SUDBURY—It takes a lot of stamina and commitment to be Deidre Debassige, the Sudbury Lady Wolves defence phenom from M’Chigeeng, but it’s all worth it when there’s back-to-back women’s hockey national titles to fight for.
Deidre was part of the provincial champion Sudbury Lady Wolves and also part of a Manitoulin trio of talented players on the team that The Expositor profiled last month, following them to the Esso Cup nationals where the girls took home the bronze medal, calling it the best experience of their hockey lives.
“The way we were treated and the calibre of hockey was so awesome,” Deidre said.
Then on Saturday, April 27, immediately following the bronze medal game, Deidre packed her bags and headed for Montreal where she was again representing her province, playing defence for Team Ontario at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC). Her first practice with Team Ontario was the next day, Sunday morning—no chance of a rest for Deidre, with two games on Tuesday to start the tournament.
Tournament for her role on Team Ontario.
Of the five games in the leadup to the championship, four were won and one tied by Ontario, giving them a berth in the title game against Team Saskatchewan, ironic for Deidre as another Saskatchewan team, the Weyburn Goldwings, had defeated her Lady Wolves guard for a spot at the Esso Cup gold medal match.
For all her hard work, Deidre was named First Defence of the National Aboriginal Tournament with a shiny glass trophy to go with the title.
Following this whirlwind of tournament action, the young woman returned to Azilda (where she billets during the school year), had tryouts for next year’s Lady Wolves squad that night followed by a ‘spring ice’ practice the following day. (Both she and Mindemoya’s Kennedy Lanktree made the 2014-15 team.)
“I have two spring ice practices a week, a tournament the second week in June and then a showcase tournament the third week in June,” Deidre said. “I usually take July off and then practices start again for next year’s squad in August.”
Deidre keeps a pretty solid exercise routine, hitting the Good Life gym in Sudbury four times a week with fellow teammate Victoria Pitawanakwat.
Like Victoria, who has a scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology to play hockey, Deidre hopes to play Division I hockey in the United States, but will play hockey wherever she can after high school. Queen’s University would be her first choice.
This determined young woman sang the praises of her family, without whom she would never have gotten this far, she said.
“It’s all thanks to them,” Deidre said.
