URL:http://www.canoe.ca/HockeyWomen/apr5_mom.html

April 5, 1997

CANADA'S 'MOM' ISN'T SLOWING DOWN
                                    
By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun KITCHENER -- It makes total sense that
a girl with the name France St-Louis would be going places.
  The thing is, nobody figured she'd be going for this long.
  St-Louis is playing top level international hockey at an age when
most of her contemporaries would consider 10 minutes on the
stairclimber a triumph of human endurance.
  At age 38, she's older than the entire national team coaching staff,
a veteran of the past three world championships and a good bet to make
the Canadian team for next winter's Nagano Olympics.
  Many of her teammates on Canada's formidable national team call her
mom. It's an affectionate jab, but one that's not far off.
  "You look at a girl like Hayley Wickenheiser, who's 18," said
St-Louis. "I could be her mom. They tease me, that's for sure. But I
don't mind it. It's part of the game."
  St-Louis is a shining example of what Olympic sport is supposed to
be. For the past 12 years, she's been a physical education teacher and
Sports Director at the Academie Michele Provost, a private school in
Montreal, all the while playing high-level lacrosse and hockey. In
fact, St-Louis was named Quebec's female athlete of the decade for the
1980s.
  Shortly after playing on the gold-medal winning Canadian team at the
1994 world hockey championships, the St-Hubert, Que., native had a
chat with her friend Sylvie Daigle, the great speed-skater.
  She still felt in good shape, but already in her mid-30s thought
maybe it was time pack the international stuff in. The problem was
women's hockey had recently been accepted as a medal sport for the
1998 Olympics and St-Louis was intrigued with the idea of playing in
an Olympics.
  Daigle, an Olympic team veteran, urged Team Canada's `mom' to forget
about father time.
  "She said, `France, you really have to do your best to go because
it's a unique experience. It's nothing compared to the world
championships,'" St-Louis recalled.
  At that point, the still very quick and savvy forward, who has a
goal and two assists after three games at these worlds, decided to go
for this team and the '98 Olympics.
  Then she broke her wrist just days before the start of training
camp. An injury like that might put a lot of so-called professional
athletes on the shelf for a few weeks, but there was no way St-Louis
was going to let something like a shattered bone stop her from putting
her best hand forward in Kitchener.
  She's not 100%, as her cumbersome cast clearly shows, but at least
she's here and playing well.
  And most important, the dream for Nagano is on. St-Louis can now
only hope that the Academie grants her a six-month leave of absence
starting next September so she can join the team at its extended
training camp in Calgary.
  "I'm sure they'll be cool about it," she said.
  "But even if I have to find another job, I'm not going to miss this
chance."

SLAM! 

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