Sydney Shortt is one of only 16 members of Simon Fraser’s women’s field hockey team. Combining an athletic schedule with an academic schedule, Sydney goes to two practices a week and at least one game every weekend.
While this may not sound overly time-consuming, consider this: the women’s field hockey team has nowhere to practice or play their games on SFU’s campus. This is because none of the fields on campus have the appropriate marking lines for field hockey. Instead, Sydney must take the bus, a ride from anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes (assuming the buses are on time) to her hour-and-a-half long practices, as well as her weekend games.
In total, what could be just 90 minutes of her time if the practices were at SFU’s campus, turns into about four hours total. The games themselves are four hours alone, not including travel. More than once throughout the term, Sydney has begun the transit to her practices only to receive a call 45 minutes into the trip that, due to poor weather conditions, practices have been cancelled.
“On the way back from a field hockey team event in mid-October, Sydney fainted and fell over, and was rushed to the hospital.”
With an athletic season that lasts six months from September until March, that time adds up, and the blatant waste can have a huge impact on Shortt’s academic schedule.
An engineering student, Sydney takes two math classes and a physics class with labs for each, as well as two Mechatronic System Engineering courses, each of which include lecture and lab components. Since all her classes are in Surrey, her day includes taking transit to those as well. Obviously very busy with a challenging course load, Shortt often has difficulty finding enough hours in the day. Maybe it’s just in the family genes.
Sydney’s mom Liz, whom Sydney describes as “adorable and pretty incredible,” played soccer all throughout university while obtaining a math degree. Now, she plays field hockey with a bunch of other moms. Sydney claims it’s “honestly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” The resemblance between their passions is uncanny.
Once or twice Sydney has been able to call her mom for help, whether it be for math or computer science. Most notably, however, was the time when Liz was called due to Sydney fainting on transit and waking up in a pool of her own blood.
On the way back from a field hockey team event in mid-October, Sydney fainted and fell over, hitting her head on the concrete ground in the Production Way SkyTrain station. Likely caused by her naturally low blood sugar and low blood pressure, she woke up surrounded by blurry faces and a pool of blood around her body. She called an ambulance and was taken to Richmond hospital. On the ride there, she called her mom, who immediately booked a flight for that same day from Calgary to Vancouver to take care of her daughter. It was determined that Shortt had nearly broken her nose and had received a minor concussion.
Sydney was out of field hockey practices for two weeks and out of games for an additional two weeks until she was cleared by doctors. She explained how frustrating the situation was, but stated that, “considering my major, my mental well-being comes before sports.” She also was able to spend time with her mom, and “had a really good time with her, even though I was only partially aware of what was going on.”
Back in the game now, Sydney reflects on the past four months. Despite not having earned as many wins as the team would like, she recognizes the odds against them: the team has no official coach, no home playing field, has no funding from the university, and isn’t considered a varsity team.
Reduced to club status, their funding comes mostly from the players themselves and the fundraisers they host. Sydney says that any external funding they received now would probably go towards a coach, a role they’ve been without all season. They recently found a temporary coach, Abigail Raye, who competed with Team Canada and appears to be a good fit, but they only have her for a month due to money issues.
So while Sydney is confident that this new addition will be a great help to the team, it’s a very short-lived victory. Sydney remains hopeful that the budget situation will improve over the following months and that Spring term will bring more wins, fewer injuries, and maybe even a coach.
Fun Fact
When asked what Sydney likes to do outside of school and sports, she replied, “All I do is play sports and be a nerd.” She hopes to one day design and engineer robots intended to go into space and mine asteroids.
