LAKEVIEW: When most university students go away to college, it usually means they’ve left family behind in their home community they call home.
In the case of Chloe Sinnott, as she looks ahead to heading to York University in Ontario beginning this fall, she will have a lot of family in the area to call on.
Sinnott, a Lakeview product who attends Sackville High School, announced she committed to the field hockey team at York. She will be studying communications to one day become a sports broadcaster.
She began looking at universities across Canada during her Grade 11 year. It was key for Sinnott that they had a great field hockey program, plus a good communications program. Sinnott had interest from York; Guelph; Waterloo; and St. Mary’s University in Halifax.
“I talked to my provincial coach with the N.S. team about all of the schools that I was interested in,” said Sinnott. “She reached out to the schools and three of them (SMU, Guelph, and York) responded to me.
Sinnott, who is a country music fan, spoke with the coach from York via phone. He setup a zoom conversation with the Lions team captain, who also plays on the Canadian Junior Olympic team, something she aspires to do one day.
“The field hockey program they have is exactly what I wanted,” she said.
By committing to York University, Sinnott was told she was the first-ever Atlantic Canadian to go to York to play field hockey.
“That was a pretty cool thing to do,” she said.
The interest in Field Hockey all began in Grade 7 when Sinnott was a student at Leslie Thomas Junior High in Lower Sackville.
“It was the first time I had ever heard of the sport,” she said. “It was just a weekend long tournament, and I really loved it.
“I really started to love the sport when I started at Grade 9 at Sackville High.”
In July 2020, the N.S. team was to go to nationals in Ontario where she would have asked the coaches to come watch her play.
“We couldn’t do that because of COVID19, so I sent videos of me playing to them to see if they liked my performance,” said Sinnott, who enjoys math and Phys Ed. in school. “That was hard because the videos were all of indoor play, not outdoor play. It’s all outdoor up there.”
Sinnott said going to York will open the door to more opportunities then what AUS schools has. The sport is more watched and recognized in OUA school programs.
“That could get me into the Olympic program as I will have more exposure playing up there,” she said.
She also has another reason she’s comfortable with heading to York.
“Most of my family lives in Ontario and I don’t get to see them much, unless they come down here to visit us,” said Sinnott. “It’s going to be fun to go there, visit them a lot of the weekends, then go back to school.”
