Recent News
Shelburne Shows Up for Middlebury
Congratulations to Meg Shelburne ’20 for earning the NCAA Elite 90 Award and a third NCAA Field Hockey Championship with the Middlebury Panthers. She scored a 4.0 GPA, the highest cumulative grade-point average for a player participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 90 championships, and she is the first Middlebury Field Hockey player to receive this award. Shelburne’s defensive play helped Middlebury prevail over Johns Hopkins in the D3 finals for the third consecutive season. In her freshman year, the 2020 season was canceled due to Covid. Read more on Shelburne’s journey starting at St. John’s.
- What sports did you participate in at SJS in high school, middle school, and in youth sports? I started out playing soccer from elementary through middle school. As a 7th grader at St. John's, I picked up field hockey to meet my fall sports requirement and it's been my main sport ever since! I also played golf for the St. John's team on and off throughout high school.
- What have you learned along the way to where you are today? One of the main lessons I've learned throughout my athletic career has been the value of persistence and consistency. Just showing up every day and doing my best has gotten me so much farther than I ever would have believed. The other thing I emphasize is that it is so important not to just work on your athletic skills, but also to put conscious effort into being the best teammate you can be. Team sports are a unique environment to help you lean into growing and changing as a person and friend, and that process can be just as rewarding as becoming faster, stronger, or more skilled.
- What can you pass along to current St. John's students regarding your journey as a NCAA student-athlete- what does it take to play at that level and what experiences at St. John's helped you get there? I think that what it takes to make it to the NCAA level varies a lot by sport, but the St. John's field hockey community certainly helped me envision myself as a collegiate athlete and offered me insight into how to navigate the recruiting process and find a team that was the right fit for me. Besides putting in the daily effort into making myself a better athlete and teammate, It took a lot of support from my parents and coaches just to handle the logistical demands of recruiting and get to know my different options, for which I will always be grateful.
- What do you like about competing in sports, and in particular, field hockey? I have always loved being a member of a team and the kinds of amazing relationships that come from working side by side with someone, day in and day out. At St. John's and especially at Middlebury, I have gotten to know my teammates so well, have had so much fun with them, and value the lessons I have taken away from those relationships. Field hockey has been a great fit for me because it is a small and tight-knit community that has offered me great opportunities to have outstanding female coaches, mentors, and role models.
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