Olympic dreams - a wing with a prayer!

By Jeff Graham

Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary student Dominique Goutsis may be only five feet tall, but this bundle of blond ice-hockey-playing energy radiates the steely determination of a seasoned athlete dedicated to making her dreams come true.

Laureen McMahon / Special to The B.C. Catholic Archbishop Carney Grade 12 student Dominique Goutsis gets ready to join her team, the Richmond Pacific Steelers, on their home ice at the Richmond Ice Centre. Next year Goutsis will skate for the University of Maine.

Her goal is big: to play for Team Canada, and next year she will take a giant leap towards achieving it, as her skating and scoring talents have earned her a four-year $120,000 athletic scholarship to the University of Maine in the U.S.

The 17-year-old, who has played both wing and centre for the Richmond Pacific Steelers, was scouted by the Maine coaching staff during Junior Women's Hockey League games, where her team played on rinks at colleges in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., as well as in Ontario.

"They contacted me a few times and invited my mom and me on an unofficial visit to the campus last August. We toured the freshman dorm and I was happy that the campus is not too large, because I'm used to a smaller school. I was blown away by the training program and the brand new recreational facilities with a gym just for hockey players.

Academic transcripts impressive

"When they sat me down and offered me the full-ride scholarship, I couldn't believe it. I was living my dream!" said Goutsis with a smile almost bright enough to light up an arena.

The university was also favourably impressed with her academic transcripts. The admissions process, she told The B.C. Catholic, includes taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), mandatory for students entering a U.S. college.

Goutsis, who lives with her family in Coquitlam, attended Our Lady of Fatima School in her home parish before entering Archbishop Carney for Grade 8.

She first skated onto the ice clutching a hockey stick at the age of 9, playing in the Tri Cities Female Ice Hockey Association, after her hockey-playing older brother Shane encouraged her to give the sport a try.

Goutsis even played on a boys' team in the Coquitlam Minor Hockey Association; an experience she called "fantastic. They treated me really well!" until the guys began to seriously outsize her and she returned to a girls' league.

"I've had a few challenges but in the end I've always had good experiences with any team I've played with," said Goutsis, who works with a personal trainer.

She would love to follow in the footsteps of women's hockey models like Saskatchewan's Hayley Wickenheiser, who was named the Most Valuable Player for Team Canada when it won gold medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City and 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

Goutsis will practise hockey every day at the University of Maine, but she is used to juggling her studies with hockey and to packing homework in with her skating gear for road trips.

Is she apprehensive about spending all her college years far from home?

"My family is really excited for me. I know it's going to be different being away, but they are supporting me all the way," Goutsis replied.

"Archbishop Carney has been a really big part of my life, and being a student there has helped me take on this next challenge."
Vice Principal Bill Anderson noted that Goutsis's contributions to the school have been many, including on the soccer field. She is also a good student, he added.

"She is the first of our girls to win a hockey college scholarship, although we have had boys who have done so. Dominique is a pioneer, and we will keep her in our prayers as she travels so far from home."

Goutsis's mother Michelle Hawthorne told The B.C. Catholic that the price which her daughter has paid to excel in her sport has sometimes been quite high.

"She has given up other activities to get to hockey practice but she's done it with a cheerful heart. We have a really good feeling about this program at the University of Maine. It's very well supervised."

Goutsis will probably return to Vancouver after completing her studies to work on moving up the hockey ladder through the B.C. senior women's leagues to tryouts for Team Canada.