Field Hockey Canada will collaborate with U SPORTS for the 2024 Nationwide Championships
This Fall will see the ever present U SPORTS Discipline Hockey Championship evolve right into a Discipline Hockey Canada property delivered in partnership with U SPORTS.
That is an thrilling new daybreak for the ladies’s subject hockey pathway in Canada. Because the inception of college subject hockey, universities have performed a key position in hockey improvement. College athletes go on to be the game builders, athletes, officers and supporters of the game all through their life. Some athletes progress to junior and senior nationwide groups, and certainly, the college system’s wealthy historical past feeds the Ladies’s Nationwide Workforce program.
Within the Eighties when the Canadian Ladies’s nationwide staff was a constant qualifier for the Olympic Video games (1984 and 1988) and world podium contenders (2nd on the 1983 World Cup and third on the 1986 World Cup). The staff – each athletes and administration – was constructed and developed by way of the college system. Whereas a lot has modified within the worldwide newbie sporting panorama since that point, the significance of college sport to the pathway in Canada stays vital to each aspiring nationwide staff athletes as a steppingstone on their nationwide staff journey, and equally to these athletes for whom the college surroundings would be the pinnacle of their sporting journey. It’s thus crucial that we proceed to evolve and develop the surroundings to fulfill the wants of each efficiency and developmental athletes, coaches and officers.
This new strategy has been knowledgeable by a consultative course of led by Discipline Hockey Canada’s U SPORTS Advisory Committee. Co-chaired by former nationwide staff athletes and Discipline Hockey Canada board members Nancy Mollenhauer and Deb Whitten, the committee introduced experience from coast-to-coast, representing establishment, athlete, native and nationwide wants. Discipline Hockey Canada wish to thank Beth Ali, Robin d’Abreo, Sharon Rajaraman, Krista Thompson and Barb Carmichael for his or her management.
Mollenhauer, the co-chair, stated that that is the fruits of years of labor Discipline Hockey Canada and the U SPORTS Advisory Committee have been devoted to.
“It’s extremely thrilling that we’re in a position to see it evolve into an exquisite partnership which can proceed to develop the sport of subject hockey on the varsity degree in Canada,” Mollenhauer stated. “That is an especially essential pathway each for our pupil athletes and people wishing to maybe in the future signify Canada on the worldwide stage. We’re extraordinarily happy to have Atlantic College Sports activities participating and have illustration from all college conferences throughout the nation.”
On this transfer, Discipline Hockey Canada has embraced the chance for a partnership with U SPORTS and taking part universities with the imaginative and prescient to construct the nationwide championship into a powerful asset for our sport and robust worth proposition for athletes graduating highschool.
The brand new Discipline Hockey Canada U SPORTS Nationals may have illustration from throughout the nation.
Discipline Hockey Canada CEO Susan Ahrens explains, “It’s as a lot a imaginative and prescient of the event of neighborhood in and thru sport, as it’s about efficiency. It’s a imaginative and prescient to make the Canadian Nationwide Championship the engaging proposition for all aspiring student-athletes, inclusive of each improvement and efficiency. In doing so, the long-term improvement of the student-athlete, in addition to that of officers, coaches and administration groups shall be nurtured, valued and secured for years to return.”
The preliminary transition of the championship to the brand new mannequin begins instantly. This fall, the Championship will transfer from a two-team to a four-team championship. Crucially, all three college conferences shall be concerned, with Canada West (CW), Ontario College Sport (OUS) and Atlantic College Sport (AUS) convention winners all securing berths, with the ultimate berth reserved for the internet hosting college. In doing so, the U SPORTS Nationwide Championship will see a return of the Atlantic for the primary time within the U SPORTS period. Such inclusivity is aligned to Discipline Hockey Canada values, with the brand new mannequin delivering variety, fairness and inclusion, that are on the coronary heart of our strategy. The inclusion from coast-to-coast is far wanted for the continued progress and improvement of the game. There’s a robust hockey base within the Atlantic provinces and this re-opening of the pathway into the college championship builds on this summer season’s return of all three Atlantic provinces to below 18 Nationwide Championships.
President of Discipline Hockey Nova Scotia and the chief of the Atlantic College subject hockey league, Sharon Rajaraman, highlights the significance of the Atlantic inclusion within the U SPORTS event. Together with the Discipline Hockey Canda U SPORTS committee, she’s been working for a few years to see the Atlantic inclusion within the U SPORTS finals. She says that is enormous progress that may result in continued improvement of hockey within the Atlantic.
“[Getting our universities back into U SPORSTS] has been an enormous course of. Our highschool improvement has been nice, feeding our athletes into Atlantic College Sports activities,” she stated. “Excessive efficiency and improvement come hand in hand, you’ll be able to’t have one with out the opposite.”
Discipline Hockey Canada has developed an preliminary three-year internet hosting plan to make sure readability within the planning and stability. In the meantime, the committee’s work continues with the long-term progress and evolution of the championship the subsequent focus.
Look out for continuous updates and reporting on the brand new Discipline Hockey Canada U SPORTS Nationwide Championship in Fall 2024.
