Cornell University women’s basketball player Moïna Snyder has enjoyed a series of random events and unusual coincidences that have led her to this point in her life. How else would you describe it when a young woman, born and raised in France, overcomes a hatred of basketball and two years at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., to end up playing Division I hoops at an Ivy League institution?
From the outside, some might think that the 6-1 Snyder was born to play basketball. Her father Tom is American and was raised in California. He played basketball at St. Mary’s College before enjoying a 20-year professional career oversees. Unfortunately, as Snyder spent her early years in gyms, sitting through her father’s practices, she developed a disdain for the sport and as a result, she turned her energy towards gymnastics.
“I hated basketball,” said Snyder. “I was a gymnast for seven years and when I was 13, I was just so tall that my body couldn’t handle it well and I kept getting injured. I was doing horseback riding competitively too at the time and I had back problems. The doctor said I needed to play a sport that would strengthen and extend my back so he said ‘volleyball or basketball.’ My mom was a volleyball player in high school and she wanted me to do that. My best friend played basketball and her mom was coaching and she told me I could come one day and try it. I went and I loved it and that’s how it started.”
Based on her height and basketball potential, Snyder was selected for the French junior national team, and through that, she began to get recruited by several club teams throughout France. By the age of 14, she was accepted to a boarding school and began playing for a team in Nice, France.
That experience is one that Snyder equates with going away to college.
“It was a boarding school during the week, but on the weekend we had apartments because the school was closed,” said Snyder. “It was two hours away and I couldn’t go home, so I had to do everything for myself. Everything people experience in college their freshman year, I did it when I was 15 or 16.”
Snyder, who is an exceptional student and hopes to attend medical school, was faced with a dilemma when it came time to choose a college. She could stay in France and attend medical school for free, but would not be able to continue playing basketball, or she could go to school in the United States and play ball in college.
“I didn’t know anything about the US and my dad didn’t know anyone in the women’s coaching world, so he got in contact with his old high school coach in California,” said Snyder. “Through him, we got in contact with a Division I school in California, the University of the Pacific, and sent my tape there and talked to the coach. He was interested but was a little scared that I wouldn’t hold my own physically, so he directed me to a friend of his, Coach Strickland (at Umpqua Community College). He thought it would be a good program to get me ready for DI because they are a good physical conditioning program. So the plan was to go there one year and then transfer to UP.”
The plan was almost perfect, but it had one fatal flaw – Snyder had not taken the SATs. Because of that, she was unable to transfer to UP and was forced to finish her two-year degree at UCC.
Still, she doesn’t regret her time in Oregon, where she was just two hours away from her paternal grandmother and a host of relatives. “I was really fortunate to have that random spot be so close to family,” said Snyder. “The years in Oregon were great.”
With the extra year at UCC, Snyder began to consider some of her other college options. “One of my dad’s best friends was an assistant for the Cornell men’s team (Paul Fortier),” said Snyder. “They played together in France for many years. So, I was trying to get out of Oregon and my dad sent a tape to Paul and asked him if her knew any women’s coaches and asked him to send it to some teams on the East Coast. Paul told him that there was a women’s program here at Cornell. I didn’t know there were sports in the Ivy League, or I would have come here freshman year.”
With the move to the Ivy League, Snyder found the need to adjust, both on and off of the court. “Cornell’s a big challenge because it’s a four-year school and transferring is very hard,” said Snyder. “Mentally, I went from the French educational system, which is very hard, very challenging, to a community college, where I don’t remember doing homework my freshman year, back to Cornell, which is really challenging. Physically, I came here for basketball and people thought I wouldn’t make it because I’m skinny, short and play a different game. I’m not a true post and I’m not quick enough to be a guard. So I had to fight to prove that I could play. Friend wise, you get here and you’re a junior and people have their friends already set from freshman year and I’m not a part of the international group because I’m American, so I was really stuck in the middle of everything. The first semester was really hard.”
As a senior, Snyder has found her groove. On the court, she is starting for the Big Red and ranks among the team leaders in points and rebounds. On campus, she serves as a resident assistant in a residence hall. Academically, she is preparing to spend a fifth year on East Hill so she can experience an internship, take the Kaplan course and decide on medical school.
Snyder isn’t sure where her next stop will be, but based on the pattern that her life travels have taken so far, it’s safe to say that she could end up anywhere.