Hayley Wickenheiser is a Canadian former ice hockey player, resident physician and assistant general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs. She was the first woman to play full-time professional men’s hockey in a position other than goalie. Wickenheiser was a member of Canada women's national ice hockey team for 23 years, from 1994 until announcing her retirement on January 13, 2017, and is the team's career points leader with 168 goals and 211 assists in 276 games. She represented Canada at the Winter Olympics five times, capturing four gold and one silver medal and twice being named tournament MVP, and one time at the Summer Olympics in softball, and is a seven-time winner of the world championships. She is tied with teammates Caroline Ouellette and Jayna Hefford for the record for the most gold medals of any Canadian Olympian, and is widely considered to be the greatest female ice hockey player of all time. On February 20, 2014, Wickenheiser was elected to the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission. In 2019 she was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame, in her first year of eligibility.
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field, with only underhand pitches permitted. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hancock.
Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who were typically poor at batting and were often placed at the bottom of the batting order. Today, shortstops are often able to hit well and many are placed at the top of the lineup. In the numbering system used by scorers to record defensive plays, the shortstop is assigned the number 6.
Arbroath Football Club is a semi-professional Scottish football club based in the town of Arbroath, Angus. They currently play in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded in 1878 and plays home matches at Gayfield Park. They play in maroon strips and are nicknamed "The Red Lichties" due to the red light that used to guide fishing boats back from the North Sea to the Burgh's harbour. The Red Lichties share a long-standing and fierce rivalry with local neighbours Montrose, as well as with fellow local sides Forfar Athletic and Brechin City.
Erin Cumpstone is a Canadian softball catcher, former ringette player, and currently a National Ringette League coach for the Saskatchewan Heat. She began playing softball at age seven and studied at Simon Fraser University.
Auburn Sigurdson is a Canadian Olympian, former softball pitcher, and now works as a marketing and communications professional in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has attended Simon Fraser University where she studied communications, and subsequently attended Emily Carr University of Art and Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology, where she studied graphic design. She was a part of the Canadian Softball team who finished 5th at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and now works to give back to the sport of softball as a Master Pitching Instructor within Softball Canada's CanPitch Program.
The SFU Red Leafs or Simon Fraser Red Leafs teams represent Simon Fraser University (SFU), which is located in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The Red Leafs are members of NCAA Division II and are the only Canadian university affiliated with the U.S.-based National Collegiate Athletic Association. The teams previously used the nicknames "Clansmen" and "Clan," which were retired in 2020. In September 2022, the updated nickname "Red Leafs" was announced.
The United States women's national softball team is the national softball team of the United States. It is governed by USA Softball and takes part in international softball competitions. The US team has been successful in international play, taking the gold medal in three straight Olympics and seven straight World championships. At the 2004 Olympics, the Americans held their opponents to only one run scored in 7 games. The lone run came in a 5–1 victory over the Australian team. However, the team then won the silver medals at the 2008 and 2020 Summer Olympics, both times narrowly losing to Japan.
Jacques Chapdelaine is a Canadian football coach and former professional slotback in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He most recently served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL. He has also served as the offensive coordinator for four other CFL teams, the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes (2016-17), and the head coach for two Canadian university football teams. He has won three Grey Cup championships as an assistant coach and one Vanier Cup as the head coach of the Laval Rouge et Or. He played collegiately for the Simon Fraser Clan as a wide receiver and played between 1983 and 1989 for four different CFL teams.
Stacey Porter is an Australian professional indigenous softball first/third baseman. She represents New South Wales in Australian national competitions, where she has won several national championships on the junior and senior team. She played university softball for the University of Hawaii from 2001 to 2003 where she set several records and was named to the All-American team. She plays professional softball in Japan. She represented Australia at the junior level and continues to represent Australia at the senior level and is current Australian Captain. Stacey competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics where she won a silver medal and the 2008 Summer Olympics where she won a bronze medal and has competed in multiple world softball championships.
The Michigan Wolverines softball team represents the University of Michigan in National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I competition. College softball became a varsity sport at the University of Michigan in 1978. Bonnie Tholl has been the head coach since 2023, following the retirement of longtime head coach Carol Hutchins. In 2005, Hutchins' team became the first Division I softball team since 1976 from east of the Mississippi River to win the Women's College World Series.
Sharron Backus is a former softball player and coach. She played as a shortstop and third baseman on seven Amateur Softball Association national championship teams from 1961 to 1975. She served as the head softball coach at UCLA from 1975 to 1997 and led her teams to nine national collegiate softball championships. At the time of her retirement in 1997, she was the winningest college softball coach in the history of the sport. Backus has been inducted into both the National Softball Hall of Fame and the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Sommer West was a Canadian Olympic softball player at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In addition, she was a former member of the Canadian national women's hockey team. She was also an ice hockey player in the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). West has competed for the Mississauga Chiefs and Burlington Barracudas in the CWHL. Currently, she is the head coach of the Toronto Furies of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. As head coach of the Toronto Furies, she led the squad to the 2014 Clarkson Cup championship.
Arleene Johnson [Noga] was a Canadian infielder who played from 1945 through 1948 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 feet 4 inches, 137 lb., she batted and threw right-handed. Johnson was one of the 68 players born in Canada to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in its twelve-year history.
Stacey McManus is an Australian softball player. She is a shortstop and second baseman, plays club softball and has represented New South Wales in national competitions. She is a member of Australia women's national softball team and competed at the Canadian Open Fastpitch International Series and the World Cup of Softball. She is trying to earn a spot on the team that will compete at the 2012 ISF XIII Women's World Championships.
Clare Warwick is an Australian softball player from Canberra. She is a utility player, playing several positions. She played softball at the University of Hawaii where she earned several honours. She competes for the Australian Capital Territory in national competitions in Australia. She has represented Australia on the junior and senior level. She earned a bronze medal at the 2011 Canada Cup, the 2012 World Championships (Whitehorse) and at the 2014 World Championships (Harlem). She played professional softball in Italy for Baseball Softball Club Legnano from 2010 to 2015.
The UCLA Bruins softball team represents the University of California, Los Angeles in NCAA Division I softball. The Bruins are among the most decorated programs in NCAA softball, leading all schools in NCAA championships with 12, 13 overall Women's College World Series championships, championship game appearances with 22, WCWS appearances with 29, and NCAA Tournament wins with 187.
The SFU Red Leafs football or Simon Fraser Red Leafs football team represented Simon Fraser University since the athletic department's inception in 1965 until 2022. The team played by American rules while they competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics from 1965 to 2001 against other American teams. Along with other SFU teams, the football program transferred to Canadian Interuniversity Sport and thereby switched to playing Canadian football against Canadian University teams in 2002. While playing in the CIS, SFU won its first and only Hardy Trophy conference championship in 2003 while qualifying for the playoffs twice. After playing eight seasons in the Canada West Conference of the CIS, the football team began competing in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference of NCAA Division II in 2010, and have played the American format of football again since. After the GNAC dropped football after the 2021 season, SFU and the other two GNAC members that still sponsored the sport became football-only members of the Lone Star Conference. After the 2022 season, it was announced on April 4, 2023, that football would be dropped from the school after it was previously announced the Lone Star Conference was ending its affiliation with Simon Fraser after the 2023-24 season.
The UBC Thunderbirds football team represents the University of British Columbia athletics teams in U Sports and is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Thunderbirds program has won the CWUAA Hardy Trophy conference championship 16 times, which is third all-time among competing teams. On a national level, the team has won the Vanier Cup championship four times, in 1982, 1986, 1997 and, most recently, in 2015. The team has also lost twice in the title game, in 1978 and 1987. The Thunderbirds program has also yielded three Hec Crighton Trophy winners: Jordan Gagner in 1987, Mark Nohra in 1997, and, most recently, Billy Greene in 2011.
Michael Jackel is a Canadian–German retired professional basketball player. A 6’7' tall small forward, he won the EuroBasket 1993 with the senior German men's national team, and he was the first player to score more than 10,000 points in Germany's top-tier level Basketball Bundesliga.
