round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

The Spiders will face either LaSalle or Massachusetts in the final. UMass handed Richmond, the top seed, its only conference loss during the regular season.

— Dave Ruden

Richmond’s Sam Stevenson waits for a pass during a recent game.

We won the regular-season title and are going to be the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, which begins Friday in Pittsburgh. We will play Temple in our first game.

It’s really neat seeing how far we’ve come since to the beginning season to now, and shows how good a team we are. We want to keep improving and killing all of our opponents.

This feels similar to going into FCIACs and states at Darien. Our seniors are saying they don’t want the season to end this weekend. We are not guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament if we win the conference title but we would play a qualifying game.

I’m really excited. I’m hoping to contribute to the championship because the seniors and upperclassmen have been talking about how we should have been doing this the last few years and we desrve to be No. 1.

I don’t think there is any other pressure being the top seed but we would like another shot at UMass, which is the only team in the league that beat us during the regular season.

The past week was really tough because I have been suffering sharp pains in my stomach. I’m getting an Ultrasound on Monday because they still don’t know what is causing the problem. It could be my gallbladder but I’m not sure.

The pain is really random. I missed practice last Thursday because the pain was so bad and because of it I was unable to play in Friday’s game. I didn’t like sitting on the sidelines. I always want to contribute as much as I can. It’s hard watching the team knowing you can’t help. Fortunately my stomach hasn’t bothered me the last few days. I’ve really been watching what I eat.

I’m on my way to practice right now but the next time you hear from me hopefully I will be telling you about our Atlantic 10 title.

Sam Stevenson plays during a recent win over Temple.

This past weekend was very exciting for me because not only was it Easter weekend, but my mother and grandparents came down here, my sister Alex came and surprised me, and we had a very good game on Friday against George Washington, in which we won and I scored two goals. I should have had more; I think I had about 10 attemtps, but I’m still happy.

I got to do some shopping with my family, which I really wanted to do, and got myself some new clothes. We went out for a really nice dinner on Friday night and that was really fun.

Then on Sunday we played William & Mary and had a tough 11-10 loss. It was frustrating because that was probably the best game we played as a team. Friday had been the best, but Sunday we stepped it up even more. We were up by a couple of goals for a good portion of the game and to lose by one, it makes you think about all the things that happened, turnovers you would like to take back.

I only had one attempt but I scored on it. In general I held the ball a lot but didn’t take the opportunities like I used to. I have to learn to be more aggressive.

The season is two-thirds of the way over. It feels like it has flown by. Tomorrow we have our Senior Day and my Darien High School team just played its first game yesterday.

I definitely wish we had another shot at the big dogs we played at the beginning of the year, because the way we played this past weekend we could definitely come out with a win against one of them.

I am happy thus far with how I’ve played. I just need to finish my shots and go to the cage a little bit more.

One thing I’ve noticed is right now I don’t have much of a social life. Everything is school and lacrosse. I came here to play lacrosse so this is what I expected and I have no complaints.

Knowing we only have three weeks of school left, I’ve been really focusing on my work and hopefully I’ll end up with good grades.

This summer I know I will be working some camps at Richmond and I’m hoping I am going to be coaching the Chargers club team again if I have the opportunity.

But right now I’m more concerned about our game tomorrow with La Salle and getting a win for our seniors.

Gabi Wiegand and I before a school social event.

We lost to Towson 23-12 on Saturday, which was a rough game, even though I scored a goal. I hit the post three times — I don’t think I’ve ever hit the post that many times in a row. Maybe once or twice, but not three times.

But today I want to talk about one of my teammates. Her name is Gabi Wiegand and she’s one of my best friends on the team, even though she stole the uniform No. 9, which I’ve always worn since volleyball as a freshman at Darien.

It’s definitely a new experience being a freshman all over again, back to the duties. It’s different going from being a senior to back to the bottom again, especially at a new school and so far away from home.

I think it’s awesome how all the freshmen came to school and clicked right away. I feel like we’ve known each other forever and not just met six months ago. We basically do everyting together, from lacrosse, to hanging out in down time, to going to the dining hall. We’re basically together 24/7.

Gabi is awesome. It’s really cool. It’s weird knowing I played her roommate’s team, Farmingdale, in high school, and now we’re such good friends at the same college. I think we both have very similar personalities. We mess around all the time, make jokes. We are weird and funny at the same time.

Gabi played in the Under Armour All-America game with my former Darien teammate Courtney Bennett. Finding out stuff like that after going to school now, it’s such a small world.

I love playing with her. We both see each other, but I need to pick my head up more when we play. Being from Long Island, she is very good with her stick skills, and it makes me want to pick up my game more.

There is never a moment where we don’t know what to say. It’s never awkward. And she is the person I trust most on the team, not just with lacrosse but on a personal level.

In fact, Gabi found out about my blog and wanted in on it, and is so excited to be a guest speaker that I am going to let her say a few words.

Gabi: I feel like I never call Sam by her name. We call her Stevie, because that’s her nickname. We have another Sam on the team so Anne Ryan, who is also from Darien, came up with the nickname and it just kind of stuck from there.

Me, Stevie and her roommmate Kara all became best friends at the beginning of the year. Stevie was the one who would always come home early at first, and so it was more at the end of first semester when she would hang out more and we became best friends.

I think we both feed off each other’s personalities. We are very similar. I’m always laughing and she’s always laughing and we’re like fools when we are with each other. She always carries positive energy about her so it’s something I’d want to be around.

Stevie’s great with lacrosse. We have different styles of play, which helps with our attack. Stevie is a really hard worker and she has a really sick roll. I love playing with her. You can tell she has such a passion for her sport but I really like her tenacity. She is very aggressive and always wants the ball on her stick.

We also hang out with the same group of guy friends, which makes it easier for us to hang out together. We also have the same relationship with the guys we hang out with. We are both like one of the guys.

Sam’s just awesome and I love her.

OK, I’m back. I’m looking forward to opening up conference play at home against Temple on Friday. I can’t wait.

I’ll tell you about the game, and I am sure you are going to get to meet more of my teammates in the weeks ahead.

We played Old Dominion on Wednesday and beat them 14-10. I scored the first goal of the game. Gabi Wiegand, one of my best friends and another freshman, scored three goals. I am going to tell you more about her next week.

We were excited by the warm weather. When we got there it was 65 degrees and it felt like Florida. We have had problems getting off to a slow start, talking about what we need to change but not really doing it. At halftime the coaches said re-evaulate what you need to do because it was not acceptable.

We were down 6-3 at halftime to a team we knew we were more talented then. When we came out to start the second half we were pumped, and knew we were so much better and needed to prove it to ourselves and to our coaches. We came together as a team, scored a lot and came out with a win. It was definitely the best half of lacrosse we have played so far.

I was pleased with how I played when I was in the game. The refs were high school level — one of them had worked one of my teammate’s high school games — and they made some unreasonable calls. I got called for two charges and I hadn’t been called yet in college for a charge.

One thing my father has said, because the level of play is much more aggressive in college than in high school, is to explore what it takes to get a charge, to see how far I can go without getting a penalty. It usually takes a lot more than what I did.

I was really bothered by the penalties because I got taken out of the game after the second one. I don’t like getting calls on me that I did not deserve.

The one thing I have noticed so far is, I am naturally a very aggressive person and like a physcial game. The college game is definitely more physcial than high school, but it all depends on the referees that you have. I’m still feeling my way about what you can and can’t do.

I’m just really happy we came out with the win and really stepped it up in the second half.

We are on spring break right now and it is weird being on campus with only three other teams here and no one else. It is kind of a little boring.

Our team has actually done a great job occupying our nights. Last night we did a scavenger hunt, which was a lot of fun. The juniors organized it — it is a tradition every spring break — and they pick teams and each team has to dress up, and we are given clues, and each clue leads to another clue. Then we have to take pictures of us doing certain acts — like being in a Taco Bell wearing the hat and apron and standing with the guy behind the counter — and you get points for how creative you are.

Our team was the Jersey Shore theme, so we dressed up like all the people on the show. We were wearing a lot of makeup and bronzer to look tan, and we all pouffed our hair. We mimicked what they look like. We drew on fake tattoos.

We play again tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll have another win to write about.