Athlete of the Week: Carly Perreault

The Tabor player strikes a hard hit to the side, and the crowd gasps as Perreault reaches and smoothly makes the catch. Senior Carly Perreault, an outstanding player and co-captain, is a valuable member of the girl’s varsity softball team as well as a tri-varsity field hockey, ice hockey and softball athlete. Many know her for her amazing personality, model leadership and her strong determination and admire her for her consistent positivity.

Indeed, the biggest characteristic that defines Perreault as an Exeter athlete is her jubilant personality. As a new upper, she was faced with what many students find to be a tough transition into school. However, adjusting to her new sports teams proved an easy task for her. A constant love for sports and people made her an immediately likable teammate.

Upper Courtney Gibeley described Perreault as “the most caring, generous and loving girl at this school.”

“Success [in softball] is very dependent on your ability to pull your head out of the last play and think about each upcoming play, and how you are going to get that next out.”

“She never fails to put a smile on my face each time I see her,” Gibeley said. “I spend more time with her than I do with anybody else. Every day she will ask me ‘how are you?’ or ‘how was your day?’ and I always know that it is so sincere.”

Perreault’s affable personality translates to her role on the softball team. In both games and practices she serves as a constant source for cheering and motivation, leading laps around the field at the beginning of practice and cheering on the sideline of games if she is benched.

For Perreault, her goal is not only to motivate the team, but to also make sure the team members are enjoying themselves and bonding together throughout the season. It’s the fun moments that foster her love for the sport and her team.

“We love to have fun, we love to laugh and we all love softball,” she said. “It’s really exciting because everyone loves practice and games. We’re always ready to go.”

Many of Perreault’s teammates such as lower Daria Moody described the softball team as a big “family.” As a captain of the team, Perreault serves as one of the biggest fosterers of the close environment.

“She is super open to talking and helping out her friends,” Moody said. “Even with the new kids this year, she is super friendly and they all feel like they are part of the team. She talks to everyone a ton and really brings us close together.”

To complement this side of Perreault’s personality, she is also known by her teammates as a skilled leader. While she knows how to cheer up the team, she also understands when its time to concentrate on her work and keep her fellow teammates focused.

Upper Lucy Weiler described these times as when Perreault really “gets down to business.” She believes Perreault knows how to balance work and fun, as well as how to use one of these feelings to foster the other.

“Success [in softball] is very dependent on your ability to pull your head out of the last play and think about each upcoming play, and how you are going to get that next out,” she said. “Having someone like Carly on the field, who provides positive feedback and encouragement, means that all of us are focused on our objective all the time.

Like Weiler, lower Lauren Fidelak has also observed this part of Perreault’s role on the team.

“She has always made sure things ran smoothly,” Fidelak said. “She leads by example and always does the right thing. She’s the one pumping us up before games and keeping us going on the field.”

For majority of the teammates, who are underclassmen, Perreault is not only the perfect leader but also a respected role model. She makes sure to set a good example for her teammates who follow her every move, even on small events such as team movie nights. She believes her actions have a strong impact on her younger teammates and strives to teach them not only softball but good leadership.

Perreault’s teammates also look up to her as the picture-perfect athlete. Not only is she mentally prepared, her physical attributes become evident on the field. As a softball player she has accomplished a lot, from serving on the all-state softball team in Berlin to proving herself as a consistently good hitter at Exeter.

While part of her skills come from raw, natural talent, in the past Perreault has put in many hours of work in the gym and on the field to help her grow into such a strong athlete. Weiler described the unique drive in her to become better—an aspect of her sport life that is still visible at Exeter.

“She’s persistent and competitive,” Weiler said. “She cares about success, but she wants to get it the right way. Even when she was playing hockey this winter, she was showing up to softball practice on Sundays.”

Indeed, it is the “challenges” that motivate Perreault to keep putting in sweat-filled hours of hard work day after day.

“People think softball is really simple, but it’s actually very challenging,” she said. “I’m motivated by all the fundamentals and the mental challenges. They determine each game.”

Even outside of sports, Perreault is still someone her friends can always trust to lean on. Gibeley describes that she is one of the few people at Exeter “who believe that school and grades aren’t everything.” To Perreault, health, happiness, family and friends come much before school and she does not hesitate to express it. Despite having both sport and school to worry about, she makes time for the people she cares for.

So whether she is out late practicing on the field, or smiling and chatting with strangers on the path, Perreault always makes her presence on campus as both on and off the field. She will be missed next year by her teammates and friends because, as Gibeley put it, she is such “an admirable and amazing athlete.”