A special guest for senior night

With his team nursing a 2-0 first half lead against No. 21 Virginia Tech last week, Pitt forward Alexander Dexter buried a penalty kick into the top left corner of the goal to vanquish any hope for a Hokies comeback.

Dexter, or “Dex” as he’s known around campus, had just scored a pivotal goal on his senior night, but his proudest moment on the field came about 15 minutes before the match began.

Every Senior Night, Pitt Athletics custodian Lance Aiken stands perched on Ambrose Urbanic Field’s walkway behind the goal-line with a look of pride, like a father watching his kids graduate high school. But on senior night 2021, for the first time in his nearly 30 years with Pitt Athletics, Aiken walked on the field as an active part of the ceremony.

Dexter had known for nearly the entire season that his parents wouldn’t make it to Pittsburgh for his senior night. The couple resides in Germany, and their occupations made the trip nearly impossible. Dexter’s mother, a schoolteacher, couldn’t leave during the busiest portion of the school year, and his father works contractually for the government.

Without any blood relatives in attendance, Dexter decided very quickly that he’d want Aiken to walk the field with him for the senior night festivities. It was an easy decision - he considers Aiken a “big uncle” for him and his Pitt teammates.

Dexter didn’t think much of the idea at first. In fact, it shocked him upon finding out that nobody had asked Aiken to do it before. But Earl Vojtash, Aiken’s supervisor in the custodial department, said he hasn’t seen a janitor take the field on a senior night in his 30+ years at Pitt.

“This was a special night for both,” Vojtash said.

When Dexter arrived on campus as a freshman, his mother couldn’t hide her worry as she helped him move into his dorm. She was dropping her son off at college, an ocean away from his parents and hundreds of miles from his nearest relatives in Brooklyn, New York.

That anxiety didn’t last long, though. Aiken lent a helping hand to the Dexters during the move-in and reassured the mother that her son would handle Pitt just fine. He said he’d look over ‘Dex’ himself.

“To this day my mom asks me how Lance is doing,” Dexter said. “That’s just somebody she knows she has on her side over here.”

Aiken and Dexter formed a close bond over the years, a connection that the custodian and countless athletes have forged over the years. Aiken gave the young man advice, congratulating him on his accomplishments and picking him up after failures.

“It’s obviously developed into a more family-type bond when you’ve been around somebody for so long,” Dexter said. “But since day one Lance has always been like that, and he’s like that with everybody.”

Dexter’s senior season hasn’t gone exactly as expected. After an All-ACC caliber 2020 that saw him contribute seven goals and five assists, the forward has seen his playing time diminish in his fifth year.

Dexter has started less than half of Pitt’s matches this season, and seen his offensive output diminish significantly in that time. But Aiken encouraged him to keep his head up.

“I let him know, don’t get down because he’s not starting,” Aiken said. “Just trust the process and things will work out. When you get in it’s just important for you to score and get your assists and do your job.”

When the Pitt staff notified the team regarding senior night festivities, Dexter immediately let Aiken know his wish to take the field together. Aiken was touched by the tribute, but couldn’t accept immediately.

Jasmine Aiken, Lance’s daughter, had graduated from her dental assistant program a couple of weeks prior. Lance couldn’t make it to her graduation ceremony because of work, so he needed to check if she had an issue with him joining Dexter on the field. But her response erased any doubts he had about the situation.

“It’s a no brainer, Dad. Go do it.”

As soon as word got out that Aiken would take place in the festivities, Dexter said too many Pitt student-athletes to count approached the fifth-year forward and expressed their support. He even received resounding approval from former Panthers.

“When you have guys that have graduated years ago and are coming back telling you, ‘That’s so awesome because Lance is part of my life, too,’ it speaks volumes to how much he affects people,” Dexter said.

The ceremony itself went as expected, although Aiken admitted he had nonstop “butterflies” starting the night before. Dexter was joined by his girlfriend, Pitt women’s soccer star Amanda West, and her teammate Dixon Veltri to his left. On his right, Aiken and Dexter’s former Pitt teammate Bryce Washington.

Aiken told Dexter before the group took the field that he felt nervous, and this time the student gave his mentor the encouragement he needed.

“It’s alright man, you got it.”

But the night had just begun. Dexter’s goal in the 30th minute put the icing on a historic night, a moment Aiken called “unreal.” Struggling to find words to describe how it felt, Aiken settled on just one: “happy.”

For Dexter, the score came at the perfect time on a perfect night. His only complaint? The goal came on the wrong side of the field to include the custodian in his celebration.

“I wish I had scored on the other end, so I could point to [Aiken], but I was way at the far end so, oh well,” Dexter said.

The senior night moment even earned some television attention, with ACC Network broadcasters raving on the telecast about Aiken’s impact on the athletes at Pitt. The night went so well, Dexter said he expects more athletes to follow his lead in future years.

“I think people will ask Lance more often to do this, especially because he’s just always there for everybody,” he said. “It showed he should’ve been called up there a long time ago.”