STONE COLD SPARTAN
Burnt Hills’ goalie Cheyanne Stone heads to Castleton to study nursing
BURNT HILLS, NY » Cheyanne Stone was set to be the lone senior on the Burnt Hills’ girls’ lacrosse team this year. She was looking forward a season where she would be the player everyone looked up to.
“Last year we didn’t really have captains, so that was a goal that I had set for myself. I wanted to fulfill that leadership role,” Stone said, who also set her goals on winning.
“When I was a freshman I got pulled up to go to states with the team. That was something that I’ve always kept with me. Going to the states banquet, staying overnight in the hotel, walking out onto the field at Cortland. That was when I knew I wanted to get there again and it’s sad I didn’t have this year to get to that goal.”
The senior goalie is now getting ready to join the Class of 2024 at Castleton University in Vermont, where she will study nursing.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but my mom was a paramedic and I always admired her job and what she did, so I always figured I’d end up doing something in the medical field. Nursing just seemed like a good fit,” Stone said.
Recent events have only reinforced her desire to become a nurse.
“It just made me think that there’s always going to be a need for it. I made me realize that this is definitely something that I want to do. I wouldn’t want to be someone who’s at home. I would want to be there, doing my part to solve the problem.”
“I always really cared about helping people. A lot of my friends’ moms are nurses and they talked to me about it and I became interested in it.”
Stone has had conversations with both the women’s lacrosse coach and the volleyball coach at Castleton. She has yet to lock up a roster spot on either team.
“I’m doing volleyball in college. They said they needed people, so I said that I’d try out for the team,” she said. “I still am not sure if I’m going to play lacrosse. I have talked to the coach and hopefully I’ll end up playing lacrosse too.”
Stone played volleyball as a freshman at BHBL, before joining the field hockey team her sophomore year.
The most important aspect of her college decision was finding the right fit academically.
“It felt like home when I got there because it’s similar to my high school. I just like the fit and the town it’s in, it’s a very rural area. They have a really good nursing program.”
She continued, speaking about the campus.
“On my first visit I met with some of the different coaches and walked around, saw some different classes. It felt like they had a little bit of everything, for everybody. I knew that it would be a good fit.”
Although the girls’ lacrosse team at Burnt Hills now has a new coach, Stone credits her love of the game to the coaches she had from a young age, up to former varsity coach, Jake Mcherron.
“I’ve worked with the varsity program for awhile, even when I was in middle school. Coach Mcherron always took me with them. We would go to clinics and tournaments. That’s really when I became passionate for the sport and there were always great leaders ahead of me and I wanted to continue and play at a high level. I knew that I had big shoes to fill, after looking up to goalies like Lexi Ball and Abbie Mcherron. I wasn’t sure how this year would pan out, being the only senior,” Stone said.
“We had a very young team, but the respect my teammates gave me felt good. It was cool to be able to have that kind of impact, where younger players were taking my suggestions and looking up to what I had to say.”
It was a message from her new coach, Katie Kerner, that put the season cancellation in perspective.
“I got an email and there was a note from my coach to me. It was along the lines of how she wanted to work with me more and how everyone looked up to me. That was when it hit me that I was done playing lacrosse at a Burnt Hills’ Spartan,” Stone said, who is not looking forward to her time at Castleton next fall, where she will still be a Spartan.
“I’m excited to really focus on nursing and the medical field, as well as spending time in Vermont and experiencing everything it has to offer and making new friends out there.”