This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Atholton High Grad Has Big Goals As A Keeper

All-CAA Jocelyn Papciak, a senior on the women's soccer team at Towson, hopes to stay involved in sports after her graduation.

Jocelyn Papciak of Columbia gets to be part of some big-time sporting events.

That is to be expected for the starting senior goalkeeper for Division I Towson University, which played a non-conference game Sept. 18 at North Carolina State of the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference.

“She is one of the success stories about what she has done the last three and half years,” said her Towson coach, Greg Paynter. “She is without a doubt the hardest-working person on the field and in the classroom. She is a great leader and a role model.”

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But some of the most memorable events this year for Papciak, 21, a 2008 graduate of who was second team all-Colonial Athletic Association in 2010, have come when she is not wearing goalie gloves and trying to keep the ball out of net for her Towson team.

As a business administration major, Papciak was on hand at the Division I Final Four in lacrosse championships last spring at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore through an internship. “This summer I had a great opportunity with an internship with Under Armour,” Papciak told Patch. “I had an amazing time there through a rookie intern program.”

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Papciak is on track to graduate in the spring and she hopes to be involved in sports through the grassroots and management level.

“I hope to interview in the spring with Under Armour. Hopefully that will turn into a job,” she said. Under Armour is also involved with Ripken Baseball and the Baseball Factory in Maryland and she was able to assist with summer events through her internship.

“I would like to work with brand events and going to events,” she said. “I have always loved to travel. I am a detail-oriented person and I like planning and working with people. With events, you get a little bit of everything. The great part is you get to watch sports.”

That career path is a lot different from her parents. Her mother, Sharon Papciak, is a molecular biologist and her father, Clive Graham, is an urban planner.

“Quite, quite different. I joke with my mom that science was never my thing. I have never liked it,” said the Towson senior. “I don’t know; that was not my niche. I don’t know if it was rebellion or not."

"It is just as well," her mother said of the career path for her daughter. "It is not science or urban planning."

Her brother, Trevor Graham, is a junior goalie for the boys soccer team at Atholton.

Papciak was born in Baltimore and her family moved to Columbia when she was in third grade. She went to and before heading to Atholton, where she was a four-year starter and earned all-state honors.

While in high school, she considered other CAA schools such as Delaware, George Mason and VCU before heading to Towson.

“I definitely wanted to go to a school where I could play,” she said. “I did not want to go to practice and not play."

She appeared in 11 games, with seven starts, as a freshman in 2008. She played in 11 games, with 10 starts, as a sophomore and then started all 20 games last year as a junior.

The Columbia resident had 113 saves and stopped 80.7 percent of the shots she faced last year. Off the field she was selected to the ESPN/CoSIDA Academic All-District 2 second team and was honored with the Vice President for Student Affairs Award at Towson.

“She played every minute of every game last year, which is tough to do,” said Paynter, whose team won four of its first six games this season. “She has gotten better. She is definitely the cornerstone to our defense.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?