At the time of the completion of her bachelor’s degree in physical education from Acadia University in 1987, forward Stacy Wilson had been playing ice hockey with Team New Brunswick for only one year, but was already known for having been the leading scorer at the 1986 Canadian Championships. By the time she retired from active play in 1998, however, she was prominent nationally and internationally as one of the top females on the ice. She joined the Canadian women’s national ice hockey team in 1990 and, at the first World Championships that year, she scored three goals in five games to help Canada take home the gold medal, a feat that they repeated in 1992, 1994, and 1997 with Wilson on the squad. She was named captain of Team Canada in 1995 and held that title through the 1998 Winter Olympics, where she suited up for six matches, scored one goal, and led Canada to a silver medal victory at the tournament. That year she was named New Brunswick Female Athlete of the Year. During her time as a player she also founded the Stacy Wilson Female Hockey School in 1995 and was named MVP at the 1995 Canadian National Championships as a member of the Maritime Sports Blades. After her retirement she was hired by the University of Minnesota at Duluth as an assistant coach for their hockey team and wrote “The Hockey Book for Girls” in 2000 as an introductory text for young women seeking to get involved in the sport. While in Duluth she also obtained a master’s degree in education in 2004. In 2007 she became the head coach of the women’s ice hockey squad at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. In 1998 she was inducted into Acadia Hockey Hall of Fame, the first woman to be honored in this way, and is also a member of Salisbury Hall of Fame (1999), the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame (2007), and the Esso Champions Wall of Fame at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Canada