On October 9th Nobles and Greenough student Casey Dunne, 16, suddenly collapsed during her field hockey practice.  She was rushed to a local hospital where she passed away a few hours later.  The cause of Dunne’s death was a brain hemorrhage. Her family did not know of any medical conditions that would have caused this brain hemorrhage.

Casey Dunne was a student who loved volunteer work.  She traveled to Romania and Bolivia to help their communities.  She was very enthusiastic and would help tutor middle school students.  In addition to field hockey, Casey also played lacrosse and ice hockey and was very interested in arts.

Her death affected not only the Nobles community, but also resonates with private schools across New England.  Bridget McCarthy, a senior at Nobles, was shocked by her death.  McCarthy explains how “coming back to school after the weekend she died was really hard for everyone.”

McCarthy says that in honor of Dunne the Nobles school “had a huge rubber duck memorial for her on the turf, but moved it to the center of the school so it wasn’t something the field hockey team had to look at every day.”  Dunne loved rubber ducks. In addition, the sports teams at Nobles now have the number 2 on their jerseys because that was Dunne’s field hockey number.

The field hockey team was immensely effected by her death. Coach Sullivan explains, “A player collapsing on the field was shocking to the twenty-two member team.”  The team was very close and since Dunne’s death they have changed their team motto to “Never Dunne”.  Former field hockey player McCarthy states, “For Halloween the whole field hockey team dressed as ducks because she loved ducks.”

The whole field hockey community has been brought together by Dunne’s sudden death.  The Williston Varsity Field Hockey Coach, Katherine Garrity states, “The varsity field hockey team did write a note as a team to let them know that they are in our thoughts.  I think it’s important for teams, of any sport or level, to know that we’re not always competing against each other, but that we’re really all part of a larger support network.”

Garrity also explains,  “The girls also decided to wear red, white and blue ribbons in honor of Casey during our night game…something that we did with Westminster that night and we shared a moment of silence with both teams before the start of the game.”

Dunne’s life was cut too short.  Garrity describes, “I think her death just made the field hockey realize how fortunate we are to have such a great, big team of girls who are happy, healthy and supportive of each other.  We’re pretty lucky and it reminded us that we can’t take that for granted.” Her death makes the Williston field hockey team play for something bigger than themselves.