Putting together a winning hockey team takes a number of different ingredients at the right ratios. For the University of Waterloo Warriors women's hockey team, one of those ingredients was Jessie Fennell.
Fennell, of Fonthill, said she started playing hockey when she was five years old in the Pelham house league.
Over the years she would also lace up her skates with the Welland Tigers, the St. Catharines Chaos, and the Oakville Jr. Hornets.
Fennell has spent the last five years playing with the University of Waterloo Women's hockey team. Describing herself as a puck-moving defender, she said, this year she ran “the top of the power-play.”
Owing to her experience, Fennell also said she learned to adapt a captain's role, working to understand and adapt to the “different characters in the room.”
The team had 11 defence this season.
“We developed great relationships,” Fennell said.
This year the Warriors played in their first McCaw Cup championship game against the Toronto Varsity Blues.
It took more than 60 minutes to determine the winner with the Warriors finding the twine to take a 2-1 victory, thanks in part to some well-timed blocks by Fennell and Sarah Irwin during an overtime penalty-kill.
“We had never made it that far in all the history of the program,” she said.
The Warriors then played in the eight-team U Sports national championship tournament in Saskatoon for the first time. Fennell picked up an assist in a 6-1 victory over St. Francis Xavier University in their first game.
Unfortunately, in the quarterfinals, the Warriors were defeated 3-1 by the Concordia Sting.
The Warriors would go on to face the Montréal Carabins for the bronze medal. Both teams played well defensively, and the game went to overtime and then a shootout which which saw the Carabins come away victoriously 2-1.
Fennell said the biggest takeaway from her years of playing hockey was “resilience.”
“I've played through injuries. I've had less great seasons where I contributed less but I decided to keep getting better and I developed a growth mindset that helped me fulfill the roll on the team that I did this year.”
She said her two biggest supporters were her mom and dad.
“They always knew the ups and downs,” said Fennell. “Mom always there to support me and Dad was there to help me learn and help me grow as a hockey player.”
Now that she is graduating, Fennell said she she has opportunities to continue her hockey career in Europe, but plans to pursue her career as a financial analyst.
“I am not closing that door yet,” she said.
Fennell encouraged other girls to pursue hockey.
“It is worthwhile for girls to look into and a great experience.”
