Hill School’s Amelia Sniffin a pillar of perseverance

Amelia Sniffin calls herself an ‘army brat.’

Her father, Colonel Peter Sniffin, is a chaplain in the U.S. Army. As a result, the Hill School senior moved nine times growing up.

“A lot of different homes, a lot of different schools, sports teams, lots of different things,” said Sniffin, who is a forward on the Blues’ basketball team.

Little did she know the lessons about patience, adaptation and perseverance she learned growing up would be put to the test so early in her life.

In the last five years, Sniffin has endured two back surgeries and three foot injuries, some of which came after moving to a new school miles from her family.

Now in her last year of high school, Sniffin is finally enjoying a clean bill of health and making the most of it.

“The start-stop, start-stop is always hard with anything to just find the motivation to keep doing something, but I really love basketball. I love to play,” Sniffin said. “I’m used to the start-stop because of my army brat lifestyle and moving. I’ve always kind of wanted to push on and push through and finish strong, so that’s what this year is for me, me trying to finish strong.”

Sniffin’s injury history started back in 2014 when she was in eighth grade. Because of scoliosis, Sniffin had to have spinal fusion surgery, where rods and plates were screwed into her back.

Prior to that time, Sniffin considered herself a lacrosse player. She didn’t get into basketball until she moved from Virginia to South Carolina right before the start of high school.

Sniffin, who is a 6-foot-2 forward with 3-point range, found her height in the lane was a perfect fit for the sport.

“When I first started playing, I was a little timid because it’s hard going into a new sport,” Sniffin said. “Once I realized I could block a shot, it was all over and I just fell in love.”

Her love of the sport was tested not long after picking up basketball when a second back surgery sidelined her in 2016.

About this time, Sniffin was also looking to find a new school. Her father knew he would soon have to move once again, and he wanted to find some stability for his daughter.

Peter Sniffin, a 1981 graduate of the Hill School, was struggling with the decision. A chaplain in the army, Sniffin turned to prayer at work one day after a sleepless night. About 30 minutes later, he talked to a representative of the Hill.

“Someone from the school came to see me and said, ‘I wanted to talk to you about development, but I got an email from the school this morning and they asked me to talk to you about something else,” Peter Sniffin remembered. “One of our largest donors just created a scholarship for the child of an active duty service member. Do you know anyone who would be interested?”

The timing could not have been any more perfect.

Amelia Sniffin arrived at the Hill School in the fall of 2016 as the first student to receive the Wallach Family Military Scholarship, set up by 1961 Hill graduate Marshall Wallach.

“She’s got a great personality,” Peter Sniffin said. “We always miss her presence in the house, but this was what was meant to be her coming here.”

Sniffin said the recovery time for her back surgery was typically around six months to one year. In her first year at The Hill School in 2016 as a sophomore, she worked her way back onto the court.

After missing so much time, she was quickly back on the injury report due to stress fractures in her foot because of overuse. During her time without basketball, Sniffin immersed herself in the other things Hill has to offer, which she has maintained throughout her three years.

Sniffin is head prefect at the Hill, which is the highest leadership position a student can hold at the school. She also is a manager for the girls water polo team, a member of the spiritual life committee, co-president for a volunteer service at a Boys and Girls Club at the Ricketts Center and deputy editor of the Hill’s newspaper.

“With the army, giving back is something that’s really big and in my blood,” Sniffin said. “With my time being on the sidelines with my injuries, I really had to learn how to be a servant leader.”

“She learned a lot about herself in her time away from the game,” Hill girls basketball coach Jen Weissbach said. “She learned how to cope with disappointment and frustration and ultimately channel that into being a supportive teammate, helping her peers even when she was struggling with herself.”

Sniffin played for the Mid-Penn Motion AAU team the summer before her junior season. She injured her foot once again, breaking it during a tournament at Spooky Nook in Lancaster, Pa.

Amelia Sniffin gets a bucket to go inside. @HillGirlsHoops pic.twitter.com/DyKqgS1nJU

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) January 26, 2019

The injury cost Sniffin most of her junior season. Though she did return for the Mid-Atlantic Prep League and Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association postseasons, she found it hard to crack the Blues’ rotation. Weissbach said Sniffin would have been a key player for the Blues in both her sophomore and junior seasons had she stayed healthy.

Last summer, Sniffin was playing up at Spooky Nook for the Mid-Penn Motion once again at the same tournament. She broke her foot again.

“Never going back,” she said.

Sniffin worked her way back in time for the start of her senior season. She’s kept healthy thus far and has become a big part of the Hill’s rotation. Weissbach said her best performance of the season may have come in Friday’s game when she scored nine points against a talented Shipley team.

“The exciting thing for her this year is physically and mentally the game is starting to line up for her,” Weissbach said. “Before it was physically she couldn’t do what she wanted to do, and then at the beginning of this season, her body was there, but mentally she was trying to get the game back, thinking fast, playing fast. Right now she’s peaking for us.”

Sniffin is not sure where her future in basketball lies. Weissbach thinks she has the talent to play at any level of college basketball. However, after all her injuries she’s not gotten the necessary exposure to play at top level program. Sniffin’s skillset and academics make her a good fit for a Division III liberal arts school, if she decides she wants to continuer here athletic career.

Sniffin also has interest in a career in communications. She mentioned Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications as a potential landing spot. If she doesn’t play basketball at the next level, Sniffin would like to stay involved by working as a team manager.

“I just love the sport, and I love watching and analyzing it,” Sniffin said. “I think that’s something really cool to be involved in for four years.”

Peter Sniffin and his wife moved to Carlisle, Pa., two years ago when he began work at the U.S. Army War College.

After watching streams of Amelia’s games during her sophomore campaign, they’ve had the chance to make the one hour, 45-minute drive to The Hill in order to see her play pretty frequently now that she’s back on the court this season.

“It’s rewarding because you get to cheer for your kid,” Peter Sniffin said. “You get to see some of the potential that you always knew was there, but you just couldn’t get to watch it come out. You get to see her doing things that you know she enjoys doing, so that’s fulfilling.”