For Becky Poicus

The Harvard softball team finally got its new scoreboard.

After building a beautiful field in 1990, the athletic department could not afford to buy the softball team a scoreboard. The team was told that it had to raise the money itself. Well, with donations from the Rebecca Pocius memorial fund, the dream for a scoreboard became a reality.

The fund was established in honor of Becky Pocius '94, a catcher for the Harvard softball team during the 1990 and 1991 seasons. She died tragically in a car accident last August. Friends, teammates, and alumni donated money to the memorial fund with the express purpose of buying a scoreboard for Soldiers Field. Even grammar school children in her home town of Scranton, Penn., gave money. Saturday morning, I walked in the torrential rain to Winthrop for the beginning of the scoreboard dedication ceremony. Friends, roommates and parents all filed into the Gore courtyard to see the tree planting ceremony, a Winthrop house tradition.

We solemnly huddled together, straining over the pounding of the rain against our umbrellas to hear the house master give the dedication. She tried to speak loudly, but the rain drowned her voice out, and she decided to move the ceremony indoors. Inside, Becky's roommates and parents spoke a few words about her. Her roommates recited a poem that reminded them of Becky. Amid tears, her mother described how she had mentally walked the halls of Winthrop and the streets of Harvard Square a million times, always with Becky.

While each person spoke, it became increasingly difficult for me to hold back my tears. Fortunately, I was not alone and one of my former teammates place her reassuring arm around me. After the brief dedication, we filed into the hall to await the journey across the river for the scoreboard ceremony. Softball team members, past and present, gathered near the stairs to console each other. A book was passed around in which each of us wrote down our memories of Becky for her parents.

The inclement weather forced the scoreboard dedication into the Blueline room at the Bright Hockey Center instead of Soldiers Field. A large crowd of friends, athletes, parents and teammates gathered in the room for the dedication.

Barry Haskell, the softball coach, and Becky's parents each spoke briefly about Becky and her love of softball. Her parents and sister were presented with a certificate of Becky's membership into the Varsity Club, Captain Nancy Johnson read a small brass plaque that would be placed on the scoreboard. It stated, "In Memorium--Becky Pocius '94, Dedicated to her spirit and to the game she loved." The ceremony ended with Becky's father presenting the current catchers with equipment bought by Becky before she died. The presentation of Becky's mask to Christine Vogt brought a flood of tears to my eyes because I had always associated that mask with Becky. Becky was always willing to give, and I am sure that she is happy knowing that she will still be contributing to the team, not only with her equipment, but with the scoreboard.

At the ceremony members of the team read my favorite poem, No Coward Soul is Mine by Emily Bronte. The last stanza holds, for me, all the strong feelings I have for Becky.

There is not room for death. Nor atom that his might could render void. Since thou art being and breath, and what thou art may never be destroyed.

Although Becky is gone, her memory and spirit will always live on in me, in each person she touched and in the scoreboard at Soldiers Field.

Amanda M. Dawson is a Crimson staff writer and photographer. She played with Pocius during the 1990 season.