‘Really proud to be from Saskatchewan’: Miller inducted into Sask. Sports Hall of Fame

“Everything is team, team, team,” she said. “I have to be honest, I hadn’t spent much time thinking about it.”

However, after a friend had asked if she could nominate her, Miller said she’d be honoured.

Growing up in northeast Saskatchewan, and anywhere in rural Saskatchewan, Miller said things are different than the city. She said there would always be some way to either get to hockey on any given night, or play on any given day. Miller said she still loves playing road hockey with her nieces and nephews to this day. She said hockey seems to be part of Saskatchewan.

“You just grow up with a stick in your hand and the game on your mind,” Miller said.

The list of accomplishments is long for Miller as her reach in the hockey world has spanned nearly four decades. Her playing career led her to the University of Saskatchewan, and once graduating from there in 1985, Miller moved to Calgary and that’s where the honours and titles began to mount.

Miller helped create the first girls hockey team in Calgary, and it ended up taking two years for their team to be able to play sanctioned games in Alberta. Meanwhile, between 1985 and 1987, Miller served as the volunteer chair of Women’s Hockey Saskatchewan, and represented the province on the Canadian Female Hockey Council.

Fast forward to 1991, where Miller was head coach of Team Saskatchewan and led them to a Canada Winter Games gold medal. It was the first of a number of gold medals and championships for Miller as she would go on to be the assistant coach of Canada’s National Women’s Team between 1992 and 1994, winning the IIHF World Championships in those years. She would then become the head coach of Team Canada between 1995 and 1998, winning the 1997 IIHF World Championships, the 1996 Three Nations Cup, and the Pacific Rim Cup in ’95 and ’96. She also led Team Canada to a silver medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the first year for women’s hockey at the Olympics.

“It’s one great memory for me,” Miller said. “When people ask about certain highlights and points, I find it really difficult to pick one, because it’s sort of a blur to me, it was such a great experience.”

On top of representing Canada, Miller coached the University of Minnesota Duluth between 1998 and 2015, winning five NCAA National Championships, and making a total of 10 NCAA playoffs.

She also coached the Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League in 2018.

Miller also founded the Olympic Oval High Performance Training Program in Calgary in 1995, the first high-performance training program for female hockey players.

While women’s hockey continues to grow in Saskatchewan, and Canada, Miller said the sport is going to continue the momentum and keep growing.

While there are many names enshrined in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, Miller said when people see her name as well as the names of other inductees; they see lots of great people from Saskatchewan.

“One thing I do hope is that young men and women see that, whether it’s Colette Bourgonje, or Shannon Miller, a women being recognized in the Sports Hall of Fame,” she said. “And that inspires everybody and also gets the young boys and girls, and young men and women to see, yes there are great athletes, and great coaches that are men, that are women, that are in wheelchairs, and we’re all in this together.”

Shannon Miller talks about what she hopes people take when they see her name in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame.

Miller added if COVID-19 has taught us one thing, it is that ‘we are all in this together.’

She also recognized the other inductees this year, namely Bourgonje, who is from Porcupine Plain and is someone she played basketball and hockey against prior to Bourgonje’s car accident. Miller said Bourgonje is an inspiration to her.

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mat.barrett@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @matbarrett6

by Mat Barrett

‘Really proud to be from Saskatchewan’: Miller inducted into Sask. Sports Hall of Fame

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