In her first four months at UBC, first-year kinesiology student Sydney Le has made a big impact on the women's field hockey team, and has quickly become a shining star.
Le’s field hockey journey started when she was in grade one. She was initially a soccer player, but started playing field hockey as well after her parents heard about it from a friend.
“Over time, I started to really enjoy field hockey, and I eventually moved clubs to focus more on my field hockey career,” she said. “From there, it kind of took off.”
Le excelled in field hockey, becoming a starter for most of her high school games. She plays with an offensive tenacity, registering 108 points, including from 14 hat tricks, over her grade 11 and 12 years.
While the transition from high school to university athletics can be difficult for some student athletes, that wasn’t the case for Le. She’d already experienced higher levels of play, having represented Canada overseas at the U18 level and playing in BC’s women’s league.
“That really helped with my skills development and just learning how to play at a more competitive level,” she said. “In the women's league, we would play against teams like UBC and then other club teams with some national players on it. So pretty much all throughout my career, I was being challenged by really strong players.”
Le started her first university season on a high note, scoring four goals in her first home game and ended up being the conference-leading scorer. She further cemented her success by winning the Canada West Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards.
On top of those, Le earned the U Sport’s Joyce Slipp Award for Rookie of the Year and First Team All-Canadian Award. Although she wasn’t expecting them, Le said the awards helped reflect all the hard work she put in this year.
“It was a really great group of girls [nominated], there’s lots of amazing players there. So I really did feel honoured to be able to receive both of those awards,” she said.
When asked what drew her to UBC, Le said it was the strength of UBC’s programs that played a key factor in her decision.
“Although they had a really great field hockey program, they also had really strong academics,” she said. “And as a student athlete, academics always comes first.”
When she first did a campus tour, everyone was very welcoming and friendly, which left a good impression on her and convinced her to join UBC.
Le added that when playing within a team, it’s important to build trust and connections — on and off the field. The memory that sticks out to her most this year was travelling for road games with her teammates to Calgary and UVic.
“It was a really fun experience, going on trips with the team, just bonding with the team in general, because they’re such an amazing group of girls,” she said. “I know they’ll always have my back. They pushed me this season to be the best I could have been.”
With four more years of eligibility, Le will be one to watch as she looks to continue her strong performance on the field.
— Additional reporting by Lauren Kasowski
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