COACH OF THE YEAR
Wooster named an all-Canadian
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s coach Steve Kook takes home national honours.
A day away from their opening game, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies scored three big prizes at the CIS women’s hockey awards banquet Wednesday in Fredericton.
For the second time in five years, Huskies head coach Steve Kook was named Canadian Interuniversity Sport women’s hockey coach of the year. Huskies forward Kaitlin Willoughby was named the nation’s top rookie and Huskies captain Cami Wooster, in her fifth and final year of CIS eligibility, was named a CIS secondteam all-Canadian.
Kook, who is a three-time Canada West coach of the year, also received the national award for the 2009-10 season.
Kook led the Huskies to a historic season in his ninth year at the helm. The Huskies set a program benchmark with an 18-4-6 record, finished second in the Canada West standings for the first time and earned the team’s first-ever home playoff berth.
It was quite a turnaround from a year ago, when Saskatchewan took fifth place in the league standings with an 11-12-5 mark.
Kook, whose troops went on to capture their first-ever Canada West banner two weeks ago, has a 110-106-4 career record with the Huskies. During his tenure, 16 team members have been named conference all-stars and two were voted league MVPs.
“This award and historic season his team has accomplished is evidence that his commitment has paid dividends,” U of S athletic director Basil Hughton said.
Kook, in turn, was quick to deflect credit to his staff, which includes on-ice assistants Robin Ulrich and Daniel Erlandson.
Willoughby, who hails from Prince Albert, is the first Huskie to be named CIS rookie of the year for women’s hockey.
The five-foot-six forward turned heads with 25 points (10-15-25) in 28 regular season games, 13 more than the next best freshman in the Canada West conference.
Willoughby, who finished conference play with a stellar plus-19 rating and five power-play markers, was one of the main reasons behind the Huskies’ resurgence this season.
“It is difficult to come into this league and make an impact as a rookie,” Kook said. “(Willoughby) was an everyday top-six forward and we look forward to seeing what her future holds.”
Wooster, a five-foot-three forward and a native of Luseland, was second in the Canada West regular season scoring race with 31 points, including 16 goals.
The CIS championship, hosted by St. Thomas University, starts Thursday in Fredericton. The Huskies take on the defending national champion Montreal Carabins in one of two games on opening day.
The Huskies are seeded No. 4 and Carabins are No. 1.
All nine games from the six-team competition will also be webcast live on www. cis-sic.tv.