Jocelyn Gillette vividly recalls the conversation.
The Highlands graduate, an accomplished forward in high school, was preparing for her first preseason game at Westminster in August 2017.
“Coach said, ‘We need a right back. Jocelyn, you’re going in.’ I was like, ‘OK.’ He said, ‘It’s just for today.’ And ever since that ‘just for today,’ it has been five years,” Gillette said.
Safe to say Titans coach Girish Thakar made the right decision. Gillette, a graduate student, is a two-time first-team All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference selection at defense. She started every game during her first four years. Last season, she anchored a unit that allowed four total goals.
“She has great speed,” Thakar said. “She has the ability to lock down on girls if you have to do man-to-man marking. We normally put her on the side of the other team’s fastest girl.”
The 5-foot-4 Gillette, who helped Highlands reach the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals as a senior, never played defense for the Golden Rams or for her club team.
“It was different,” she said of the transition. “Being that close to goal, you, obviously, have to watch fouling. My aggressiveness had to be changed a little and knowing when I’m allowed to go forward and knowing when to stay back in our shape is definitely key.”
Gillette has five goals and assists in college, and Westminster has ranked among the PAC’s best teams during her four seasons, going a combined 24-7-3 in league play. But she has yet to win a conference title. In 2018, the Titans lost to Grove City on penalty kicks in the PAC championship.
In 2019, Westminster went 7-0-1 in league play and didn’t give up a goal to conference opponents, but it was upset 1-0 by Chatham in the semifinals. And last season, Chatham again eliminated Westminster in the semifinals, this time on penalty kicks.
Unfinished business, indeed.
“It’s very painful, especially it happening to us twice,” Gillette said of losing in a shootout. “It’s not fun. That’s definitely something we’re going to be working on through the whole season, focusing on PKs at the end of practice.”
Westminster opened the season with a 3-0 win over John Carroll last week and is off to a 2-0-1 start.
Gillette was able to return to play as a graduate student because the NCAA granted all athletes an extra year of eligibility after last year’s covid-wrecked season.
She is taking classes toward her MBA in health care management and also works part time as a project coordinator at Signature Diagnostics in Pittsburgh.
Those leadership skills help explain why she has been a captain for three years.
“She’s really the go-between with me and the players,” Thakar said. “We have a really large group of freshmen, almost 15. She’s been really good with them. They look up to her.”