Senior Spotlight: Juliana Moore, Jackie Coe, Jordan Pelc and Rachel Farneti

Nate Rickard, Staff Writer
November 10, 2011
Filed under Sports

The clock will always be running, and it runs fast. One moment you’re a child running around with your head in the clouds, and then you blink. When your eyes open you’re a senior in college and about to graduate.

Juliana Moore, Jackie Coe, Jordan Pelc and Rachel Farneti of the Le Moyne College women’s soccer team can attest to this. If you ask the question, they’ll answer similarly: “I started playing soccer when I was four” or “I started playing soccer when I was five.” There is a sense of unity when they speak — a sense of closeness, of sisterhood. Even when they speak of their beginnings in soccer there is something unifying to it.

For Moore, her first days of playing came at the helm of her family who runs a soccer camp.

“I grew up around it and had no choice but to love it,” she said.

Coe’s family, too, was at the root of her soccer career.

“My parents put me into a few different sports and that’s the one I liked best,” she said.

Pelc echoes the same parental guidance: “I didn’t like soccer, but my parents made me stick to it, and lo and behold, I’m still playing to this day!”

And sure enough, just like her teammates, Farneti credits her family for her early playing days.

“I had an older sister who absolutely loved soccer so it seemed only natural that I would follow in her footsteps,” she said.

It is that cohesive bond that we share with our family that makes them so important. It is that same bond that forms a team and helps them grow.

Four years ago these girls came to Le Moyne College not knowing what to expect and now they are about to leave having grown more than they could have expected.

“We have failed and succeeded, laughed and cried, and played the game we all love together,” Farneti said. “I’m so proud to say that I was a four-year college athlete and that I can say it was accomplished with some of my closest friends.”

This team, this family, will walk away from the field this year with a new wealth of knowledge. Each one of them will take away something different but what they learned, they learned from each other.

“I learned to keep my head up and try to stay positive no matter what,” Coe said.

For Moore, what she learned was time and how to fragment it. “Time management is a big thing, you spend so much time playing and traveling that you have no choice but to learn to be responsible and balance your life.”

In four years they have ascended from wide-eyed freshmen to well-rounded seniors. With their new pearls of wisdom, they look to pass on what they have learned to the freshmen.

“Whether it’s on the field or in the classroom, things don’t always go as planned,” Farneti said. “Don’t sweat the small stuff and believe in your abilities.”

Coe said that what she would like to pass on is all attitude: “Stay positive and keep a hard work ethic. Some practices can be really tough, but keeping a good attitude . . . will make it fun!”

For these four, time has gone by quickly and there is no telling where their post-college road will lead. Some will go to graduate school, some will leave Syracuse, but with all the uncertainties there is one thing that is permanent: they will always have each other, and they will always be family.