The 2020 Rams Reflect is the fifth in a series of annual collections. Senior captains and representatives of Suffolk teams have been invited to contribute viewpoints based on personal experience from both their senior seasons and full varsity careers at Suffolk.
For a complete listing of past and present Rams’ Reflections, click here.
Alexis Hackett | Hometown: Charlton, Mass. | Finance
After 18 years, it is hard to believe that basketball is over. Just like that. In what seems like the blink of an eye, I went from playing my first college basketball game to my last. When people say, “time flies”, they aren’t just saying it. I never thought my senior game would come so quickly; it was hard to imagine that the game I love would come to an end.
To incoming freshmen:
When people tell you that your four years of college will fly by, believe it. Although you will never truly understand how fast it goes by until it’s your last game in Ridgeway or the buzzer goes off in that final game. You will wonder where the time went and think to yourself that it seems like just yesterday you were a freshman; I know I did. Make the most out of your four years as a Suffolk Ram and cherish every single moment wearing that uniform. Being a college athlete will push you to your breaking point, but it will bring more good times than bad, and I promise you, it’s worth it.
At the end of the day, I would give anything to go back and put that uniform on just one more time. At the end each season, there is always pick up and team lifts, and another season to look forward to, until you’re a senior. Enjoy it and don’t take any of it for granted, the ball doesn’t bounce forever.
To my teammates:
My senior year was the best out of my four years, thanks to all of you. Thank you for being the best teammates on and off the court, I wouldn’t have wanted to go to battle with anyone else. Keep working hard and putting in the extra hours to win that conference championship you each deserve. Do something that I wish I could’ve done. Keep pushing one another and sticking together, you’ll be unstoppable.
But, don’t forget to stop and realize how lucky you are to be wearing a Suffolk uniform. Play for your teammates, play for your love of the game, and play for that little girl you once were that dreamt of being a college basketball player. Leave everything you have on the court, whether it be a nonconference game, a conference game, or the conference championship, you don’t want to look back and have any regrets. Believe me when I tell you that these four years will be some of the best of your life.
I said it to you all in the locker room after the heartbreaking loss to Emmanuel and I’ll say it again, enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy every practice, every film session, every sprint, every time Coach yells at you (trust me, you’ll miss it), and every game. Before you know it, you will be in my position, wishing you had just one more year.
To Coach Leyden:
Thank you. Thank you for the weekly phone calls when I was a junior and senior in high school, the countless letters, and coming to open gym sessions at Worcester Academy. Thank you for “tricking’ me to come to Suffolk to play for you and turning the “little gym in the basement” into my second home. Thank you for always believing in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. Thank you for never giving up on me after my injury and believing in my comeback. Thank you for giving me the best four years of basketball.
To my family:
Thank you for being my biggest support system. Thank you for pushing me to be the best athlete I could be and for believing in me. Without you, I wouldn’t be who or where I am today. From AAU, to high school, to college, rarely missing a game, I couldn’t be more thankful. Thank you for encouraging me and giving me all the confidence in the world. Thank you for believing that I would be able to play my senior year after I tore my ACL, I needed that. Thank you for giving me the world and more, I appreciate it more than you will ever know.
Dad, thank you for putting a ball in my hands at four years old and coaching me from then until eighth grade.
Mom, thank you for spending countless hours outside in the driveway with me, passing and shooting.
Kyle, Cole, and Camden, thank you for pushing me to be tough. Thank you for not taking it easy on me when we would play 2-on-2 in the driveway, you helped make me the athlete I was.
Without all of you by my side for the last 18 years of basketball, I don’t think I would’ve accomplished all that I have.
Thank you to everyone from the bottom of my heart.
Love,
Alexis Hackett