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"We strongly believe in the pursuit and achievement of excellence. The Women's Ice Hockey Program will achieve a high standard of excellence in three main areas including excellence in the classroom, on the ice and in the community. As a result, this program will evolve into one that is respected and emulated by teams and groups in the community, other teams at this University, and teams and programs at both the Provincial and National levels." An ever-increasing number of Canadian student-athletes are choosing to stay at home to pursue their education and hockey careers due to a variety of reasons. My goal as the Head Coach of the women's program here at the University of Manitoba is to help that trend continue and grow. It is my personal philosophy that hockey is a tool to help players receive the best education they can possibly get. Hockey at the University level is also an extremely valuable way to help young people prepare for life in the real world and there is no doubt that the lessons learned in this environment make a lasting impression. I know this to be true as I experienced it myself as a student-athlete. The University of Manitoba offers an excellent and wide array of programs for every student to help them achieve their goals. Whether it's Science, Recreation Management, Kinesiology, Phys.Ed, Law, Medicine, Business, Social Work, Athletic Therapy, Agriculture, or Education you are interested in, our school has an excellent reputation in all of these areas plus many more degree choices for students. We have an attractive athletic awards program that helps our student-athletes defray the cost of tuition which is very affordable at Manitoba to begin with, relative to many other degree-granting institutions in Canada. I am confident that it can compete with most schools in the CIS and also with some in the NCAA. I am very excited about how far our program has come in that area in the last several years and the future looks even more promising. We place a lot of emphasis on academics in our program and our athletes' results in the classroom speak volumes to that end. Our team finished the 2005-2006 academic year with 4 Academic All-Canadians, meaning a GPA of 3.5 (B+) or better. We also had 15 of 21 players achieve over a 3.0 GPA. The Bison Sports B+ program begun last February is a cutting edge service provided by University 1 that allows all Bison student-athletes access to tutors, mentoring, workshops, how-to-sessions, and generally any support needed that will help them succeed academically. There is no charge for any of these services and it is one of many supportive initiatives our University has instituted for our athletes in the past several years. On the ice, our program has grown by leaps and bounds over the course of the last two years. We won our first medal (bronze) of any kind two years ago in our first ever trip to the CIS Nationals and this past season we advanced to our second consecutive Canada West Final. Our team featured one Canada West First Team All-Star (Leanne Kisil, Winnipeg, MB) as well as the co-winner of the Canada West Rookie of the Year (Stacey Corfield, Winnipeg, MB). Stacey is the second Bison in three years to win this award joining Stephanie Messner, (Winnipeg, MB) who won the award three years ago. I am confident we will see a number of players have the opportunity to vie for spots on Canada's Under-22 National Team in the next few years as our program continues to grow and develop. This season, Canada West has moved to a 24 game conference schedule that for us consists of 6 games each against the Universities of Regina and Saskatchewan and four games each against the University of Alberta, the University of Lethbridge and the University of British Columbia. We also play a competitive exhibition schedule that will feature games against Bemidji State University (September 29) and the University of North Dakota (September 30). We have been consistently ranked in the top 10 in Canada for the better part of the last year and a half and with a great group of returning players and an excellent recruiting class for this fall, I expect us to continue to push towards the ultimate goal of bringing a National Championship home to Manitoba. The future looks extremely bright for our program and I hope that you will give it some serious thought and consideration as you decide on the best fit for yourself, both academically and athletically. Sincerely,
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