Headrick Honoured With Hilliard Award

(CHARLOTTETOWN, PE) Jana Headrick, of the UNB REDS women’s hockey team, was recognized Wednesday with the Marion Hilliard Award, for student-athlete community service, at the U SPORTS Women’s Hockey Awards, in Charlottetown. 

“I’m overwhelmed and super grateful to be honoured,” said Headrick. “It’s a pretty prestigious award to win and there have been some great people that have won it, doing some amazing things in the community, so I’m just grateful for all the support that I’ve gotten from Sarah and the girls on the team and the community as a whole.”

The fifth-year defender, from the Garden River First Nation, came to the REDS after playing four seasons with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.

Inspired by her own experience, Headrick organized and executed a six-week learn to play program for First Nations girls from around the Fredericton area. The program, run by the REDS, was provided cost-free. Working closely with KidSport and Fredericton’s Brendon Oreto Foundation, Headrick raised more than $13,000 and donations of equipment. This meant all participants in the program, ranging in age from six to 10, were provided all the necessary equipment to play hockey. Headrick also secured government funding to allow camp participants to join Fredericton’s female hockey league, free of charge.

“I think it (the award) means that what we were doing was pretty important and, obviously it left a lasting impact,” said Headrick. “Hopefully our program is going to continue and get even better in the years to come.”

“I’m extraordinarily proud of Jana for all of her accomplishments this year, and what she’s done for our program,” said REDS head coach Sarah Hilworth, who believes Headrick’s efforts come at an important time in the reconciliation efforts.

“She’s challenged me, as coach, in ways I’ve never been challenged before and in all the right ways. We’ve had some really important conversations, both her and I individually and as a team, and I think those conversations need to go beyond just our four walls. She’s not afraid to have them. I think, for her, she’s just a leader that wants to continue to make this world a better place and it’s just so fortunate that we’re able to have her as a RED.”

Headrick’s efforts have made her a role model and difference-maker on the team and in the community.

A master’s student in UNB’s Sports and Recreation Studies program, she maintained a 4.3 GPA in the fall semester and played all 21 of the REDS regular season games, recording two goals and six assists.

“Our stories are being heard and what we were saying is not being lost,” said Headrick. “People are believing that what happened at residential schools was as bad as the stories say they were. Anything that we can do right now to support indigenous peoples is going to be meaningful and is going to be super important, in the future, moving towards our goal of reconciliation.”

Headrick and the REDS go into the 2022 U SPORTS Women’s Hockey Championships as the No. 2 seed, and will face No. 7 McGill in one of Thursday’s two quarter-final games.

As her U SPORTS career winds down, the veteran is hopeful the program she started will, someday, supply the REDS with locally grown talent.

“I think that would be the main goal, right, to start pushing some of these indigenous girls through the elite hockey pathway and just for them to enjoy the sport and love it, and hopefully be a RED one day,” she said.

“It’s our responsibility now, to continue to the traditions and legacies that Jana has left upon us,” said Coach Hilworth. “I know that our group is really excited to honour her and continue to push forward the messaging behind why this is an important program and why it’s going to be here to stay.”