VAN BUREN — Van Buren District Secondary School senior Sarah Roy recently joined her school’s most elite society — it has only one other member — when she became the first female athlete here to have her jersey number retired.

At the school’s annual spring sports banquet, officials said Roy’s No. 5 will never again be used by a girls varsity soccer player from Van Buren.

According to Donald Gagnon, who has been a coach and athletic director at the school for many years, Roy is the second VBDSS athlete to have a jersey number retired. The only other to receive that honor was Matthew Rossignol, whose number was retired in 1985 in recognition of his accomplishments in basketball.

“Sarah gave 100 percent of herself at all times (whether at) games or practices,” said Coach Brian Hews at the banquet. He said Roy conducted herself with “an outward calm but also with a fierce inner determination to succeed. She loved to play and she loved to score.”

But when Roy played, he said, “The team’s goals always came first.”

Hews provided a breakdown of Roy’s 104 career goals and 29 assists. In 1988, Roy scored seven goals and five assists. An injury early in the season precluded racking up a large number of soccer goals.

Over the next three years, her pace picked up. In 1989, she scored 23 goals and 10 assists and the following year, 35 goals and nine assists. In her senior year, she scored 39 goals and five assists.

Roy’s skills gained statewide attention. She was a member of a high school team that won the state championship in its division in 1990 and 1991. She was named to the All-East girls soccer team as a sophomore and to the All-East and All-State teams in her junior and senior years.

Other speakers at the recognition ceremony were SAD 24 Director Robert LaPierre, who said Roy’s accomplishments had “put Van Buren on the map” and VBDSS Principal Richard Cote. He said, “One-hundred and four goals is a great accomplishment.”

The school had a banner made noting Roy’s state record for soccer goals. It will join a number of others that hang in the high school gymnasium which serve as reminders of past accomplishments and goals for future star athletes to aspire to.

Her “home” jersey also will be displayed at the school, but the school gave Roy her “away” shirt to keep as a cherished souvenir of her soccer days at Van Buren.

An all-around athlete, Roy also played four years of varsity basketball, three years of varsity softball and this year tried her hand at tennis. Roy’s plans are to play collegiate soccer for the University of Maine at Farmington this fall.