Sarah Campbell

The following article previously appeared in the Interior News

The Wayne State Warriors women’s hockey team has taken great strides this year in the College Hockey America conference, and much of the club’s newfound success falls on the shoulder pads of Smithers’ Sarah Campbell.

Although the Warriors were ousted in the first round of the conference tournament earlier this month, Campbell couldn’t be happier with her new home and her new team.

After transferring to Wayne State in Detroit, Michigan from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, Campbell’s first year at the new school proved she made the right move.

“I was at a really small school and I wasn’t happy with a lot of things and the hockey wasn’t as good,” Campbell said. “I’m happier here because the team gets along.”

Campbell is attending college on a full hockey scholarship and her new coaches couldn’t be happier to have her.

“I think at the start it was a little bit of an adjustment for her, obviously a different school, new surroundings, new coaching staff, players, but I think she’s adjusted quite well to everything here,” Wayne State Warriors women’s hockey head coach Jim Fetter said.

With a season on the Warriors under her skates things are falling into place for the all-star rearguard.

“Statistically she’s our leading defenceman, as far as points she has 14 assists,” Fetter said. “No goals but that’s fine, she’s a playmaker,” he said. “She sees things develop and moves the puck quite well.”

Campbell added the College Hockey America (CHA) defensive player of the week award to her collection this year, to go along with being named Quinnipiac’s Best Defensive Player of the Year last year.

But balancing a successful hockey season with her academic side hasn’t always been easy.

“It’s hard, we train every day,” Campbell said. “I’m at the rink from 12 until 4:30 p.m. every day, Monday to Friday, and then weekends you’re gone travelling.”

“Hockey is a full-time job and then you have school with a full-time course load on top of it.”

The last month has been especially hard on Campbell.
“We’ve been travelling Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday this whole semester, and I have two classes on Thursdays.
“So when I showed up to do my mid-term, he [professor] said, ‘hey I haven’t seen you in five weeks.’”

Most teachers do assist and will e-mail her the work she’s missing, but others she said unfortunately aren’t so co-operative.

Despite the hectic schedule, Campbell has one more year left with the Warriors before she graduates, but she isn’t sure if hockey is still in her future, although her options are open.
“I think she has definitely got the smarts to play in the NWHL [National Women’s Hockey League],” Fetter said. “I think that she could go on and play at that level if that’s something she’s interested in.

“Or even in Europe there’s more and more opportunities over there these days and if she was looking to play over there I think she could definitely play there as well.

“She’s been getting lots of ice time, a regular shift and powerplay and penalty-kill time as well, so she’s playing a ton.”
In addition to a solid on-ice performance, Campbell is getting the grades.

“She does very well in school with a high GPA, so she’s great off the ice,” Fetter said. “She’s one of those players that stepped in and has taken a leadership role as well, even though she doesn’t wear a letter on her jersey the players definitely look up to her for leadership. “That leadership is important.”

Majoring in sociology, minoring in psychology, Campbell is fairly certain however, of what she wants to do – and pro hockey in Canada or Europe isn’t it.

“I’ll probably be a teacher,” Campbell said. “Only one more year though and then I’ll be home forever,” she said. “I think I want to be like everybody else and not have to do hockey.

“I think that’s why I probably won’t [play professional hockey] once I graduate because I haven’t had time to do anything else.”
Because many of the studies she’s taking in the U.S. college are not recognized in Canada, as soon as she returns to Canada, she plans to attend teacher’s college.

As it stands now, she only returns to her home town for one week each Spring and has been residing with her grandparents Joyce and Dave Insley in Vancouver during the summer.
“I don’t get to go home much anymore,” she said. “I’ll wind up being home for July and August but I might end up just going back to Vancouver and working, so I can train there.”

Campbell comes from a hockey family including her brother Cody who inspired his younger sister and recently finished a junior hockey career before joining the University of Alberta Golden Bears.

“He’s a smart kid and he played junior ‘til he was 21 and then he was done,” Campbell said.

She also attributes her passion for the sport to her brother’s love of the game.

“I was a figure skater before and my brother loved hockey,” she said. “And I think I was just copying my brother.”

“Basically the rink was in the backyard and I always had to play hockey if they were playing.”

Campbell’s dad, Doug remembers the rink building days well.
“It was pretty time consuming,” Doug said. “But eventually it got to the point where the kids were too busy travelling.”

Cody and Doug weren’t the only family members dedicated to the sport either, her mom Sharon, a full-time teacher at Walnut Park Elementary, always tried to be at her children’s game.
“My mom was always like the team mom for us, and my dad was our coach here and there and sharpened the skates for everybody,” she said. “Basically we were a hockey family.”
Even years later both Doug and Sharon still miss the weekend hockey games.

“We were pretty faithful fans,” Sharon said. “And we really do miss it and we’ve even been going to the kids in my class’ games.”

Although mom and dad no longer be at every game for Sarah, she still counts on them.

“I can phone home and they understand what’s going on,” Campbell said.

While the clock ticks down on her hockey career, it also advances on her chance to get back home.

“I love Smithers, I think it’s a great place to raise a family,” she said.

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