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.
She also enjoys playing soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, field hockey, badminton and baseball.
Gilbert went to high school in New Hampshire and was planning to stay there for university. She had already committed to hockey and lacrosse.
However, she decided to join the military in Canada, and came to St. Thomas because it was close to home.
“I wanted to go to the military so I figured that if I went to a school that was close to home it would be easier to get in,” she said. “So I chose the closest one and came to play hockey.”
She found out about St. Thomas’ hockey program and emailed the coach, but didn’t receive an answer.
Nevertheless, she decided to go to tryouts.
“I just showed up and tried out, and he let me play a week at an exhibition game,” Gilbert said. “He told me the next weekend that I was on the team but I wouldn’t play much, so I played seven games my first year.”
Apart from being a student, Gilbert is a firefighter and has two jobs. She works at a day care and a rink.
This year, she wants to become better than she has ever been.
“I want to move up in the lineup, work with my line mates, try to set them up for goals and apart from being a student, try to get myself some goals,” she said.
She hopes this year the hockey team can make it to nationals. Her whole team is like a second family to her.
“This probably has been the best year family-wise, we are all so close, we spend so much time together.”
