Field-Hockey, Track
Favorite athlete: Carli Lloyd
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Souderton and Owen J Roberts with seconds left on the clock.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I was demonstrating a drill and completely wiped out in front of the whole team.
Music on iPod: Drake, Twenty One Pilots, Beyonce, Cold Play, Rhianna
Future plans: Go to college and major in biology or chemistry
Words to live by: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
One goal before turning 30: Become a pediatrician
One thing people don’t know about you: I do an Indian dance called Bharatanatyam.
By Mary Jane Souder
Webster defines strength as “the quality or state of being strong.”
Shannon McCracken uses the word often when describing Seema Sajjan. It’s not the first word that might come to mind when watching the diminutive midfielder in action, but McCracken – who says the North Penn senior does “pack a punch” - isn’t referring to physical strength but rather to the remarkable mental strength Sajjan consistently displays on the field and off.
During the field hockey team’s disappointing 0-4 start, Sajjan stayed strong, never hanging her head, never losing her positive spirit, and the senior captain’s leadership was significant.
“She just said, ‘We have to work harder,’” McCracken said. “Her body language is great.
“I rarely see her get frustrated. Every once in a while you’ll see a little bit of frustration, but if she misses the ball, she goes and gets the next one, and you love that as a coach.”
Sajjan’s mental toughness was put to the ultimate test in January of 2016 when – on the day she was to return to school after winter break – she received life-changing news.
“I got a phone call from my brother saying my dad had passed away,” Sajjan said. “My dad was in India to take care of my grandmother, so it was like, ‘What are you talking about? That can’t even be possible.’
“I would never have imagined. It was just such a shock.”
Things happened quickly after that call. Within hours, Sajjan was on her way to India with her family.
“The flight was 12 hours,” she said. “It was hard sitting still, crying. There were my mom, sister and brother, and we’re all a mess.”
It was during those dark hours that Sajjan found herself on the receiving end of tremendous support.
“I told a couple of friends, and it spread,” she said. “I got texts from teammates. My coaches e-mailed me, e-mailed my mom.
“Just knowing there were people back home that when I got back they’d be able to help me and support me was really helpful. I was away two weeks and missing two weeks of school. It was hard.”
Sajjan’s teammates and friends were waiting for her when she returned.
“A lot of people brought me flowers,” she said. “I went down to coach McCracken, and she was really supportive. If I needed anything, I could always go to her.
“She told me I could sit in the room behind her classroom if I needed to just to get away from the school environment and the stress.”
If anyone could understand Sajjan’s situation, it was McCracken, who lost her father suddenly just three years ago.
“It was a jolt, and it was unexpected just like hers,” the Knights’ coach said. “My dad and mom were in Connecticut when my dad passed away, and we had to drive to Connecticut, a three or three-and-a-half hour drive, and it was the most awful experience of my life, and that kid got on a plane and went to India.
“She’s 17 years old. Just how strong she’s been – I admire her strength and her ability to be at school and be with her teammates and continue to play hard. I can’t even imagine it. It shows her character. I just admire her so much.”
After everything Sajjan’s been through, it’s hardly a surprise that she was able to put her team’s 0-4 start in perspective.
“This team has been through a lot of adversity whether it was this season or last season,” she said. “We’re a family on and off the field. We all have a passion, we all want to get better.
“Starting out 0-4 sucked, but coach always says, ‘It’s not how you start, it’s about the journey.’ So we just kept that in our heads – we can do this.”
Not a day goes by that Sajjan doesn’t think of her father and draw inspiration from his memory.
“My dad’s always been supportive,” she said. “I think that was the hardest part of the season, the mental aspect because there would always be thoughts.
“I would look over at the stands and think, ‘Oh, my dad would have been here right now.’ It was just so hard because I had to focus on the game. For me, it’s really mental. If I prepare myself mentally, I’ll play good, but if I don’t, I won’t. I always had to prepare myself, and that was really hard for me this season.”
While it may have been hard, Sajjan – a two-year varsity starter - has been a perfect fit at both captain and right midfield.
“As a player, she is quick, and she’s creative on the field – her passes are excellent,” McCracken said. “She has great vision because she’s a soccer player too, and I think that was something that really helped her.
“She’s relentless, she works extremely hard at practice. I have her demonstrate a lot of drills because she shows how hard you should work in a drill to her younger teammates.”
According to the Knights’ coach, Sajjan is a quiet leader.
“She leads by example, and when she does speak, she’s very intelligent,” McCracken said. “She makes smart decisions on the field and understands game management.
“She’s very good at organizing the younger players around her. She’s a super positive person. She may not be extremely vocal, but she does the little things.”
And the ‘little things’ that have gone a long way on a team that has been 12-2 since its 0-4 start and is seeded ninth in the 24-team District One AAA Tournament.
“She’s the first to tell a teammate they made a great play,” McCracken said. “She’s super supportive of her teammates.
“You’ll see her when she’s doing a drill or even in a game, she’ll be the first to tell a teammate what a great pass or what a great shot.”
That kind of response is second nature to the soft-spoken Sajjan who – after taking a year off from hockey to play soccer as a sophomore – was drawn back to hockey by the family atmosphere surrounding the team.
“I had so much experience in soccer, so in 10th grade, I thought maybe I would be better at it and that might be a sport that I could potentially take to college,” said Sajjan, who played soccer competitively for 10 years. “I knew I made a mistake because field hockey – the atmosphere and the people were just amazing. That’s why I came back. The people were just so supportive, especially for me when my dad passed away. This team is the best team that I’ve been on. We’re just so unified on and off the field, and we just get along together.
“Everybody is willing to help each other, support each other. When I make a mistake or anybody makes a mistake, we just pick each other up. It’s just amazing. That’s what’s special about this team.”
***
Sajjan began playing soccer when she was five years old. In middle school, she was encouraged by her mother to try a new sport since she’d been playing travel soccer for many years.
“I fell in love with it,” she said.
After playing lacrosse for one year, Sajjan joined the track team in eighth grade and continued with the track team until she lost her father last winter and took the winter and spring off. She was a member of the jayvee field hockey team as a freshman before opting to go back to soccer, a one-year experiment that ultimately led her back to hockey.
Sajjan’s soccer playing days have paid dividends on the hockey field.
“In soccer, I used to play defense, so I always used to scan the field before I would get the ball,” she said. “I think that’s really helped me in field hockey because when you get the ball you’re looking down, so it’s really important that you scan the field and know where you’re going with the ball.”
Sajjan is hoping to continue her hockey career in college – if not at the varsity level then on the club level.
Academics are a priority for Sajjan, who is in the top five percent of her senior class of 1,066. An officer in the National Honor Society, Sajjan is taking five AP classes this year.
“For me, academics is a priority,” she said. “It’s always been a priority.
“That’s one thing I love about sports – it’s taught me so much. It’s taught me discipline for the most part. When I come home, I do my work. It’s a lot, but I work under pressure.”
Although she is uncertain of her college choice, Sajjan is committed to her career path. She plans to major in biology or chemistry with the goal of one day becoming a pediatrician.
“My dad always wanted me to become a doctor,” Sajjan said of her father, Shiva Sajjan. “It’s just something to honor him.”
Family comes first to Sajjan, and on her team’s recent Senior Night, she was escorted by her mother, Kala Sajjan, and older sister, Suman.
“It was really special that my sister was able to come, especially since she had to travel four hours that day to see me play,” Sajjan said. “When we came back from India, she was the one who took care of me and helped me through all the workload since my mom was still in India.
“My brother (Sunil) wasn’t able to come to the game, so I was grateful that she was able to make it. I was really happy that my mom and sister were able to escort me because it wasn’t to honor me but to honor them and my father, who helped me get to where I am today.”
“They’re very close,” McCracken said of the Sajjan family. “It was neat that her sister came for Senior Night.
“I think about what I went through and what she’s going through, choosing a college and going to high school. I just admire her so much, and her teammates really respect her too. She’s a really special person.”
