Nauset Track Record Holder Concluding Storied Career

NORTH EASTHAM – One of the very first times Violet Roche ever jumped during a track and field meet, she gashed her leg open.

 A freshman at that point brand new to the sport, Roche high jumped and, catching herself with the spikes on the bottom of her shoes, sliced a deep cut in her calf. The rip in her leg was bad enough to require stitches. Roche went to the trainer, feeling woozy as he opened up the wound. 

 The moment was an inauspicious start to a career, rough enough to deter any newcomer from the high jump event or even track and field altogether. With Roche, it only became part of the origin story for one of the greatest athletes to don the Nauset black and gold. 

Roche holds the school record in every single jumping event — high, long and triple jump, both indoor and outdoor. She’s won a state championship and placed in national competitions. She has six league MVPs. 

But as her four years at Nauset approach their end, the wins and the glory won’t define her athletic legacy as much as what it took to reach that peak. Behind every milestone score for Roche, now a senior who’s committed to do Division I track and field at Quinnipiac University, was pressure and pain.

It started from nearly the beginning. After seeing the trainer at that first meet where she spiked her leg, Roche returned to run an event and do the long jump. One meet later, just her second time high jumping competitively, Roche set a school record.   

“What's hard is, and I think she knows this, the expectation that she's going to win, but she takes it in stride,” track and field head coach Moira Nobili said. “She does her best, and she usually does win everything.”

Roche hasn’t been doing track for very long. She played soccer and Irish step danced for most of her life. Sticking with both activities eventually became too much on the body, so Roche, who’s from Orleans, gave up the step dancing to focus on soccer upon reaching high school. In the locker rooms one day during the fall season, Nobili asked Roche what she was doing that winter, a track-recruiting interaction Nobili had all the time with the soccer kids.

“I was like, ‘well, why not?’” Roche said. “‘I mean, I love to run. I love to sprint, so I'll give it a try.’ And that's kind of how I got into it.”

At first, Roche just wanted to run the 100-meter, according to Nobili. But the experienced coach has all the athletes try every event at practice. It was Roche’s turn to test out the long jump.

“She did 12 feet,” Nobili said. “I'm like, ‘yeah, I think you're doing the long jump.’”

Then the leg-gashing at her first meet. Then her second meet where she ascended five feet at the high jump and set the Nauset record. Roche proceeded to win four consecutive Cape and Islands League MVPs for indoor track. 

“It's definitely a way to start track,” Roche said. “First meet sliced my leg open. Second meet breaking the school record, so it's definitely a mix of emotions. But I mean, I loved it from the beginning.”

Roche also has two league MVPs for outdoor track. The only time so far that she hasn’t won the honor was junior year, which Roche feels actually turned out to be her best season. 

Like the first time she ever high jumped during a meet, what happened was Roche pushed through the pain. On a day when she wasn’t feeling well at the end of the indoor season junior year, Roche stuck through to compete in a pentathlon with her younger sister, Maeve, and four-year soccer and track teammate Liz Sanders. After, Roche powered through to the high jump and hurt her groin. She tried to jump again and pulled it worse.

The injury put Roche out of commission for the rest of the season (including nationals) and the beginning of that year’s outdoor track season, which meant she entered the postseason fresh. She won the Division 4 high jump and placed second statewide with a personal best 5 feet, 6 inches. Then she placed seventh at New Englands and competed at nationals.

“Especially for high jump, it's not just a physical battle,” Sanders said. “It's definitely a mental battle, and she's always able to persevere and really push through all of that.”

Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association named Roche the Student Athlete of the Month for January. The title wasn’t precipitated by any win or championship, but instead for an act of selflessness that served as yet another example of the sacrifice her teammates and coaches have come to know her by. 

At the Cape and Islands League meet this past indoor season, a competing athlete from Dennis-Yarmouth, a girl Nauset wanted to beat, hurt her leg. She was at the trainer’s table, seemingly out of commission for a 300-meter she was supposed to run against Roche.

So Roche brought the girl’s number for the heat over and talked with her. The Dennis-Yarmouth athlete eventually rebounded and was able to run later in the meet. 

“That's another thing about Violet,” Nobili said. “She can stand back and see who needs help, like maybe mentally, emotionally, physically, and she'll go to them.”

When someone shines at something immediately, the way Roche did when she first started track, what explains the success? As with most cases, the line between the innate and the acquired falls somewhere in the middle. Roche gives credit to her genetics. Her father ran track and played football in college. Her cousins on his side of the family are similarly great athletes.

But Roche’s Irish step dancing teacher would also probably appreciate a word regarding her abilities. Leaps and hops fill the discipline, and Roche used to have “insane stamina classes,” she said.

“Doing dance for as long as I did, it definitely builds up the muscles in your legs,” Roche said.

Even with all of her achievement, Roche’s career at Nauset is heading to a bittersweet end. Roche is currently injured, having hurt her lower back and hip flexor at the end of this past indoor season. That took her out of divisionals, where her top numbers would have made her a state champion in both the high and long jump.

“That was definitely hard,” Roche said. “That was a really rough day for me. I was at home by myself. My sister was there, and it was just — it was hard. I was watching the results.”

The injury flared again during this outdoor season, putting Roche back out of competition. With years of Division I collegiate track and field ahead of her though, Roche has to prioritize her health. She’s hoping to return for the postseason. Still, this outcome has felt difficult.

“Getting the school record as a freshman multiple events, there comes this expectation, ‘Oh my gosh, just imagine how she's going to be in four years,’ and here I am, four years later, and I'm sitting on the sidelines hurt,” Roche said.

That’s the overly unfair interpretation of this last chapter at Nauset. There’s also the far more charitable take.

“I think it's also nice to think back and focus less on the negatives and that I've accomplished so much and that I don't need to prove myself anymore, and that I have made my mark and that I will continue to progress better,” Roche said. “But I need to be able to sit aside sometimes and let my body heal.”

 Among all the various triumphs over the seasons, Roche hitting a personal best to place second in the high jump at states last year stands out as the zenith. But what really has been the best moment was getting to run with her sister, Roche said. The two compete in relays together and hand off to each other, with Maeve, a sophomore, taking the third leg and Violet the fourth.

“The individual moments are great, but what's been better is being able to compete with her,” Violet said.

The sisters are mistaken for each other all the time because of how alike they look.

“She’s just very inspiring to watch,” Maeve said.

Roche, by the way, has racked up numerous awards playing soccer for Nauset too. And Nobili once gave Roche a “G.O.A.T.” T-shirt recognizing her track and field excellence.

“Because she is the greatest,” Nobili said. “How can you argue that?”