Goalkeeper outstanding on the field
Sydney Patten parlays curiosity about field lacrosse into four-year scholarship
Sydney Patten’s busiest weekend playing field lacrosse turned out to be one of her best and certainly the most rewarding.
How rewarding?
Try four years of pre-med studies at University of Findlay in northwestern Ohio.
Lance Patten suggests the seeds for a combination academic-athletic scholarship that his 17-year-old daughter formally accepted in a signing ceremony Monday at Notre Dame College School in Welland were sown four years ago.
That’s when Patten, then in Grade 9 and in her first season as a goalkeeper in the Stampede Lax club program in Buffalo, was pressed into action to play for the Grade 11 team at a tournament in Albany.
“She spent the weekend running from field to field, she must have played nine games,” Lance Patten recalled.
He said the quick turnaround between games helped his daughter stay focused on the next play.
“She ended up playing very well, she had no time to think about anything about playing,” he said. “It was a great break.
“After that, the coaches started coming.”
They left just as quickly after finding out Patten was still in her first year of high school and, therefore, off-limits under NCAA recruiting guidelines.
But the weekend succeeded in putting the Welland native on the radar to stay.
“That tournament was definitely a game-changer for me,” she said. “Right off the bat, I ended up saving a couple of goals on hard shots at the beginning of the game.
“That kind of opened big-door possibilities, and I was like,
‘Wow, I can actually do this if I worked at it.’
“From then on, I did.”
The Holy Name Catholic Elementary School graduate didn’t know anything about field lacrosse until she started attending Notre Dame.
“I heard about it through the school, and I decided to try it out,” said Patten, who played a range of team sports before focusing on field lacrosse.
After playing a range of team sports — “I tried them all,” she said — Patten began concentrating her athletic efforts on lacrosse.
“I just ended up really loving the sport,” she said. “I kind of got the hang of it right away, and every time at practice I got significantly better.
“I loved the team and I loved the coach, and I loved all the experiences we had going on trips and, through it, I got a lot of opportunities.”
Patten thought she would be playing in a field when she went out for head coach Agi Mete’s lacrosse team at Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish needed a goalkeeper.
“He said ‘Just try it out,’” she recalled with a chuckle. “There was no commitment, but before I even got the equipment on, he said, ‘You’re going to play next week’s junior varsity game.’”
Field lacrosse goalkeepers, like their counterparts in hockey and
“All of my teammates have always been very close to me and very there for me.”
SYDNEY PATTEN Notre Dame Fighting Irish goalkeeper
the indoor version of Canada’s national summer sport, are a team’s last line on defence. But Patten never feels alone dealing with the pressure of the position.
“All my teammates help me through that, I still get them to grab my helmet sometimes when we’re down,” she said. “They say, ‘You got this, don’t worry. Make a mistake, it’s all good, we’ll figure it out as a team.’
“All of my teammates have always been very close to me and very there for me.”
While Patten will be starting her fourth, and final, high school season this month, she admitted it’s still hard to forget about a bad goal.
“It’s very hard, and it’s something I am working on to try to forget those goals,” she said. “It’s always about the next goal and the next shot that’s being taken on you, and the next save that you make.”
Given that she wanted to strike the right balance between academics and athletics as well as a school with small class sizes, Patten narrowed her focus to Division III programs.
“I didn’t think I could get what I wanted at Division II, but that was before Findlay came along,” she said. “It checked off all the boxes.
“All these qualities came through in many of the schools, but Findlay just shone above the rest.
“At the end of the day, they really wanted me as much as I wanted them.”
Patten, who wants to become a doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, made six campus visits with her family, not including the ones they drove through.
“We didn’t necessarily stop at all of them, but we did lots of research,” the daughter of Lance and Carrie Patten of Welland said.
She isn’t worried that juggling athletics with academics will be too much to handle as a pre-med student.
“I have been able to juggle a lot for as long as I can remember,” Patten said. “Everybody who’s been in my life has been a huge help with all of that, making sure that I am good on my time management and helping me through all the tough times.”
Patten ranks her communication skills and “positivity” as her strengths on the field.
“I always try to be very positive and encouraging my teammates, trying to communicate with them,” she said. “A lot of coaches have told me that my communication skills have helped direct defences.
“I have a better view than all of them, it’s a straight view down the middle.”
Patten started all four years at Notre Dame, the past two on the varsity team.
Mete is impressed by the goalkeeper’s work ethic and commitment to taking her game to the next level.
“She has worked hard on improving her game, not only during the season but in the off-season, when it matters most,” Mete said, adding that is “why she has had so much success as a goalie.
“And it has helped our team tremendously.”
Mete praised Patten as a leader, “both on and off the field.
“Her play last season was a huge reason why we had the successful season we had,” he said. “We are very excited that she will get to play the game at the post-secondary level.”
Lauren Simko, head coach of the Findlay women’s field lacrosse team, said the Oilers are excited to welcome Patten to the roster.
“Her passion and enthusiasm for the game is contagious and inspires everyone around her,” Simko said. “She gives nothing short of her best every day, and we are excited to see her grow and develop over the next four years.”