Practice Player to Provincial Team
Through thick and thin, Charlotte Sider has kept her eyes on the prize, doing everything possible to make her dreams a reality. Yesterday she was named to Team Ontario in the ultimate personal reward for a youth division athlete.
A few short years ago, Charlotte Sider was a member of Team NB 16u girls. She had made it, or so she thought. Her family was about to move to Ottawa and she would find this next path to be a battle for respect and playing time. Originally from Kitchener, and a member of the 14u Tigers, Charlotte’s family moved to St Stephen, New Brunswick in 2006. When dad (Mark) was placed in a small New Brunswick satellite office of Norr Ltd Architects, a town with no club team, she was forced to sit out a season of club volleyball, but did continue to play high school ball. However, after experiencing the higher level competition in the Waterloo Tiger organization, high school volleyball just wasn’t meeting her needs.
Determined to compete with stronger athletes, she convinced Mom and Dad to make the 1hr+ journey (each way) to Fredericton to play for the Reds. By season’s end it looked like the world was her oyster, Provincial Champs, Team NB, everything seemed to be going her way. Then the announcement came, another move, this time to Ottawa. Time to start again, but surely there would be teams for her in such a big city.
Submitted by Kerry MacLean
