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earching through a sea of 100 kids, Don Chevarie couldn’t place his eyes on his daughter. He looked away for a brief moment after a game, and she was gone when he looked back.

Don and 12-year-old Bianca Chevarie had traveled from Ontario to Ohio State for her first youth lacrosse camp. One of the coaches had pulled Chevarie to another group — one with high schoolers and college kids — as the rest of the players made their way to the sideline. 

She wasn’t even five feet tall, and she was playing among 19 year olds. 

“I felt so small,” Chevarie said. “It definitely was the kind of time I realized I could go farther than I thought instead of just playing lacrosse for fun and to stay athletic.”

Chevarie plays with her own age group now, but that feeling of being the smallest or youngest hasn’t escaped her. As a 5-foot-2 sophomore midfielder for Syracuse, she’s the third shortest player on the team. When injuries forced the Orange to delve deeper into their lineup last season, Chevarie’s height and age weren’t the focus: she was the only freshman who started multiple games. She returns in 2021 as an anchor in one of the most effective midfield units in the country.

Her size was first exposed while playing boy’s box lacrosse, where players can exit and enter the game without having to signal a referee. She had a bad habit of facing backward to look at defenders and was once knocked to the ground by an opponent coming from the other side of the bench. 

“He hit me so hard my helmet had totally flipped backwards and I was laying on the ground,” Chevarie said. “I got up, twisted my helmet and chased the kid down.” 

Her mother, Anita, would’ve made her quit if she saw the hits her daughter was taking from larger opponents, Chevarie said. But after years of playing boy’s lacrosse and hockey, Chevarie developed an aggressiveness that she uses to her advantage — it makes up for the 6 or 7 inches that an opponent can have on her. 

“I think a lot of people underestimated how strong I was,” Chevarie said. “I’ve learned to grow into my body in a way and trust myself.” 

In high school, Chevarie practiced with the girl’s program four days a week and did ladder and flow drills twice with the boy’s program. Her footwork and agility gave her the ability to outplay bigger opponents. She can easily outrun and dodge defenders several inches taller than her, and she had the “fastest feet” out of any of the athletes at the academy, said Clem D’Orazio, her lacrosse director at Everest Academy. 

Chevarie studied some of the unorthodox tricks she witnessed in the men’s game — such as behind-the-back shots or around-the-world passes — during the two practices she attended every week. Hanna Burnett, who was Chevarie’s head coach her senior year, said that Chevarie separated herself from the rest of the girl’s lacrosse players her age through the skills and aggressiveness she learned from the boys.

“Women throwing behind-the-back shots is fairly new to our game, she’s been doing that for years,” Burnett said. 

Performing past her height and age landed Chevarie a spot on the Canadian national team — of which head coach Gary Gait is the general manager — for the 2017 World Cup in England. At 16, Chevarie said she went through a “shock period” playing with older players, some of whom were double her age.

Alongside “high-caliber” players at the World Cup, Chevarie learned to make an extra pass rather than shoot, she said. Chevarie finished with one goal and one assist in eight games. 

“That was the first time when she probably wasn’t the best player on the field,” D’Orazio said. 

Chevarie didn’t start the first couple games, but the midfielder was put in at attack for the majority of the tournament. Burnett said they made the position switch because her speed and energy could help match that of the young, opposing United States team. 

Canada lost 10-5 to the U.S. team in the gold medal game, but Chevarie’s play earned her a spot on the U-19 World championship team, which she captained in 2019. Her experience at attack from the England World Cup resurfaced three years later at Syracuse, when Morgan Alexander suffered a season-ending leg injury in spring of 2020. Chevarie started in four games at left attack before the season was canceled due to the pandemic. 

Similar to her experience in 2017 with the Canadian team, Chevarie said she was more passive in her first few starts last season, passing to veteran players instead of shooting herself.

Eventually, though, Chevarie gained confidence in her shot and finished with four goals and four assists in eight games played. But with Alexander returning this season, Gait expects Chevarie to return to midfield. 

“I know that she is very comfortable with the defensive end, as well as the offensive end,” Gait said. “I think we can utilize her two-way abilities, and I’m sure she’ll (continue to) make a nice impact on our program.”

Chevarie may not see the field as much as veteran midfielders Sam Swart and Cara Quimby, but Burnett said that the opportunity for Chevarie to play for the Orange is enough itself. The fact that Chevarie’s always been undersized isn’t stopping her from reaching her end goal — to be in the same category as some of the elite players on Syracuse’s star-studded roster, Burnett said.

“She knows that she wants to be amongst some of those names one day,” Burnett said.

Banner photos by Will Fudge | Staff Photographer, Jordan Phelps | Staff Photographer and courtesy of SU Athletics. Design by Nabeeha Anwar | Illustration Editor and Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor