Persistence and patience have landed Seneca senior Sydney Malave a dream she has pursued since the fifth grade.
After being diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic, believing she was not good enough and starting the recruiting process “too late,” she has overcome many obstacles and has landed herself on a Division I collegiate field hockey roster.
“She put a lot of time and energy into proving people wrong and setting an example of how hard work pays off,” her father Terry said.
Sydney could not say enough about her parents’ help throughout the recruiting process that has become very grueling for high school students, specifically if you do not start as early as possible.
She really delved into this process in the middle of her junior year; by that time most Division I athletes have already committed to a school.
Even when her confidence was low, she stuck to the motto, “don’t give up.”
Sydney described the experience of getting recruited as a mixture of three feelings — excitement, suspense and stress.
“It was exciting whenever I got positive feedback from coaches of the schools I was interested in; it was suspenseful because sometimes coaches didn’t get back to me for a few days or weeks; and it was stressful because I was scared I started too late in the recruiting game to become a Division I athlete,” Sydney said.
When she finally got the news she would be playing for Long Island University Brooklyn in the fall, she was ecstatic.
It is a unique scenario as she will be a part of the first field hockey roster in the history of the university. The school has never had a field hockey team before and the program’s first season will be starting in 2016.
Sydney is excited to get the opportunity to play for coach Patricia Kennedy and experience living in the city after growing up in Tabernacle.
“Coach Kennedy and I really clicked,” she said. “I feel like my LIUB teammates and I will be able to make history.”
Sydney plans to study health sciences at LIUB while also minoring in sports management.
She was interested in the idea of sports management because she has always entertained the idea of one day becoming a coach.
Sydney has been playing field hockey since fifth grade, so she’s been able to observe many coaching schemes and has formed some of her own along the way.
“I’d love to coach my own team with the tactics and strategies I’ve been able to form,” Sydney said.
This past spring, she was a volunteer coach for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade for a program called Stick Stars.
“It was really fun and gave me a feel of what coaching would be like, even though I plan to coach teenagers/college students. I know the game well, and I’d like to apply my knowledge to my own team,” Sydney said.
Sydney has a great passion for field hockey and wants to be a part of it any way she can in the future.
“I love the challenge of field hockey. It’s like no other sport,” she said.
However, the health sciences aspect is what she wanted to pursue as a major because she aspires to eventually become a nutritionist or dietitian so she can advise others what they should be eating and what they should be staying away from.
“I do plan to get more involved in the whole nutrition scene after coaching. I’d also like to get more involved with diabetes, and helping people understand the medical condition and how it works because many people have the wrong idea,” she said.
Diabetes is something Sydney deals with on a daily basis and has been able to overcome it by becoming a healthy eating fanatic.
“People would never know she had that condition unless she told them. It’s never affected her play because she eats extremely healthy and is very heavy into fitness and nutrition,” Terry said.
Sydney has to make sure to always eat a snack before practices and games to keep her blood sugar up. Any major cardio always makes her blood sugar drop low, so she is constantly snacking on something to prevent that.
“It also does motivate me extra. Oftentimes people misunderstand diabetes. They think I can’t eat certain things, exercise a certain amount of time or be as strong as them. When in fact, I can do all of that perfectly fine, just with the help of insulin injections, snacks and constant training,” Sydney said.
As excited as she is for college, she will not be wishing away her senior year at Seneca.
She is going to miss the relationships she has formed with her coaches and teammates throughout high school, a group that congratulated her with many cheers and hugs when she broke the news to them about playing Division I next year.
“I told my teammates and coaches the first day of preseason this year. Everyone was very proud of me, shouting congratulations all while hugging me and smiling,” Sydney said.
The team returns two all-conference selections from last year, Sydney and Abigail Regn, who will lead the Golden Eagles toward making a push into the playoffs.
“My goals for this year are to score as many points for my team as possible, work hard with my teammates so we can get far into playoffs and beat teams we haven’t beaten in a while or at all, earn another Olympic Conference all star award, and have my name remembered in the South Jersey field hockey world,” Sydney said.
