BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Though he was best known as a hockey player, Travis Roy very much came to be associated with baseball here in Vermont due to his foundation’s annual wiffleball tournament raising money for support and research related to spinal cord injuries. This summer, one Lake Monster is helping to keep Roy’s legacy alive.
St. Mike’s outfielder Sam Cavossa is having an awesome second season with the Vermont Lake Monsters. He’s second in the Futures League in batting average and third in RBI as Vermont seeks a 5th straight playoff appearance.
“Just getting behind the community that obviously supports us so much, it’s the backbone to this team,” Cavossa said. “It’s been really cool to kinda put on a good show for them.”
But while he sports the number 12 for the Purple Knights, the East Falmouth, Massachusetts native’s choice of jersey this Summer was inspired by a day on his father Carl Cavossa’s fishing boat nearly a decade ago.
“When I was young-young, one of my dad’s best friends, John Butterworth, had gotten in contact with the Travis Roy Foundation,” Cavossa said. “One of (Travis’s) goals was to go on a fishing trip.”
“Travis mentioned at a dinner that they had that one thing he regretted was not being able to go deep sea fishing anymore,” said Lee Roy, Travis’s father. “And that was where Carl (Cavossa) and John (Butterworth) got together with one other friend, and the rest is history as they say.”
“My dad owning an excavation company back home, we were able to make that happen by getting his chair on board,” Cavossa said. “We did it with like a little crane. We took him fishing and it was actually a really fun day.”
“That may have been one of the greatest days Travis ever had in his life as a quadriplegic,” Lee added. “They loved being with Travis, Travis loved being with them, with the guys that were running the boat. It was just a perfect day.”
So it became a bit of a family tradition for the Cavossas to sport the number 24, in honor of the inspirational figure who had worn the number in his time as a hockey player.
“Obviously it drives me,” Cavossa said. “Everything Travis Roy stood for was amazing, and the things he did even after his injury was just amazing, so it’s definitely very meaningful.”
“It’s keeping the legacy alive,” Lee Roy added. “And there’s so many times and references of things that 24, the TR24. And just they keep popping up here there and everywhere.”
The Cavossas have kept in touch with the Roy family even after Travis passed back in 2020.
“His parents have actually come to a few of the games and come and seen me play, which is really cool,” Cavossa said. “And they sit with my parents.”
“To see Sam playing as well as he’s playing, hitting as well as he’s hitting...it’s fun to go to a ballgame and know somebody,” Roy said. “It makes it different, it makes it special.”
And Cavossa says he’s happy just to play a small role in helping Roy’s legacy remain front and center here in our region.
“Just being able to play, put on his number every day, it’s definitely an honor,” Cavossa said. “And keeping his legacy alive hopefully. But what I’m doing now is nothing compared to what he was doing when he was around and so it’s like big shoes to fill I guess you could say.”
