Many schools host games dedicated to their alumni when they come home from college. Alumni games are a way for graduated high school students to connect back with their alma mater. It has been a tradition for many years for students to come back and participate in sports games they used to play and loved in high school. Benilde-St. Margaret’s reaches out to the alumni to plan this special event for them.
In addition to the alumni, these games are also significant to the younger athletes. Having players come home from college and talk about their college experiences in a particular sport gets younger players excited and eager to work toward that next level of rigor and competition as their role models have. Junior hockey player Brooklyn Riley believes that having alumni come back and skate with the girls’ hockey team is an extraordinary time because they influence the younger generation. “Having them come back helps expand our team culture and creates even more of a family,” Riley said.
BSM students enjoy it when their older peers come home from college because they get to catch up and learn from their experiences after high school. Many alumni try to offer strong advice because they may have faced similar challenges in their own past in a sport. “Being able to play with [alumni] for a game and to learn from them and listen to their advice is important,” Riley said.
[Students] can hear stories about [alumni] and see who they truly are, and then it can inspire them to be similar to that person or they inspire them to want to act in leadership roles as they have in the past.”
— Ella Pasqua
Many BSM students enjoy how a team begins to feel like a family. When students go off to college and come home over breaks and see their old teammates, they feel that there is a reconnection. Alumni aim to let the underclassmen know what the college experience is and let them explore whether they are interested in that school or not. These alumni have the potential to help students navigate toward a successful future. “I think that [younger athletes] start to look up to [alumni] and they can see their actions, their behavior, and eat like what they do on and off the ice. And they can hear stories about them and see who they truly are, and then it can inspire them to be similar to that person or they inspire them to want to act in leadership roles as they have in the past,” Junior Ella Pasqua said.