Toronto Star Sports =================== Canada's Women's hockey team has big year ahead Toronto Star's Sportswire February 1st, 1997 URL: http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/sports/index.html Personal sacrifices will be required, but coach Shannon Miller and her players are so intent on winning Olympic women's hockey gold next year that they'll spend five months in full-time training leading up to the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. "It's a great honor to be the coach of this team and there are only two words to describe it - passion and pride," Miller said Friday as Canadian Hockey, the sport's national governing body, unveiled its Olympic plan for women's hockey. "We are on a mission." "Our mission is gold and we'll do whatever it takes to get it." The first step involves going to Kitchener, Ont., in April to shoot for a fourth straight world title. Following the world tournament, a core group of about 12 players will be named to the Olympic team. The remaining eight roster spots will be determined following June evaluation camps in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. The Olympians then gather in September in Calgary to train for five months. "It'll be an ideal situation," said Miller, a former Calgary police officer and national team hockey player. "We feel it's what we need to go after the gold." Jayna Heffort, 19, of Kingston, Ont., who will play in her first world tournament in April, says if she's named to the Olympic team she'll postpone her University of Toronto physical education studies for a year. "I'd jump on it, for sure," said the rookie forward. "It'd be the opportunity of a lifetime." Requests to employers for leaves of absence would be made by those with full- time jobs, such as veterans Angela James of Toronto, who is senior recreation co-ordinator at Seneca College, Therese Brisson of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que., who is a University of New Brunswick kinesiology professor, and Toronto's Karen Nystrom, an order manager with Nike Canada Ltd. As federally-carded athletes, national team members receive up to $810 monthly in government aid. Canadian Hockey will augment their income, increasing total hockey pay for each woman for the 1997-98 season between $15,000 to $20,000 - equal to what national men's players get. The budget for the 1997-98 women's team will be $800,000 - double that of 1996-97, says Canadian Hockey vice-president Bob Nicholson. The United States will be the main rival for Olympic gold. Canada beat the Americans 8-0 at the 1992 world tournament, 6-3 at the 1994 worlds, and now games are usually decided by one goal. "There's no question the gap has closed," Miller said. "But we're pumped and ready for the challenge." American coach Ben Smith said from Boston that USA Hockey is spending a comparable amount of money getting a women's team to Nagano. "Every time we've played, there's been great enthusiasm and sportsmanship - hockey has been the winner," he said of the Canada-U.S. rivalry. "They're on top and we're really looking forward to tracking them down." Smith has been conducting monthly five-day camps in Walpole, Mass., near Boston for the last four months. Fifty women will be invited to a mini-tournament in August. Olympians will then be named and begin full-time training in September in Lake Placid, N.Y. Canada still is best, says Laura Schuler [former Northeastern University player], whose four older brothers taught her how to play hockey when she was three and who will play for Canada in Kitchener. "We have the edge because of our desire to win," said the University of Toronto post-graduate physiology student. ---------- Contents copyright © 1997, The Toronto Star. User interface, selection and arrangement copyright © 1997 Torstar Electronic Publishing Ltd. To provide feedback or commentary on this site, please write to Webmaster@thestar.com