From www.taylor.edu - Taylor University, integrating faith and learning
A Winner Header

A Winner to the end

Those who knew her best say that Carrie (Chivington '03) Roeth deeply loved Taylor University women's basketball, summer camps, her family, and most of all, Jesus.

Roeth, a four-year letter winner and team captain during her Taylor playing career, died last summer following a three-year battle with cancer. Coach Tena Krause said Roeth's faith and her desire to win - especially during her illness - had a profound impact on her family, friends, the Taylor basketball team, and many others.

"Carrie was known as the ‘team mom,'" Krause reflected. "She loved unconditionally, but she also hated to lose. Carrie strived for excellence every time she stepped on the floor and she would not let her teammates not give their best. But she was the first one to comfort them when we lost."

In tribute, Krause's Trojans dedicated the 2008-09 season to Roeth's memory, holding special ceremonies at their first home game, retiring her #42, wearing a black patch on their uniforms with her C.R. initials, and through the creation of a memorial scholarship.

It was during summer basketball camp that Taylor senior co-captain Paige Rudolph '09 first met Roeth and heard her testimony. "She talked about her story, her struggles, her constantly having to hear about the return of her cancer," Rudolph said. "She was frustrated, and did not claim to understand why God was allowing her cancer to come back except to bring Him glory ... she truly rested in His grace, not taking anything for granted, and knowing that one way or the other God would be faithful."

"She scheduled her treatments so she would not miss the camp," said Roeth's husband Justin '03. "She made it a priority because Coach Krause and the basketball team made it a priority to hold Carrie up in prayer. Coach Krause has gone completely out of her way to honor Carrie when she was alive, and to honor her now that she is not with us."

"She was contagious," he added. "Through her cancer, it didn't change. It made you sit back and say, ‘Wow, this is an amazing person and she has this devastating illness and it doesn't change our relationship at all.'"

"We are doing very well," Roeth said of himself and their three-year-old son Jacob. "It's easy to do well when the people at Taylor like Coach Krause and Coach Denise (Johnson) ... get to share together the impact Carrie had.

"I related it to the Facing the Giants movie," he said. "Do you back down from it? Do you let it define you? She didn't let it define her. She faced her giant and she won."