Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday starting April 1 throughout the Spring of 2020, bctornados.com will be featuring senior student-athletes from Spring sports to honor their dedication and commitment to Brevard College Athletics through their Tornado careers.
Below photos courtesy of Victoria Brayman '22
BREVARD, N.C. – Senior defender Diana Loaiza, a four-year member of the women's lacrosse team at Brevard College, is the next honoree in BC Athletics' Spring Senior Profile series, highlighting and honoring 2020 seniors in Spring sports who had their respective seasons cut short due to the impact of COVID-19.
A native of Greenville, South Carolina, and an alumna of Wade Hampton High School, Loaiza will graduate from Brevard with a major in Exercise Science and a minor in Coaching. Following graduation, Loaiza will work a summer job as a Lacrosse Program Director at Camp Bryn Mawr in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Loaiza plans to work for a year to gain valuable experience and then pursue a graduate assistant position to obtain her Master's degree.
On the field, Loaiza has been a key member of the Tornado defense through her four years at Brevard, appearing in 46 games while making 39 starts for the BC women's lacrosse team. Over the course of her career at BC, Loaiza logged 28 ground balls, won a pair of draw controls, and caused 15 turnovers. The defender snagged a career-best 14 ground balls in the 2019 season while causing a career-high six turnovers in 2018, as Loaiza was well on her way to career-numbers through the first four contests of her senior season.
In her senior season, Loaiza was a key factor in BC's 19-8 victory over Johnson & Wales (Denver), grabbing a career-high four ground balls in the triumph.
Off the field, Loaiza works in the campus community as Treasurer of the Life Club and as a Peer Mentor at Brevard College, while also working as a Department of Athletics work-study to gain experience relevant to her future career.
Academically, she has been named to the USA South Academic All-Conference Team, the BC ODK, and to the Dean's List at Brevard.
Loaiza was selected to take part in the 2020 NCAA Division III Student Immersion Program, held in conjunction with the annual NCAA Convention in Anaheim, California. Loaiza and Brevard College Football senior Josh Romero were two of just 40 total student-athletes selected for the program, which is designed for ethnic minority students who have an interest in a career in NCAA Division III coaching or athletics administration.
"Meeting new people and getting out of my comfort zone at the NCAA Convention was a huge benefit for me personally," said Loaiza in a recent feature of the Brevard Women's Lacrosse program, Brevard College Women's Lacrosse Rises As One, available on bctornados.com. "I am more open now talking to people, introducing myself and trying to make connections. I learned so much more about the business of athletics and I feel like my love for athletics grew even more."
There, Loaiza was exposed to a magnitude of Division III and general college athletics programming to help her prepare for a potential career in collegiate athletics.
"My favorite memory at Brevard College is being chosen to be one of the captains during my senior season," commented Loaiza. "Coming in freshman year, I was very shy and softly spoken. There were so many other leaders and voices on my team that I never felt like I needed to be one. The more I became involved with my team and around campus, the more I came into myself and kept striving to be better.
"I constantly wanted to keep improving and be better than I was the year before which really showed off my junior year when I could see all the improvement I had made," added Loaiza. "Having so many people come up to me and tell me that they wanted me to be one of their captains because of all the help and guidance I had given was one of the best rewarding moments I've felt during my college career"
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