Giovanna Cimino was deciding between a few colleges that were interested in her playing field hockey for them starting in the fall.
Those colleges were all back east, so Cimino decided she would take a trip out there and see where she felt most at home.
It was a good thing she did, Cimino said.
Cimino’s trip helped change her mind from her first choice and fell in love with Seton Hill. She made that choice final Wednesday when she signed her national Letter of Intent to play for the Division II school.
“As soon as I went to Seton Hill it clicked. I was like, this is it,” Cimino said. “I can see myself being here for the next four years and playing hockey with the girls.”
Cimino said after visiting the university, she felt like it was the perfect fit for her, even if she wasn’t playing field hockey. She said that was just a bonus.
Cimino got into field hockey because her sisters played when they were in high school. Although she had gone to field hockey camps as a kid, she was into softball heading into high school, but her mind got changed thanks to a camp at Cal Berkley.
“I spent four days there and I came back home, and I was like, ‘dad, I want to play college field hockey! I love this,’” Cimino said.
Her dad told her she was going to have to work for it if she wanted to play in college, and Cimino said she bought in 100 percent.
She stepped away from softball and focused on field hockey, where she made varsity in her sophomore year.
Cimino said she felt a bond with field hockey as she delved more and more into the sport.
“I liked how competitive it was. I like the difficultness in it,” Cimino said. “Every game is something different. You meet different players all over the world. It’s a really small community, so when I go to tournaments, I see my friends and we meet up as one big family.”
Outside of high school, Cimino played club with Gilroy Infinity and made the USA Futures Field Hockey Club from 2013-2015.
Cimino said she will miss her friends moving across the country, but said branching out is not new to her.
She said before coming to Live Oak, she had attended private school growing up, but departed from her friends who all went off to school in San Jose.
“I came here and I met everyone else, and I feel like I’m doing the same thing again.”
Cimino made the choice official during a ceremony at Live Oak in the main quad during lunch.
With her teammates and parents on hand, Cimino had a chance to thank everyone who helped her along the way.
This included her teachers, friends, teammates and coaches both at the high school and at the club level in Gilroy.
Afterward, Cimino had plenty of nice things to say about her now former high school coach, who helped guide her along the way.
“I’m going to miss Gina, she was a really good coach,” Cimino said. “She always pushed me.”
Cimino said she would come off the field and ask Sanders what she was doing wrong, and it usually was that she was trying to do too much.
She would go back, she said, and try what Sanders recommended on the sideline and it paid off.
“She would say I got it done 100 percent,” Cimino said. “… Yeah, she helped a lot in my four years.”
Cimino is leaving Live Oak with a 3.45 GPA to go along with her three-year varsity experience.
