Article and photos by Shari Narine
Jane Lagace’s (arguably) greatest accomplishment in the hockey world is commemorated by a trophy that is part of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s traveling exhibition. The trophy recognizes Lagace (at the time going by her married name of Robinson) as the first goal scorer in the first game of the first ever Women’s National Championship. It was 1982, Lagace’s first year playing hockey in Edmonton, where she was attending the University of Alberta. She played the season with the Capilano Cruisers, but was picked up by the Edmonton Chimos for the Women’s National Championship. The next year Lagace played with the Chimos and remained on the roster until 2004. In her grade 12 year, Lagace had a 10-minute experience that changed her life. Living in Wainwright. Lagace was influenced by her hockey-playing family and next door neighbour and strapped on the skates at nine years of age. She played with the boys’ team for two years and then joined the Wainwright women’s hockey team as one of the youngest players. The year she graduated from high school, the local Legion raised enough money to send the women’s team to Brampton for a tournament in which they played on the B-side. “I remember going to the A-side and watching the girls on that side and going ‘Omigosh, I want to be just like them one day.’ They were amazing skaters. Just seeing that little glimpse, for that five or 10 minutes I watched them, that was my goal,” recalled Lagace. By 1992,when Lagace was invited to try out for Team Canada , she was juggling a career as teacher and mother to two boys. She went through all the steps, which involved tryouts at the local, regional and provincial levels before finally making it to the national camp in Ontario – where she was cut. “I was pretty devastated because I put a lot of work into it,” she said. She took time off from teaching in Sherwood Park to train for the team.
She decided to back away from her goal of making Team Canada. She took a year off and did a lot of reading on sports psychology and worked through strategies to be better mentally prepared. The result was improved confidence which showed in her play and resulted in her landing a spot on Team Canada in 1994. At that time commitment to Team Canada involved a single tournament, the World Championship in Lake Placid, NY. Lake Placid, said Lagace, “was awesome. My biggest challenge was getting on the team. My focus for me was making sure I made the team and not necessarily what came after it.” But what came after was five games of strong playing. Lagace earned the title of second highest point getter with eight points (four goals and four assists) behind teammate and line mate Danielle Goyette. Her other winger was Nancy Drolet. Team Canada walked away with the gold medal.
“When hockey is over you do question where your values are. It took a lot of introspection for me.” At around this time, lobbying began for women’s hockey to be a trial sport in the Olympics for 1994. But the late push resulted in no available venues and it wasn’t until 1998, in Nagano, that women’s hockey was played in the Olympics. Lagace was invited to tryout for the Olympic team following her strong performance at the World Championships, but a variety of reasons led to her being an early cut in the process. After retiring from the Chimos, Lagace was assistant coach with the women’s hockey team at NAIT from 2004-2007. She also skates with the U of A’s Panda’s alumni team, although she never played for the Pandas. Life right after hockey was a challenge, said Lagace. She went from having her accomplishments cheered in the stands and receiving public accolades in the form of MVP and top scorer trophies almost all her life to having to learn to dig deep and find her self worth from within. “When hockey is over you do question where your values are. It took a lot of introspection for me. I’m not Jane the hockey player anymore and … it took time to regroup and look inward and see that I have other abilities in other areas,” said Lagace. With a Physical Education degree from the University of Alberta, Lagace earned her teaching certificate and now enjoys a rewarding career in the teaching field. She’s presently employed by Edmonton
Hockey Edmonton Magazine
39