Sarah Compher ’12 and TJ Gannon ’13

In May of 2017, TJ had just moved to DC from Sarasota. While looking for something to do, he happened upon a UCF Knight at the Ballpark starting in about an hour, so he headed to Nats Park. Sarah remembers talking with him and being impressed that he sought out the alumni group, but that was all for their first encounter. Several months later at UCF’s annual picnic, Sarah was fulfilling her duties as co-chair of the DC Alumni Chapter, by introducing people and forcing them to play lawn games. This led to what TJ so loving calls her conscription of himself, and 3 others (now groomsmen) into signing up for a fall bocce league in Old Town Alexandria. After almost 2 years, bocce friendships turned into actual friendships and the crew started to hangout outside of bocce and official UCF Events. In 2019, TJ gave out UCF Bocce Koozies he designed for the team. Sarah thought this was really impressive and thoughtful. Eventually, Sarah & TJ determined that what they had definitely went beyond friendship. Over the next 3 years Sarah and TJ served on the UCF alumni board together and traveled to many UCF games. On July 4, 2022, TJ took Sarah back to the bocce park where their friendship began and proposed. She of course said yes! They are incredibly grateful for UCF and the DC Alumni Chapter, for providing the opportunity to meet not only each other but their best friends, even beyond their years on campus.