BLACKSBURG – A group of Virginia Tech student-athletes gathered in a semicircle around a raised stage in the middle of the Student-Athlete Performance Center to listen to a few invited guests. Those guests happened to be professional athletes who were once in the shoes of Hokie athletes, when they starred in maroon and orange on the softball and football fields, respectively.
The guests of course were Emma Lemley (’25) and Joey Slye (’18), who are both at the top of their respective sports, playing professionally. Lemley pitches in the AUSL, whose second season is approaching. Slye, the Tennessee Titians’ kicker just signed a contract extension to stay with the Nasville outfit, the seventh different NFL franchise that he has been a part of.
Before the pros got to impart some wisdom on the student-athletes, the Development staff kicked things off, first with an exercise from Olivia Dwyer, director/student-athlete development. She asked the athletes to stand when they heard a prompt that applied to them. The questions started off as fairly inoquous, and quickly ramped up in terms of how they perceive pressure relative to their identity as athletes. Her final prompt got nearly everyone out of their seats, “feeling like you need to hit every play perfectly in order to stay in the game.”
That’s the framework behind THRIVE, a program to give student-athletes support to be successful and navigate the challenges that they face on campus.
Slye, the Hokies’ all-time leader in points shared moments in his life that have left an impact on him and how he overcame the different challenges and pressures that have stood in his way. From his brother’s courageous battle with leukemia, to the pressures of being an NFL kicker he has faced his share of adversity. One thing that has helped him: seeing a sports psychologist, even if it wasn’t his idea.
Slye’s head coach with the Panthers called him into his office one day and told him to make an appointment. That was the first time that Slye had considered speaking with someone, and he was initially reticent. Today, all these years later he still meets with her and they have become friends and he feels like that relationship has helped him in many aspects of his life.
For Slye, he feels like it would be a disservice to himself to not perform at his highest level for as long as he can, considering professional athletes only have so long to remain “on top of their game”.
Lemley shared how she wasn’t always the confident All-American pitcher that Hokie fans have come to know and love. For starters, she has a smaller stature than many top pitchers, something many thought would hold her back. She described her father as being the “only one in her corner” when she was playing youth softball. Lemley would commit to Virginia Tech very early on, and when the Hokies made a coaching change, she stuck with Tech trusting that things would work out.
After a great freshman campaign where she helped the Hokies to a Super Regional appearance, her sophomore season was not as smooth. She had issues picking up her trail foot as she pitched, at the time a violation in the sport. She didn’t have a pitching coach that season and she found herself scrolling on social media to read Twitter comments about her performance. It was safe to say, that she was not in a good place mentally.
Lemley shared with the group that she wants to be “Just Emma” outside of softball and that’s why she doesn’t talk about it much when she is not on the field. She has a life outside of the sport, one filled with personal relationships, hobbies and free time, something that she has come to covet.
For Lemley, who now plays pro ball, her motivation is clear – play for the love of the game. She’s learned how to block out the outside noise in order to be her best when she competes.