Behind The Bench: Chloe Meldrum

Image of Chloe Meldrum shooting a basket. CREDIT: JADE SUMPTON
Chloe Meldrum is a shooting/point guard for the Fanshawe women’s basketball team.

Fanshawe has had many successful performances from their athletes this year and even wracked up some gold medals. Most people often forget these stars walk among us on campus, so here is a look behind the bench, at the players who are bringing their A-game, and making Fanshawe proud.

Chloe Meldrum, a team captain for Fanshawe’s women’s basketball team first found a love for the sport through her younger brother.

“My dad was like, ‘Do you want to play?’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m a soccer player.’ And then I watched all of [my brother’s] games and I was like, you know what? Maybe I do want to play. So then I started playing,” Meldrum said.

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Meldrum played all throughout school and even went off to play at an academy here in London for high school before eventually quitting in her 11th grade year.

“The reason I stopped playing was because I got a concussion and then I didn’t play my grade 12 year and then I didn’t ever actually think I’d play again…the concussion was thought to be career ending,” Meldrum said.

After high school, Meldrum was ready to go off to film school, but unfortunately there was no basketball team. The COVID-19 pandemic began, delaying her education and leading her to take on a full-time job instead.

“I knew I was going to get stuck there or I needed to get out. So I was like, I’ll go back to school and they had film [at Fanshawe], so I looked into it and then when I got in I was like, ‘So what if I just try to play basketball again?’ Either I don’t try and I don’t or I try and I don’t make it and that’s fine. So I went for it,” she said.

So, she left her position and returned to Fanshawe to study film and follow her ambitions.

“I happened to know the coaches already and so I reached out and I was like, ‘Hey, I haven’t played in literally five years, but what are the chances I could come to your summer practices?’ And now I’m here,” Meldrum said.

The St. Thomas native is a shooting guard/point guard and wears number 20 for the Falcons.

“I didn’t really realize how much you missed being part of a team until I was on it again. And I’m a captain this year and that just makes it so much more valuable, when they announced it in practice I was like, ‘Oh!’” Meldrum said.

Meldrum is a natural born leader and has found herself leading in many aspects of her life.

“I enjoy leading regardless of the title. I try to lead. So it’s nice that they acknowledge that,” she said.

Throughout her entire career, her biggest supporter has remained the person she first inherited her love for the sport from, her younger brother.

“He’s definitely my number one fan and he has been for a long time. Even when I was a soccer player, he would come to all my practices. And there were a lot of them.  I usually pick my number based on his number when we were younger,” Meldrum said.

When she’s not on the court, Meldrum can be found in the campus TV studios where she’s fulfilling her longtime ambition of film.

“My program has been great. The teachers are awesome. They’re all very involved in the industry which is nice. It’s not just them teaching from what they knew from 20 years ago. They’re all actively working and we get first-hand experience with them.”

On or off the court, Meldrum aims to lead a life full of grace, and it’s evident in the way she carries herself.

“Speak with grace, lead with love. I love it. It’s a little softer than maybe an athlete would say but…I think everybody deserves a little more grace than we give each other. So that’s how I try to live.”