Page 34 - 370167 LP253351 A Love Supreme Magazine - A5 48pp (Issue 260)

DAISY STOKOE INTERVIEW
DAISY WITH HER CHILDHOOD HERO, BETH MEAD.
34 | ALOVESUPREME | ISSUE260
Eighteen year old Daisy Stokoe currently plays for the Lasses Under 23 squad and hopes to break into the first team in the future. As a Sunderland fan herself putting on that shirt feels even more special, so we asked her a few questions about coming up through the academy from such a young age.
Living in Whitby, how hard was it to travel to all those games up and down the country?
Whitby is such a beautiful place and to be able to call it home is great. However the only drawback to living in a place like this is that there isn’t a lot round here if you are a young kid wanting to try and make a career as a professional sportsper- son. It can be quite difficult unless you are willing to make sacrifices. It has been hard, I’m only just finding out how difficult it is since I have been driv- ing this past year as my parents have done it for me since I was younger.
It must have cost your family a fortune! How much support have you had from your family during your journey?
Honestly the support I have had off my family has been second to none especially my mum, dad
and brother, they have been brilliant every step
of the way with both my cricket and football. I probably don’t tell them all enough just how much
I appreciate everything they have done for me
and continue to do for me as not only have I made many sacrifices to play but they have made a huge amount too. Any bit of free time they have usually has been used on taking me to games, training,
watching other games. They all work so hard and there has been times where they’ve had to work extra hours, use some of their days off just to be able to get me wherever I have needed to be for either football and cricket. Without them I wouldn’t be in this position today, playing cricket for Yorkshire and football for Sunderland, two teams I have supported and followed since I can remember.
You’re playing for SAFC Women but at the same time big into your cricket. How’s that going, and how hard is it to balance both footy and cricket?
I have always loved both cricket and football, played them both since a very young age and
I have been lucky enough to be able to keep playing them both without any sort of clash. However, there are times now where it clashes a little which makes it a bit difficult but I try to do my best to balance them both out. For the past few seasons my winter cricket training has been on the same day as my football games so quite often I have had to play in my football game and then make my way to Headingley Stadium for training straight after my game has finished so