Valedictorian Class of 1997, National Honor Society member, first female basketball player at St. Mary’s to score
Robyn Mazin (center), with her family, from left, her sister, Kristi Murgo,her mother, Diane Mazin, her husband, Steve Donaghey, and her father, Al Mazin.
1000 points, softball player, soccer player, voted Most Athletic and Most Likely to Succeed – all is who Robyn Mazin was in high school. Robyn, daughter of Al and Diane Mazin of Chelsea, is now a wife (her husband, Steve, is a state trooper,) mother to three year-old Reese and one year-old Brady and a proud St. Mary’s alumna. Family is very important to her. She has three siblings (Randy, Ryan and Kristi) and eight nieces and nephews. Currently, Robyn is a Physician Assistant because she always wanted to be in the medical field.
When asked what her most significant achievement was, Robyn said that being valedictorian was very special. “I feel like with sports you get immediate gratification when you do well. People congratulate you, shake your hand, you see your name in the newspaper each game you do well in, but in the classroom day to day you have to be able to motivate yourself to do well. Then to get up at graduation and speak in front of everyone there was the culmination of that achievement as someone who is very intimidated by public speaking.” There were obviously many wonderful memories of her years at St. Mary’s. A few things stood out: “scoring my 1,000th point in basketball vs Pope John High School,” Mazin said, “the games, the times on the bus and the team dinners are all fond memories.”
Numerous teachers and coaches played a role in Robyn’s academic and sports career. She said, “All my teachers were excellent. Though I didn’t have Coach Danielle Mann Kurtzer as a teacher, she probably stood out to me most. She was the best. She coached the girl’s basketball team my four years there. She was intense on the court, but such fun off. She actually used to drive me home from practices because my mother was making multiple trips back and forth to Lynn from Chelsea daily.”
As a high school scholar/athlete, she would advise current student/athletes to “focus on what you want to achieve. High school is such a short time in your life, and for the first time your decisions have real consequences. Take advantage of everything offered to you. Work hard at school, practice hard, play hard and have fun. You don’t know where your peers will be in fifteen to twenty years, talk to people, be kind and be inclusive. Having a busy schedule in high school taught me to manage my time and prioritize which helped me in college as the work load increased.”
In college, Robyn played women’s ice hockey. After she graduated from Holy Cross, she played women’s pro football with the Bay State Warriors and women’s baseball.
Reflecting back on her high school years, Robyn expressed gratitude to her mother, Diane. “Every success in my life I can trace back to my mother. She signed me up for Little League when there were few girls participating because I said I wanted to try it. She didn’t think twice. She went to every game in my sports playing career she possibly could. She signed me up for everything I wanted to play and despite having three other kids, got me to every game and practice. She was always all in. She would drive home from vacation to get me to a game because if you committed you were all in. She never complained about it.She always encouraged me even when I played terribly.”