Avrigian Enjoys Time at US Naval Academy Leadership Conference
6/25/2024 12:14:00 PM | Field Hockey
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Nominated by Senior Associate Athletic Director Jane Caldwell and Assistant Director, Student-Athlete Services Brooke Taylor, Lilly Avrigian took advantage of attending the US Naval Academy Leadership Conference earlier this year and hopes to apply what she learned about leadership as she gears up for her senior season with Wake Forest Field Hockey.
"The weekend was awesome," Avrigian said. "I flew down on a Sunday morning and I stayed until Tuesday and I had the most amazing experience. I was a little nervous to go. I didn't exactly know what to expect at first, but all of the panelists and the speakers that were there were truly the most influential and inspirational people that I could have ever listened to, which was really cool.
"I think that overall all of the themes and the lessons align so much with what (Wake Forest Field Hockey coach) Jen (Averill) teaches our team at Wake Field Hockey. I think all of the principles are super apparent and I saw so many parallel themes, which was really cool to see that she is instilling in us some of the coolest lessons that you can see as an athlete."
While many of the leadership concepts shared that weekend were new for Avrigian, there also was a ton of overlap from things she's heard in the past playing for Averill at Wake Forest.
"I would definitely say as a rising senior and as somebody that is kind of the older on the team now, they talked a lot about how pressure is a privilege," Avrigian said. "And I think so many times we think of pressure as this daunting and negative thing, but it's one of the most rewarding things. They talked about how people are looking up to you for a reason. People believe in you and that's why you're being put in these leadership roles in these positions. And I think that really shifted my mindset when I was there.
"I was just sitting in the audience and thinking like, wow, that is so powerful that you are being looked at as somebody who knows what they're doing, somebody who people trust. And that's really special and that's something that I think I'm going to carry not only the rest of my time at Wake, but 100% as a senior on the team and hopefully in one of those leadership roles, just knowing that people are believing in you and taking that with some confidence."
The power of diversity was discussed at the conference, as Avrigian could see how that applies toward the 2024-25 Wake Forest Field Hockey team.
"Another huge thing that they touched upon, and that was how being diverse and having a diverse team is unbelievably threatening," she said. "It's not just this nice word that you throw around, but you're actually delving into what each member of the team can bring and not kind of looking at what they can't.
"Just being able to kind of pinpoint everybody's individual strengths and then bringing it together for the entire team. That's something that we talked about a lot, which I mean, they're talking about this in a military sense and boat crews, but it's the same thing. You see so many overlapping themes that I thought were just really special."
Avrigian arrived at Wake Forest as a three-year starter and team captain at William Penn Charter School (Gwynedd Valley, Pa.). A Wake Forest assistant coach came to the ESPN Disney Showcase in Florida to watch her play.
"I'm from right outside of Philadelphia and I always thought I was going to go somewhere kind of on the closer side to home," she said about the recruiting process. "I looked at a lot of schools up north. But two weeks before Covid, around early March of my junior year in high school, I went down to Wake Forest. I'll never forget it."
The connection built with legendary Wake Forest Field Hockey coach Jen Averill was the deciding factor for Avrigian.
"I walked in the office and the moment that we began talking about my life, not just field hockey, not just what I play, and it was so much more than that," she said. "I'll never forget that I said that relationships in life are so important to me. And when we started talking about that and I saw that she understood it on such a bigger level than field hockey, that this is four years of my life and not just four years of a sport. I knew it was a school for me. And then the next call I had with her after leaving Wake, I committed. And that was it."
While it took Avrigian a year or two to completely acclimate to Wake Forest, she's made quite an impact on and off the field.
"I would definitely say my freshman year was a rockier start," she said. "I struggled a lot during Covid and I didn't know if I would a hundred percent be really just ready to hit it off in my freshman year. And I just think the patience that she had with me and the way that Wake Forest handled everything, whether that be on the field or in school, I mean, we walked into our freshman year.
"I just became involved in absolutely everything. I was in SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) meetings my sophomore year somehow, and now I'm a SAAC representative for the field hockey team, which I absolutely love, but just throwing myself in anything and absolutely everything was something that everybody I encountered was opening their arms."
On the field, Avrigian points to last October's 2-1 road victory over Syracuse as the highlight of her time as a Demon Deacon thus far.
"I think my biggest highlight was beating Syracuse this past season in shootouts at Syracuse," she said. "That was the most exciting win I think that we've had. Business school has been absolutely one of the most rewarding things at Wake. I was somebody who got deferred from the business school, so I didn't get in at first, and that was absolutely crushing as a sophomore in college.
"And then I finally got accepted and now I'm a full business school student. And that's definitely hard to balance at Wake Forest along with field hockey, but I think just knowing that I can do both and having Jen by my side saying, it's okay, you can do both. We're here to support you. That's been unbelievably impressive. I don't know if I could get that anywhere else."
Avrigian is a business and enterprise management major with a concentration in strategic organizational management and a minor in entrepreneurship.
"I think I'm just so open to doing so many different things, but I really hope to be in the event planning business," she said. "I would love to organize and be hired as somebody to just put on a really cool and extraordinary event, whether that be a corporate party, like celebrating somebody who just was named partner at a law firm or a major golf outing for different companies. I see so many day-to-day events, and I'm just like, how these all are put together is just really fascinating to me and I just want to be a part of it. I just want to make it happen and just see the client's face.
"I definitely have a little bit of a people pleaser in me and I love to make things look good and have things all come together. And that is just something I think would really be awesome. So that's what I hope to do. And after Wake Forest, I would love to spend some time in New York City. I'm not really afraid of it. I think it's exciting, and I think there's huge room for growth there. So anything that's kind of pushing me out of my comfort zone, I'm kind of right on board."
Avrigian gives a ton of credit to Averill for her development as a person since her arrival at Wake Forest three years ago.
"I don't think anything would be possible these past three years without Coach Jen," she said. "I don't think I would be sitting where I am today. I mean, she has taught me so much. It just brings me to almost tears just thinking about how much she has done for this program, how much she pours into Wake Forest Hockey."
"The weekend was awesome," Avrigian said. "I flew down on a Sunday morning and I stayed until Tuesday and I had the most amazing experience. I was a little nervous to go. I didn't exactly know what to expect at first, but all of the panelists and the speakers that were there were truly the most influential and inspirational people that I could have ever listened to, which was really cool.
"I think that overall all of the themes and the lessons align so much with what (Wake Forest Field Hockey coach) Jen (Averill) teaches our team at Wake Field Hockey. I think all of the principles are super apparent and I saw so many parallel themes, which was really cool to see that she is instilling in us some of the coolest lessons that you can see as an athlete."
While many of the leadership concepts shared that weekend were new for Avrigian, there also was a ton of overlap from things she's heard in the past playing for Averill at Wake Forest.
"I would definitely say as a rising senior and as somebody that is kind of the older on the team now, they talked a lot about how pressure is a privilege," Avrigian said. "And I think so many times we think of pressure as this daunting and negative thing, but it's one of the most rewarding things. They talked about how people are looking up to you for a reason. People believe in you and that's why you're being put in these leadership roles in these positions. And I think that really shifted my mindset when I was there.
"I was just sitting in the audience and thinking like, wow, that is so powerful that you are being looked at as somebody who knows what they're doing, somebody who people trust. And that's really special and that's something that I think I'm going to carry not only the rest of my time at Wake, but 100% as a senior on the team and hopefully in one of those leadership roles, just knowing that people are believing in you and taking that with some confidence."
The power of diversity was discussed at the conference, as Avrigian could see how that applies toward the 2024-25 Wake Forest Field Hockey team.
"Another huge thing that they touched upon, and that was how being diverse and having a diverse team is unbelievably threatening," she said. "It's not just this nice word that you throw around, but you're actually delving into what each member of the team can bring and not kind of looking at what they can't.
"Just being able to kind of pinpoint everybody's individual strengths and then bringing it together for the entire team. That's something that we talked about a lot, which I mean, they're talking about this in a military sense and boat crews, but it's the same thing. You see so many overlapping themes that I thought were just really special."
Avrigian arrived at Wake Forest as a three-year starter and team captain at William Penn Charter School (Gwynedd Valley, Pa.). A Wake Forest assistant coach came to the ESPN Disney Showcase in Florida to watch her play.
"I'm from right outside of Philadelphia and I always thought I was going to go somewhere kind of on the closer side to home," she said about the recruiting process. "I looked at a lot of schools up north. But two weeks before Covid, around early March of my junior year in high school, I went down to Wake Forest. I'll never forget it."
The connection built with legendary Wake Forest Field Hockey coach Jen Averill was the deciding factor for Avrigian.
"I walked in the office and the moment that we began talking about my life, not just field hockey, not just what I play, and it was so much more than that," she said. "I'll never forget that I said that relationships in life are so important to me. And when we started talking about that and I saw that she understood it on such a bigger level than field hockey, that this is four years of my life and not just four years of a sport. I knew it was a school for me. And then the next call I had with her after leaving Wake, I committed. And that was it."
While it took Avrigian a year or two to completely acclimate to Wake Forest, she's made quite an impact on and off the field.
"I would definitely say my freshman year was a rockier start," she said. "I struggled a lot during Covid and I didn't know if I would a hundred percent be really just ready to hit it off in my freshman year. And I just think the patience that she had with me and the way that Wake Forest handled everything, whether that be on the field or in school, I mean, we walked into our freshman year.
"I just became involved in absolutely everything. I was in SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) meetings my sophomore year somehow, and now I'm a SAAC representative for the field hockey team, which I absolutely love, but just throwing myself in anything and absolutely everything was something that everybody I encountered was opening their arms."
On the field, Avrigian points to last October's 2-1 road victory over Syracuse as the highlight of her time as a Demon Deacon thus far.
"I think my biggest highlight was beating Syracuse this past season in shootouts at Syracuse," she said. "That was the most exciting win I think that we've had. Business school has been absolutely one of the most rewarding things at Wake. I was somebody who got deferred from the business school, so I didn't get in at first, and that was absolutely crushing as a sophomore in college.
"And then I finally got accepted and now I'm a full business school student. And that's definitely hard to balance at Wake Forest along with field hockey, but I think just knowing that I can do both and having Jen by my side saying, it's okay, you can do both. We're here to support you. That's been unbelievably impressive. I don't know if I could get that anywhere else."
Avrigian is a business and enterprise management major with a concentration in strategic organizational management and a minor in entrepreneurship.
"I think I'm just so open to doing so many different things, but I really hope to be in the event planning business," she said. "I would love to organize and be hired as somebody to just put on a really cool and extraordinary event, whether that be a corporate party, like celebrating somebody who just was named partner at a law firm or a major golf outing for different companies. I see so many day-to-day events, and I'm just like, how these all are put together is just really fascinating to me and I just want to be a part of it. I just want to make it happen and just see the client's face.
"I definitely have a little bit of a people pleaser in me and I love to make things look good and have things all come together. And that is just something I think would really be awesome. So that's what I hope to do. And after Wake Forest, I would love to spend some time in New York City. I'm not really afraid of it. I think it's exciting, and I think there's huge room for growth there. So anything that's kind of pushing me out of my comfort zone, I'm kind of right on board."
Avrigian gives a ton of credit to Averill for her development as a person since her arrival at Wake Forest three years ago.
"I don't think anything would be possible these past three years without Coach Jen," she said. "I don't think I would be sitting where I am today. I mean, she has taught me so much. It just brings me to almost tears just thinking about how much she has done for this program, how much she pours into Wake Forest Hockey."
Players Mentioned
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