Reaching for History: Courtney Robicheaux’s Final Week
November 02, 2019 | Soccer
by Brian Ogden, Assistant Coordinator/Communications
STARKVILLE – This is a story about a photograph, one that many surrounding the Mississippi State soccer program consider the lasting image of Courtney Robicheaux's career.
Robicheaux stands in the center of the image, looking slightly past the camera with an almost-relieved smile stretched across her face. Jen Huckaby and Hayden Oswalt have their backs to the camera as they embrace her. In the background, an ecstatic Carly Mauldin is reaching in to join the huddle.
It's an image that Robicheaux still sees every day. It's the desktop background on her computer. And the moment she and the 2018 Bulldogs learned they'd be playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history is one that will be remembered for a very long time.
"I think I blacked out when I jumped up," she said. "It was just so surreal and something that I will remember for the rest of my life – all of the work being paid off and also this feeling of now we have so much more to do. This program is growing, so it was just a crazy feeling."
But to truly understand that moment, you have to go back to another photo. One that was never shared publicly, but simply given to Robicheaux late one night after her final regular-season game. That photo captured a much different scene. One of disappointment and despair that it might all be over too soon.
The Bulldogs were hosting LSU, needing a win to earn an SEC Tournament berth and end a then-14-year drought. For the Mandeville, Louisiana, native, the opponent made what could be her final match that much more significant.
Trailing, 2-1, with 10 minutes to play, the defender slid up to play left forward. She was all over the field. Robicheaux remembers hearing the coaches yelling from the sidelines when she'd find herself of the right wing. Out of position. Her pursuit of every ball led her to constantly trade positions with MaKayla Waldner, who was also up top.
"I just remember that I wasn't losing," Robicheaux said. "I didn't care what position I was in. I didn't care about anything. All I knew was that I did not want to lose to them, and I wanted to go to the SEC tournament."
In those final minutes, she fired four of her career-high eight shots that night. Two were blocked. One went high. But it was the ball just wide of a yawning net that created such a disappointing image.
As soon as the shot sailed left of the post, Robicheaux's head was immediately in her hands. The photographer captured the moment of emotion perfectly. The chance to extend the game and her season had narrowly slipped by.
"I wanted every game really bad, and I feel like I worked like that and I played like that," Robicheaux said. "But that game, I don't know if it was because it was LSU and I'm from Louisiana so that's just a good rival or the fact that I thought it was my last game on the field. That's probably my least-favorite memory, but if it wouldn't have happened, maybe everything else wouldn't have happened the way that it did."
The Bulldogs missed the league tournament with that loss, despite outshooting the Tigers, 27-8, that night. They were back at practice the next week while 10 other SEC teams headed to Orange Beach, Alabama, to fight for a championship. But Robicheaux wasn't quite over.
On Nov. 5, 2018, Robicheaux and her teammates gathered in the Crane Team Theater on the MSU campus to watch the NCAA Selection Show. Three-quarters of the bracket had been announced, and still the Bulldogs' name hadn't been called. Then it was there, hosting Lipscomb opposite No. 4-seed Duke.
"It wasn't an easy journey, and it was probably one of the hardest things that I've been through," Robicheaux said. "That moment, it was just everything I have gone through, all of the blood sweat and tears, have paid off."
Robicheaux played 109 minutes against Lipscomb in the 69th match of her career. She finished just two games outside the MSU record book for career games played and wrapped her career with 6,235 minutes, eighth in program history.
She stopped by this year to see State host UT-Martin in September, and the memories flooded back. It was hard to leave Starkville. Her family had kept an apartment in the city for the previous four years to attend games. They were imbedded in the community.
"Looking back, I'm so thankful that the coaches saw something in me that they continued to put me on the field," Robicheaux said. "Every day when I started my whole freshman year, and every single year into my senior year, I knew that my spot was replaceable. I knew that if I didn't give it 110 percent every day, every practice, that someone was going to take my spot because our team was just too good. I'm so thankful that I had to opportunity to be on that field as much as I did because the memories that I have are just insane."
Robicheaux has returned to Louisiana where she's training younger soccer players while also working at an insurance brokerage company. Even outside college athletics, her soccer career continues to impact her every day.
Her final week as a Bulldog featured the excitement of a historic celebration and the sting of missed opportunities, but those moments helped prepare her for the rest of her life.
"In every situation that happens to me now, I compare it to soccer," she said. "In a situation, communication in a leadership moment, everything that happens, I have a story to relate it to. That's when things get really easy because when I relate it to something that I've been through and something like soccer that was so easy for me to understand, it makes it so easy for me to deal with things now."
For more information on the Bulldog soccer program, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "HailStateSOC."
STARKVILLE – This is a story about a photograph, one that many surrounding the Mississippi State soccer program consider the lasting image of Courtney Robicheaux's career.
Robicheaux stands in the center of the image, looking slightly past the camera with an almost-relieved smile stretched across her face. Jen Huckaby and Hayden Oswalt have their backs to the camera as they embrace her. In the background, an ecstatic Carly Mauldin is reaching in to join the huddle.
It's an image that Robicheaux still sees every day. It's the desktop background on her computer. And the moment she and the 2018 Bulldogs learned they'd be playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history is one that will be remembered for a very long time.
"I think I blacked out when I jumped up," she said. "It was just so surreal and something that I will remember for the rest of my life – all of the work being paid off and also this feeling of now we have so much more to do. This program is growing, so it was just a crazy feeling."
But to truly understand that moment, you have to go back to another photo. One that was never shared publicly, but simply given to Robicheaux late one night after her final regular-season game. That photo captured a much different scene. One of disappointment and despair that it might all be over too soon.
The Bulldogs were hosting LSU, needing a win to earn an SEC Tournament berth and end a then-14-year drought. For the Mandeville, Louisiana, native, the opponent made what could be her final match that much more significant.
Trailing, 2-1, with 10 minutes to play, the defender slid up to play left forward. She was all over the field. Robicheaux remembers hearing the coaches yelling from the sidelines when she'd find herself of the right wing. Out of position. Her pursuit of every ball led her to constantly trade positions with MaKayla Waldner, who was also up top.
"I just remember that I wasn't losing," Robicheaux said. "I didn't care what position I was in. I didn't care about anything. All I knew was that I did not want to lose to them, and I wanted to go to the SEC tournament."
In those final minutes, she fired four of her career-high eight shots that night. Two were blocked. One went high. But it was the ball just wide of a yawning net that created such a disappointing image.
As soon as the shot sailed left of the post, Robicheaux's head was immediately in her hands. The photographer captured the moment of emotion perfectly. The chance to extend the game and her season had narrowly slipped by.
"I wanted every game really bad, and I feel like I worked like that and I played like that," Robicheaux said. "But that game, I don't know if it was because it was LSU and I'm from Louisiana so that's just a good rival or the fact that I thought it was my last game on the field. That's probably my least-favorite memory, but if it wouldn't have happened, maybe everything else wouldn't have happened the way that it did."
The Bulldogs missed the league tournament with that loss, despite outshooting the Tigers, 27-8, that night. They were back at practice the next week while 10 other SEC teams headed to Orange Beach, Alabama, to fight for a championship. But Robicheaux wasn't quite over.
On Nov. 5, 2018, Robicheaux and her teammates gathered in the Crane Team Theater on the MSU campus to watch the NCAA Selection Show. Three-quarters of the bracket had been announced, and still the Bulldogs' name hadn't been called. Then it was there, hosting Lipscomb opposite No. 4-seed Duke.
"It wasn't an easy journey, and it was probably one of the hardest things that I've been through," Robicheaux said. "That moment, it was just everything I have gone through, all of the blood sweat and tears, have paid off."
Robicheaux played 109 minutes against Lipscomb in the 69th match of her career. She finished just two games outside the MSU record book for career games played and wrapped her career with 6,235 minutes, eighth in program history.
She stopped by this year to see State host UT-Martin in September, and the memories flooded back. It was hard to leave Starkville. Her family had kept an apartment in the city for the previous four years to attend games. They were imbedded in the community.
"Looking back, I'm so thankful that the coaches saw something in me that they continued to put me on the field," Robicheaux said. "Every day when I started my whole freshman year, and every single year into my senior year, I knew that my spot was replaceable. I knew that if I didn't give it 110 percent every day, every practice, that someone was going to take my spot because our team was just too good. I'm so thankful that I had to opportunity to be on that field as much as I did because the memories that I have are just insane."
Robicheaux has returned to Louisiana where she's training younger soccer players while also working at an insurance brokerage company. Even outside college athletics, her soccer career continues to impact her every day.
Her final week as a Bulldog featured the excitement of a historic celebration and the sting of missed opportunities, but those moments helped prepare her for the rest of her life.
"In every situation that happens to me now, I compare it to soccer," she said. "In a situation, communication in a leadership moment, everything that happens, I have a story to relate it to. That's when things get really easy because when I relate it to something that I've been through and something like soccer that was so easy for me to understand, it makes it so easy for me to deal with things now."
For more information on the Bulldog soccer program, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "HailStateSOC."
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