Toronto’s Stairs named CIS women’s field hockey player of the year

VICTORIA (CIS) – Tegan Stairs, a fifth-year forward from the University of Toronto, was named the CIS player of the year in women's field hockey, Wednesday night.

The Kitchener, Ont., native became the sixth U of T winner of the Liz Hoffman Award, and the second in as many campaigns. She follows in the footsteps of last year's laureate Amanda Woodcroft, as well as Cailie O'Hara (2007, 2008), Philippa Kedgley (2003) and Deb Cuthbert (1998).

Stairs' older sister, Brienne, won back-to-back Hoffman Awards as a member of the Guelph Gryphons in 2009 and 2010.

Other winners announced at the All-Canadian Banquet held at the Harbour Towers Hotel in Victoria were Calgary midfielder Sabrina Wong, who captured the Joyce Slipp Award as rookie of the year; Victoria midfielder Kathleen Leahy, who merited the Gail Wilson Award for her outstanding contribution both on and off the playing field; Victoria head coach Lynne Beecroft, who received the Marina van der Merwe Award; and OUA referee Denise Pelletier, who was named official of the year for the fourth time in five seasons.

The 2015 CIS - Field Hockey Canada championship gets underway Thursday at the University of Victoria and culminates Sunday at 3 p.m. Pacific Time with the gold-medal final. All eight matches from the four-team tournament will be webcast live on CIS-SIC.tv.

LIZ HOFFMAN AWARD (player of the year): Tegan Stairs, Toronto

Stairs will wrap up one of the most decorated careers in CIS field hockey history at this week's championship. The fifth-year criminology student, who played two campaigns with the Guelph Gryphons before joining the Varsity Blues, picked up OUA rookie-of-the-year honours in her university debut, has been named an OUA all-star every season and is now a four-time all-Canadian.

In 10 regular season games this fall, Stairs led the Blues with 13 goals, good for third place in the conference, while helping Toronto compile a stellar 11-1 record. She has established herself as the leader of a U of T squad that repeated as OUA champion and now hopes to capture the program's first McCrae Cup since 2010.

"Tegan is the player every coach dreams of having," said Varsity Blues head coach John DeSouza. "She is fast, creative and unselfish. Her speed helps our team transition into offence very quickly. Her creativity and unselfish play helped this Blues team become a goal scoring threat every time we get the ball. She is just a joy to watch when she gets the ball."

UBC's Hannah Haughn was the Canada West nominee for CIS MVP honours.

JOYCE SLIPP AWARD (rookie of the year): Sabrina Wong, Calgary

Wong became the first Calgary player to receive the Joyce Slipp Award.

The Dinos program underwent major changes this season with the addition of head coach Peter Taylor, who replaced Henré Meyer, and a lineup that included just five players in their fourth or fifth university season. Amongst a group of 13 first-year players, the West Vancouver native was without a doubt the biggest boost to the young squad.

Leading up to her career with the Dinos, Wong has always been a standout for the country's top provincial program in British Columbia. As a member of the BC under-16 team, she guided the province to a national title in 2012 and was named Most Promising Junior Player in West Vancouver, the largest field hockey club in North America.

"Sabrina has been a standout performer in her first year as a Dino," said Taylor. "She has played an important role, moving from her usual defensive position to one of our holding midfielders. In this role she has helped the team control the middle of the field in defence, and created many attacking forays for our team."

Toronto defender Hilary Ziraldo was also in the running.

GAIL WILSON AWARD (student-athlete & community service award): Kathleen Leahy, Victoria

Leahy is only the third Vike to merit the Gail Wilson Award, joining Lauren MacLean (2002) and Kristen Taunton (1999).

The fourth-year midfielder is a three-time Canada West all-star and earned her second all-Canadian nod this season. The current Canadian senior national team member is co-captain of the 2015 Vikes but is also an exceptional student-athlete and role model. Leahy has devoted countless hours between her Vancouver-based national team training and her commitments in Victoria. Despite multiple commitments and travel, she manages a remarkable 8.17 grade point average (on a 9-point scale) in the faculty of Education.

The Victoria native is constantly giving back, finding time in the fall to coach the Oak Bay High School field hockey team for the past four seasons, while also helping coach in the Victoria Junior League and the UVic Rising Stars program. While training in Toronto this past summer, Leahy coached with the A&C Academy working with under-16 and 18 high performance groups. She also volunteers as an assistant in the UVic Exercise Physiology labs. Most recently, she helped create the protocol for testing that would measure leg hemoglobin levels of young female athletes before and after exercise, and is just about to start as a volunteer in a study which will compare the heart rate variability (HRV) of competitive level athletes with the HRV of Special Olympic athletes.

In late summer, Leahy travelled to Los Angeles where she watched and interacted with Special Olympics athletes as they competed at the highest possible level - the World Games. She was there as a Student Ambassador for UVic and attended a conference where they were able to discuss ideas of diversity and inclusion with some of the top initiative builders in the field. Leahy is also a representative for the women's field hockey team on the UVic Vikes Varsity Council and, in November, hopes to get involved with the Special Olympics program in Victoria.

"Kathleen has been a great representative for the Vikes women's field hockey team both on and off the field," said head coach Lynne Beecroft. "Most reflective of her impact are the things her teammates say about her. They say she inspires them and she respects everyone. She is a fair player and captain and her loyalty to the sport is easily seen in her play."

Queen's Caitlin Gordon was also nominated.

MARINA VAN DER MERWE AWARD (coach of the year): Lynne Beecroft, Victoria

In her 32nd year at the helm of the Vikes program, Beecroft was named the Canada West coach of the year for the second straight campaign and fifth time overall, and finally put her hands on the Marina van der Merwe Award.

This season, the Vikes captured their second Canada West banner in three years thanks to a near-perfect 7-0-1 record, including a dominating 3-0-1 mark against archrival UBC. In eight league games, the experienced Victoria squad - with eight seniors in their fourth or fifth year - outscored its opponents 16-1, including a 7-1 advantage over the Thunderbirds.

Over the course of her career, Beecroft has guided the Vikes to 11 CIS national titles and 13 of the program's 17 Canada West championships.

Guelph's Michelle Turley was the OUA nominee for CIS coach-of-the-year honours.

OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR: Denise Pelletier, OUA

Pelletier was also named CIS official of the year in 2011, 2012 and 2014.

She started umpiring with the Waterloo Women's Field Hockey Club 10 years ago. For two seasons, she officiated at the high school level and was selected to umpire at the OFSAA championships. She then made the jump to umpiring in the OUA and, over the past eight campaigns, has become one of the top umpires in the league.

In just her second season umpiring at the university level, in 2009, Pelletier was selected to work at the OUA championships and has since been chosen numerous times to umpire at the OUA and CIS tournaments. She is a Canadian-rated umpire and is quickly rising to be one of the top game officials in Canada.

Tyler Klenk, who officiates in the Canada West conference, was also in the running.

ALL-CANADIAN TEAM

The all-Canadian team was also announced on Wednesday.

Joining CIS player of the year Tegan Stairs, Canada West MVP Hannah Haughn and Gail Wilson Award winner Kathleen Leahy on the 11-member unit were goalkeeper Beckett Frisch, defender Jessica Britton and midfielder/forward Janelle Rice of Calgary, midfielder Erin Houle and forward Allison Chute of Guelph, midfielder Stephanie Snyder of Waterloo, midfielder Kylie Nabata of McGill, as well as midfielder/forward Amanda Woodcroft of Toronto.

Like Stairs, Woodcroft (2011-2012, 2014-2015) and Haughn (2012-2015) became four-time all-Canadians. For their part, Frisch (2014, 2015), Snyder (2014, 2015), Chutte (2014, 2015), Houle (2013, 2015) and Leahy (2013, 2015) were all honoured at the national level for the second time.

2015 CIS WOMEN'S FIELD HOCKEY AWARDS & ALL-CANADIANS

Liz Hoffman Award (player of the year): Tegan Stairs, Toronto
Joyce Slipp Award (rookie of the year): Sabrina Wong, Calgary
Gail Wilson Award (outstanding contributor): Kathleen Leahy, Victoria
Marina van der Merwe Award (coach of the year): Lynne Beecroft, Victoria
Official of the year: Denise Pelletier, OUA

All-Canadian Team

Pos. - Athlete - University - Year - Hometown - Academic Program

GK - Beckett Frisch - Calgary - 5 - Calgary, Alta. - Graduate Studies
D - Jessica Britton - Calgary - 4 - Rossland, B.C. - Medicine
M - Kathleen Leahy - Victoria - 4 - Victoria, B.C. - Education
M - Stephanie Snyder - Waterloo - 5 - Waterloo, Ont. - Economics
M - Erin Houle - Guelph - 5 - Burlington, Ont. - Landscape Architecture
M - Kylie Nabata - McGill - 4 - North Vancouver, B.C. - Biochemistry
M/F - Hannah Haughn - UBC - 4 - West Vancouver, B.C. - Kinesiology
M/F - Janelle Rice - Calgary - 4 - Calgary, Alta. - Science
M/F - Amanda Woodcroft - Toronto - 5 - Waterloo, Ont. - Concurrent Education
F - Tegan Stairs - Toronto - 5 - Kitchener, Ont. - Criminology
F - Allison Chute - Guelph - 4 - Greenfield Park, Que. - Animal Biology

Source: CIS