Player Profile

<p>Ten minutes into her first shift of the last game of the pre-season in October 2019, then-rookie Abby Draper leapt in the air for the offensive rebound. In a matter of seconds, her rookie season ended before it even began. “It was excruciating pain,” said Draper. “I couldn’t bend or extend my leg at all.” [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Nikita McCartney, a fourth-year psychology student at St. Thomas University, is a role model for the STU women’s soccer program. She said she&#8217;s looking to repeat the feat of making history in her rookie season when the team made it to the Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association nationals. But this time, she will be spare-heading the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>After struggling with her mental health, St. Thomas University student and athlete Taylor Cook is hoping to help others with her new blog, The Mental Game. “I just want to help,” she said. “I&#8217;ve gotten so much positive feedback from people I know and people I don&#8217;t know about how good it is to read [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Megan Mills, a second-year criminology student, was named one of the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association Second Team All-Stars after St. Thomas University&#8217;s victories this volleyball this season. “It is an award that your coach picks players from the team who have a good season and deserved to be acknowledged,” said Mills. There are two teams in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>As one of only two fourth year students on the St. Thomas University men&#8217;s basketball team, Justin Grant has found playing with a team of mostly younger players challenging and a valuable learning experience. Grant grew up in Winnipeg, Man. and came to STU after he spent two years at Fleming College for police work [&hellip;]</p>

<p>David Effiong has traveled a long way to get to St. Thomas University coming from Oman. But it is not the first time the psychology student and rookie striker for the men&#8217;s soccer team has been out of his home country. “I was born in Nigeria, then we moved to the United States for a [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Zack Lakes is a fifth-year student at St. Thomas University in the education program. He has been on the men&#8217;s rugby team for the past two years. Lakes is from Wolfville, N.S., where he attended King’s-Edgehill School, a small private school with only 300 students Grades Six to 12. Lakes managed to keep himself busy [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Bailey Andrews is a third year at St. Thomas University and has been playing rugby for over six years. She loves playing rugby for the Tommies, despite her many injuries over the years. Andrews is originally from Charlottetown, P.E.I. but spent much of her childhood in Fredericton. “I half grew up here, I was here [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Bridget Frazee scored a three-point shot in the final seconds of the basketball game against Crandall University, winning the game for St. Thomas University on Feb. 3. &#8220;It made me feel really good. I was really proud of myself,&#8221; Frazee said. She said she couldn&#8217;t have done it without her teammates and coaches. &#8220;The shot [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Travis Valanne, a forward on the St. Thomas University men&#8217;s basketball team, found his passion for basketball and teaching and now wants to help children find a sport they are passionate about too. The third-year history major is from Miramichi and has been involved with basketball his whole life. “I started playing for fun with [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Ryan Terry, the only male distance runner on the St. Thomas University track and field team and the only male on the cross-country team, chose STU for the small class sizes that allow him to feel like his voice matters in class discussions. Terry is from Riverview, N.B. a sports-oriented town.  Before joining track and [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Growing up in a small town in Nova Scotia meant Hannah Clarke didn’t have a whole lot to do growing up other than sports. “I’m from Amherst which is a really small town,” said Clarke. “There wasn’t really a lot to do there other than play sports. So, I think that’s why I did so [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Christian Christie wanted to find a university that could support his love for volleyball, but still let him study what he loves. When he found St. Thomas University, he knew he would feel at home. Henri Mallet, coach of the STU men&#8217;s volleyball team, reached out to him and showed him the school. “It seemed [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Three years ago, Alisha Gilbert walked into the tryouts for the St. Thomas University women’s hockey team without notice. Now she’s in her fourth year at STU and a Tommie for life. Gilbert is from Chipman, a small village about 78 km from Fredericton. She has been playing hockey since she was seven years old. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Jessica Patenaude is a fourth-year forward for the St. Thomas University’s women’s basketball team and has had a love for sports since she was young. Her love for athleticism only grew when she stepped foot on STU’s campus and became a committed Tommie. Patenaude played volleyball, badminton, ran cross country, did track and field, gymnastics [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Jonah Burridge, the captain of the St. Thomas University men&#8217;s volleyball team, has been playing volleyball for almost all of his life. “My dad was a volleyball coach &#8230; so I was in the gym [with him] even when I was like two to three years old, but I’ve played competitive volleyball since Grade Four,” [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Deidra Jones, captain of the St. Thomas University women’s volleyball team, transferred to STU knowing nothing about the university. She just knew she was interested in criminology and she could play volleyball here. She heard about STU from a friend who reached out to her after her previous team got cut at Cape Breton University. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Hockey is a universal language, especially for Margarita Dorofeeva, a first-year forward at St. Thomas University. Originally from Zelenograd, a city in Moscow, Russia, she moved to Canada in 2012 to pursue her education, as well as her love for hockey. Despite being completely unfamiliar with English, hockey was a language she didn’t need to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The criminology program and the short distance from her hometown of Saint John made third-year rugby player Meghan Pollard choose St. Thomas University. She first attended University of New Brunswick Saint John with hopes to major in criminology, but decided to transfer. She said that students were able to take those courses there, but not [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It was the small campus, the athletics program and the accessibility office at St. Thomas University that caught Sarah Hickman’s eye. Being from the small town of Middle Sackville, Nova Scotia, Hickman wanted to transition to a university with the same small-town feel. STU fit the bill. Now, in her third year, Hickman is honouring [&hellip;]</p>