Skip to content

World League field hockey comes to West Vancouver

Hannah Haughn leads large North Shore contingent suiting up for Team Canada

The Gryphon Women’s Hockey World League Round 2 runs April 1-9 at Rutledge Field in West Vancouver. Click here for updated schedules and results.

Hannah Haughn can clearly remember the first time she watched the national field hockey team play.

She was 13 years old, six years into her own field hockey career, and she travelled to Vancouver Island to watch the Canadian team try to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games.

“I just remember it being incredibly fast-paced,” she says. “To be able to see skill that I hadn’t been introduced to yet was exciting for me. I didn’t even really realize that field hockey was an Olympic sport until I saw them play. It provided me with role models.”

The team didn’t earn an Olympic spot, but they did earn a new field hockey fanatic in young Hannah Haughn.

“That’s kind of when I decided I wanted to try to play at an elite level,” she says.

Next week in West Vancouver the next generation of young field hockey fanatics will get a chance to see some of the world’s best players, including Haughn and four other players from the North Shore, up close during the 2017 Gryphon Hockey World League Round 2 being held at Rutledge Field April 1-9. Six teams will be competing for two spots in the next round of qualification for the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup in London, England. Next week’s World League event will bring elite, high-stakes hockey to the state-of-the-art field in Ambleside Park.

“It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” says Geoff Matthews, the technical director of the West Vancouver Field Hockey Club. The club is co-hosting the event along with Field Hockey Canada and the International Hockey Federation. “Field hockey is not a televised sport in Canada – to get access to watch the national team you kind of have to stream it online. To see it live just brings the whole atmosphere and speed and intensity and excitement along with it. I think it’s a really motivating factor in terms of getting kids involved.”

Haughn will be one of the key players to watch, having put together one of the most impressive resumés in Canadian hockey history at the age of 22. Haughn made her national team debut at age 17, once famously rushing home from the Pan Am Games to score a hat trick for Handsworth secondary in the North Shore final 90 minutes after touching down at YVR.

That Royals team went on to win the provincial title, and Haughn hasn’t tasted much losing since then. She took her stick to UBC, and with Haughn at the helm the Thunderbirds won five straight national titles. Haughn picked up numerous awards along the way, including the MVP trophy at the 2016 tournament that completed her run.

With the national team, Haughn became the youngest Canadian woman to reach 100 senior international games in February of 2016, earning her 100th cap at the age of 21.

“It’s mind blowing,” Matthews said of what Haughn has done in her young career. “She’s a role model, she’s something that we want all of our club players to aspire to. … In her international career she’s only just starting, so it’ll be interesting to see what she does. There are still so many opportunities for her.”

There will be a ton of North Shore talent joining Haughn on Rutledge Field next week. Alex Thicke, Karli Johansen, Rachel Donohoe, and Stephanie Norlander are all WVFHC alumni. All of them went to Handsworth secondary as well except for Donohoe, an Argyle grad.

field hockey
North Vancouver’s Karli Johansen tracks an attacker while playing for Team Canada during Wednesday’s exhibition game against Chile. photo Kevin Hill, North Shore News

“It’s nice and rewarding for the club,” said Matthews of seeing all the WVFHC alumni on the big stage. “It just shows that the things that the club has done and the programs that the club has put in place over the years have worked. Obviously we’re a piece of a big puzzle.”

That shared background helps the North Shore players out in high-pressure situations, says Haughn.

“Competing at an elite level is tough, there’s always pressure, but to have that friendship and camaraderie from an early age makes it a lot easier to compete.”

The North Shore contingent – which includes team captain Kate Wright, who grew up in Ontario but now plays women’s league hockey with WVFHC – also benefits from playing this tournament on a very familiar pitch.

“A lot of us grew up playing on Rutledge, so to have our friends and family there is really exciting,” says Haughn. “It’s really nice to feel at home on a field, especially during such an important event for us.”

The tournament includes India, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago. India is the top-ranked team at No. 12 in the world, while Canada comes next at 18. The other four squads are all in the top 35, so there will be no easy games.

“Essentially for everyone but the top two teams the World Cup dream is over,” says Matthews. “It’s pretty important in terms of the national cycle, there’s a lot of pressure on the girls.”

The Canadian women haven’t played at a World Cup since 1994, and haven’t played in the Olympics since 1992. The stakes are high, but the Canadian players are optimistic, says Haughn. “We like our chances, but with sport everything is … it’s whoever plays well on any given day,” she says. “I think the hard thing for people to understand is how difficult it is to make these big events. … To compete would be a dream that we all strive for.”

In the opening round Canada will take on Mexico April 1, Chile April 2, and Trinidad and Tobago April 4, all games starting at 4:30 p.m. at Rutledge. Some reserved seats are for sale through Hockey Canada, but all of the games are free and open to the public. There will be opportunities to see all of the teams up close even before the tournament starts as there will be open practices happening March 28-31.

Canada will hold a special open practice March 28 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. All youth players in attendance will be invited onto the field for a 30-minute training session with the national team starting at 4:30 p.m. The session matches the sport’s fan- and family-friendly outlook, says Matthews.

“We understand that we’re not as glamorous as some of the other sports so we try to keep it with a nice family connection,” he says. “It’s always open, and we try to encourage and inspire the next generation.”

Who knows – maybe the next Hannah Haughn will be there taking her first shots. That would be a great outcome for the original Hannah Haughn.

“To have that opportunity to be a role model for the next generation is exciting,” she says. “Hopefully we can inspire more people to pick up a field hockey stick.”