An inadvertent elbow opened a gash above Kaitlyn Bovee’s left eye in a 2010 Class L basketball quarterfinal. “She was patched on the sideline and returned to play,” coach Sheila McCabe-King said. “She never let her teammates down.”

Bovee said she received 6-10 stitches later after the game at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and then wore a “padded–with-gauze–NBA-1990s–wide headband” in the semifinal four nights later against Hillhouse. “Only a tom ACL would have kept me out. I was playing for my teammates,” she said.

Bovee, a member of the 2010 graduation class, did. Though Berlin lost the game, she ended her career as the only player to play 100 games. Toughness, production, and consistency marked her four seasons. One example was leading the team in field goal percentage as a freshman and a senior. She also was twice All-Northwest Conference, NWC tournament MVP, two–time team defensive player of the year, member of the career 500 club (827 points and 553 rebounds) and an academic All-State and BHS scholar athlete her senior season.

She was a member of two NWC regular–season and one tournament championship teams and four state tournament teams. Their highlight was playing in the 2009 M final. Bovee remembers “every tournament gym was a sea of Redcoat red.” McCabe-King said Bovee’s “unparalleled and contagious intensity” helped propel the team’s program to state recognition.

As in basketball, Bovee was a four-year letter winner in softball and was named All-NWC. But she always preferred basketball. “I loved being on the court,” said Bovee, a guard/forward. “There, it was only the game, your teammates and how are you going to get it done.”

Bovee followed this philosophy at Roger Williams University, where she had a brilliant career. She’s career leader in points (1.570) and three–pointers (178) and ranks second in field goals (543), and free throws (306) and third in rebounds (833). She was a WBCA All-American honorable mention – the first in school history – and the NEWBA, ECAC New England and Commonwealth Coast Conference player of the year as a senior.

Yet none of her individual honors approaches her proudest college achievement. “Our team made the NCAA Division III tournament for the first time in school history in my senior year’” said Bovee, a 2019 Roger Williams Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. “That’s there forever.”