The 2025-26 Rams Reflect is the 11th 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 University.
For a complete listing of past and present Rams’ Reflections, click here.
Annabel Veale, Women's Soccer | Hometown: Chester, N.H. | Major: Finance
To the class of 2030,
Welcome to Suffolk! You’ll love it here – take it from me, someone who ended up sticking around for five whole years. You are surrounded by a team made up of truly incredible people filled with the love of the game. They truly will give their all to win it all. In my time as a Ram, I ran countless fitness tests, cried my eyes out, cheered my heart out, and every bit of it was so rewarding. Being a college athlete at any level is not easy by any means, but it is the best decision I ever made. It gave me purpose, discipline, and 30 built in best friends. I won’t remember the tactics, but I will never forget the feeling of hitting in a perfect corner, celebrating a teammate’s long-awaited goal, or sprinting to our keeper after winning a tough game.
It is easy to get frustrated about the nitty gritty, but truly, it is a marathon – not a sprint. You will achieve things you never thought you could do through this team. You will grow in so many ways. You will meet your favorite people! Soccer is so much more than the minutes played each game. Show up each practice and bring the drive to get better, be a good teammate, leave it all out on the field, and enjoy every last second. I guarantee you; incredible things will happen.
One of the toughest things in my (young) adult life has been to say goodbye to the program that gave me so much. I cannot stress enough that Suffolk Athletics has brought me some of the most important people in my life. Waking up at 6 a.m. every morning to practice in the cold of New England fall sounds like someone’s worst nightmare, but somehow, as I write this only a month after my last season came to a finish, I would do anything to wake up to that alarm clock and play soccer with my best friends. Five years was not nearly enough!
When you get here for your first preseason, it will be tough. It’s a new environment, 30 new people, and maybe even a new city. The fitness test may be tough, but I would make a bet that someone will be there to cheer you on and lift you up, even though they just learned your name the day before. Soak in every second, because it’ll go by quicker than you could possibly imagine!
With love,
Annabel, Class of 2026