NOTE: The Senior Close-Up is an occasional feature on the Bard Athletics web site, with the focus being the life of a student-athlete at Bard. Here, every student must complete a Senior Project to graduate. The Senior Project is an original, individual, focused project growing out of the student's cumulative academic experiences. Preparation begins in the junior year, and our course each semester in the senior year is devoted entirely to the Senior Project. The student submits the completed project to a committee of three professors and participates with them in a Senior Project Review.
By Jim Sheahan
Director of Athletic Communications & Marketing
In addition to being the head women's soccer coach at Bard College, Bill Kelly is a poet and author. He's a real thinker.
He puts a lot of thought into the kind of players he recruits to be student-athletes at Bard. His prototype player has been tweaked and redefined over the years, but in essence, that player looks like this:Â Great student, committed student-athlete, successful graduate.
Abbey Labrecque may have redefined it again.
An intense player with a passion for learning, Labrecque has led the Raptors through the difficult transition to the Liberty League, while continuing her own search for answers as a Religion major.
She was raised in Battle Creek, Mich., by parents Dan and Susie, with an older brother, Jake, and 18 or so cousins living elsewhere in town. In Battle Creek, the smell of cereal in the morning doesn't come from the kitchen, it comes from the Kellogg's factory.
Athletic and academic achievement are a way of life in this family. She excelled in sports and school, and when it came time to look for colleges, she typed in her interests - Math, Religion and Div. III soccer - and among the results was Bard College.
Before looking at the Athletics web site, she looked at the Religion faculty. It excited her. And after filling out an online student-athlete form, Kelly started recruiting her aggressively.
"When I visited, someone asked me what I wanted to study," Labrecque said. "And I said I was thinking of being a double major in Math and Religion. Nobody batted an eye. In fact I think they thought it was cool.
"Every other place I visited, people thought I was weird for wanting to study two completely different majors," Labrecque continued. "Weird is normal here. That's when I knew Bard was the perfect fit for me."
In math, there are concrete answers, and in religion, there are none. Labrecque found that dichotomy fascinating and irresistible.
She came to Bard, excelled in a Calculus class first semester, but realized she'd lost her passion for math. At the same time, a couple of Religion classes she took - Buddhism and another co-taught by Professors Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner called "Trading Places - made it easy for her to decide Religion was the right major for her.
"Chilton is an encyclopedia of knowledge," Labrecque said. "He's a rock star in academia. If I just tell him something I'm thinking about he'll give me two books off the top of his head that I could read to explore it."
Despite illness in her freshman year, which lingered into her sophomore year, Labrecque played in 34 of 37 games for the Raptors, earning a reputation as a tough-minded player and a team leader.
"Soccer is like an emotional outlet for me," she said. "That's my place to be me."
In her junior year, she tied for the team lead in scoring, despite missing several games with an injury. This fall, as captain of the team, she leads the Raptors in scoring again, and they just made history with a 2-0 win over Clarkson - the first conference win for Bard since joining the Liberty League in 2011.
"Within the first week-and-a-half of our season, I knew we had something this year," Labrecque said. "Everyone gets along. Everyone is committed. There's no drama. To be on the field and be surrounded by people you love is something super special."
To see Labrecque play is to see determination personified. Her teeth are always gritted, the intensity is high, and her reaction to success is joyous.
"My older brother used to beat me up constantly, and I could never really do anything about it," she said. "But here I'm playing against people I can win against. I can fight back and win.
"After we beat Clarkson," she continued, "we were texting and calling all of the former players. We shared it with everyone. It was amazing."
It's probably not a surprise that for her Senior Project, she's chosen a difficult subject - German theologian Rudolf Otto. Difficult because most of her sourcing for the 75-page thesis she must complete will come from his translated texts. She diplomatically describes these writings as "dense."
"I've got to get my primary sources figured out," Labrecque said. "Chilton is my advisor, and I'm very very lucky to have him on campus helping me."
Aside from playing soccer, being a top-notch student and actually playing one season of basketball at Bard, Labrecque has been working as a nanny for a Bard family over the years. Next, she has an eye on more school, possibly at the Yale Divinity School.
She might play basketball for Bard this winter, too, because her school work seems to go more smoothly when she's busier.
"When you have two-and-a-half hours to get your homework done, you do it," Labrecque said. "When you have all day, it's midnight before you realize you still have 50 pages to read."
Last semester, she studied abroad. visiting and studying in Berlin, Istanbul, Copenhagen and Budapest. It allowed her to gain a better perspective on Bard, and in away, made her more ready to leave.
"Going abroad helped me learn more about myself, and it prepared me," Labrecque said. "It was a great trip and perfect timing.
"I'm somebody who just loves Bard," she concluded. "It'll be sad to leave such an amazing place."
