James Varney Profile

By Nick Schofield

James Varney is a student-athlete at Stonehill College who faces the challenge of being color blind.

Varney has been color blind his entire life, but he has not let that stop him from accomplishing anything, although it can be hard sometimes.

As a member of the Stonehill men’s ice hockey team, Varney has had moments on the ice that he cannot control due to his eye sight.

 “Most of the issues come in hockey, teams often have jerseys with similar color schemes, and while skating at top speed, they are extremely hard to tell apart. So once in a while my teammates might notice me blatantly passing to the wrong team as a result. There are ways to reason around a difficult situation that involve color recognition, of which I'm still learning. It's a process, but I have a ton of help with it,” Varney said. 

Varney has always loved the game of hockey, and refuses to let his color blindness effect the way he plays.

“My coaches were always very on top of the issue while trying to make schedules every year. They were aware of which colors affected me the most, although sometimes coordination of jersey colors could not work, I will often try to recognize the players that I am playing with, and their play style and the way that they skate, rather than just their jersey color,” Varney said.

Being color blind affects Varney both on and off the ice, but with the help of friends and family, he is able to deal with the color contrast in everyday situations.

“This is not really a thing you can overcome. However there are a lot of common things in the world in place that help me, for instance like traffic lights. They are ordered in a certain way so that seeing the color isn’t necessary. I do, however, seek out help from my roommate and mother a lot. I will ask questions asking if certain outfits I am wearing are clashing or not, again it’s not something that you can truly overcome, but familiarizing yourself with different aspects of things, besides color, help to get around the fact they are difficult to see,” Varney said.

Although most of Varney’s time has been dedicated to sports, he is still involved on Stonehill’s campus in several different ways.

The Smithfield Maine native is a junior at Stonehill this year and is member of the Army ROTC program on campus, and has a role as CO-Vice Chairman of the NCAA North East 10 Division. II Student-Athletic-Advisory-Committee.

Through Varney’s three years at Stonehill College, he has always found himself busy, whether it is with sports, classes, or Army training.

“From my experience, the most difficult part of juggling multiple responsibilities has been maintaining attention to detail. When faced with a packed schedule, it's extremely easy to become careless and overlook the smaller details of any given task. A job that I have not completed to the best of my ability is a job that I've failed,” Varney said.

While striving to complete all tasks to the best of his ability, it is important to him to remain mentally and physically strong as well.

“Paying attention to sleep and mental health has been huge for me. It's easy to get bogged down under a heavy course load or multiple obligations, but maintaining good mental and physical health has been crucial in keeping up with everything,” Varney said. 

When Varney arrived to Stonehill’s campus he was brought in to play hockey and be a student athlete, but he knew he was capable of doing more than that.

“I am just extremely thankful to have had the opportunity to meet so many awesome people, and be part of a few incredible groups during my time at Stonehill so far. The experiences that I've had through hockey, athletics, ROTC, and Team Impact have made my time here extremely special, and I'm very fortunate to be part of all this. I am looking forward to doing more in the rest of my time as well,” Varney said.

As a junior on campus, Varney has had a lot of time to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his time at Stonehill. This year he decided to become involved in the Army ROTC program.

This is something that Varney takes great pride in and believes it is a great fit for himself.

“My biggest goal in life has always been to serve my country and the people who I care about. I believe that the military is the best way that I can do that. The values that ROTC and America's Military hold are identical to that of my own, and the material, work, and exercises are exhilarating and fulfilling,” Varney said.

Being color blind has not affected him in anyway so far through all of his Army training.

“It has not affected me at all, maybe eventually something minor will come up, and if so we will have to address that if it happens, but as of now I am fully capable of performing my duties in the Army,” Varney said.

Another new role Varney has been appointed to in his junior year is the CO-Vice Chairman of the NCAA North East 10 Division. II Student-Athletic-Advisory-Committee.

Varney’s role is to help promote the best experience possible for all athletes, by addressing major issues and assisting in the facilitation of any legislation that can support schools in the North East 10 mission. 

Before accepting this position, Varney worked as the president of Stonehill’s Athletic Advisory Board.

 “Through working as the president of Stonehill's Athletic Advisory Board, I've had the opportunity to coordinate a number of progressive initiatives such as, Stonehill's Leadership Academy, and Team Impact endeavors, that showed how much can be accomplished when student-athletes work together toward a common goal. When the position for NE10 Vice President became available, striving to continue this work on a larger scale was an opportunity that I simply couldn't pass up,” Varney said.

The constant drive Varney has to want to succeed has motivated sophomore, Seth Murray to push for excellence as well.

“He is the type of person you want to have on your team. He is always working hard and it makes you better as a player having that constant pressure against you. He tries to make us all better on and off the ice constantly and it has helped me greatly,” Murray said.