'Crying Piccolo Girl,' former sad meme, now living her Villanova championship dream

Remember "crying piccolo girl"? She's back and better than ever.
 By 
Sam Laird
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Right around this time last year, Roxanne Chalifoux was transformed from human to meme when cameras caught her tearfully playing piccolo in the Villanova band after the Wildcats were upset early in the 2015 March Madness tournament. 

Fast forward one year, and Chalifoux has gone from sad meme to Villanova fan living the championship dream. 


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After last year's upset, an image of Chalifoux sadly playing on as Villanova's 2015 season expired was Photoshopped onto everything from Titanic screenshots to -- well, this is the Internet, so things got weird. 


Through it all, Chalifoux remained upbeat and light-hearted about her newfound meme-dom. This tweet is from last March. 

Beneath the snark and sarcasm, though, was a tender moment. Here's what the then-Villanova senior told ESPN.com shortly after her brush with fame:

I love going to their games, and this was my first time getting to go to the NCAA tournament. The band always goes, but as a bio major, I just haven't had time in the past. I was really excited to get to go. They ended up losing, and that was sad, but it was also sad as a senior and knowing that was my last game. The band has been my life for four years, and knowing that I wouldn't be playing with them anymore and that it was all coming to an end was really difficult.

Now Chalifoux is in her first year of optometry school at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University near Philadelphia, according to USA Today Sports, which caught up with her before the Final Four. 

Chalifoux traveled to Houston to watch her Wildcats, and was there when Kris Jenkins hit an all-time classic buzzer-beater to deliver Villanova the championship on Monday night.

It was a different vibe this time around, as Chalifoux was happy to point out on Twitter. 

She even found herself inserted into a crying Michael Jordan meme poking fun at the losing Tar Heels. 

But, with 2015's demons exorcised and Villanova 2016 national champs, Chalifoux says its time for a new chapter in her life. 

Happy trails, Roxanne Chalifoux. Crying Piccolo Girl will live on in our hearts forever. 

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Sam Laird

Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.

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