Alexa Vasko is named St. Catharines athlete of the year
Governor Simcoe grad hoping to take PWHL title with Toronto
That the 2023 St. Catharines athlete of the year is being recognized for hockey was underscored by her absence from Monday’s award presentation ceremony at city hall.
Instead of being in city council chambers to receive the Jimmy Joy Memorial Trophy, Alexa Vasko is 1,471 kilometres — and one time zone — away. The Governor Simcoe Secondary School graduate was in St. Paul, Minn., for Game 3 of her Toronto team’s best-of-five Professional Women’s Hockey League playoff with Minnesota.
Along with her teammates on the No. 1 seed, the 25-year-old defensive-minded forward was preparing to take the ice at Xcel Energy Center with a chance to sweep fourth-seeded Minnesota and advance to final.
Vasko, in a telephone interview from Pearson Airport while awaiting a flight to the Twin Cities, recalled being surprised when she learned she was her hometown’s top athlete for the past year.
“It’s quite an honour,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all — I had no idea that I was even nominated — so to receive that letter in the mail from the mayor, I was quite speechless and I called my parents right away.
“It’s definitely something pretty special.”
Equally memorable, and something Vasko also will remember fondly years from now, is being a part of history by competing in the PWHL’S first season.
“The inaugural season has definitely been something that we’ve only dreamt of. Starting in January, it’s just been absolutely incredible,” she said. “The fans, the level of play, it’s been quite amazing.
“Yeah, we’re playing hockey into late May, but this is where we want to be so we wouldn’t want anything else.”
Vasko, who played at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa., on a Division 1 athletic scholarship, looked back fondly on the PWHL’S first game Jan. 1 at Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto.
“We knew this inaugural year was going to be something special, we were all quite speechless,” she recalled. “But we knew that this movement was going to be something great, not only for hockey in Toronto but for the markets and all the little girls and boys coming up.
“You just see them in the stands with their signs. Yeah, we’re competitors, we want to win — ultimately, we want to lift the Walter Cup — but at the same time, there’s a greater purpose to this.”
Vasko can see herself in those younger fans cheering on women’s pro hockey in six centres throughout North America.
“I know when I was a little girl, I started watching NHL players and I wanted to play in the NHL, which wasn’t possible,” the daughter of Dennis and Dana Vasko of St. Catharines said. “But now, little girls, and sometimes little boys, can look at us and say, ‘Wow, playing pro hockey is an actual dream.’
“It’s quite incredible.”
The defence-first, left-shooting forward feels the pressure of being an ambassador for the PWHL.
However, the extra weight on the shoulders of the five-foot-five, 150pounder isn’t all that much given the upside of being a trailblazer.
“I mean there might be a little sense of pressure, but at the same time pressure is a privilege,” she said. “As competitors, we thrive under pressure so whether that’s being good role models or winning a tight game, we really go thrive under pressure and, you know what, we love it. We’re here for the next generation.”
This is actually Vasko’s second season playing pro hockey. In 2022-23, she scored four goals and collected an assist in 20 games with Team Sonnett in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association.
She is still adapting to making a living playing the game she loves.
“There are definitely some days where, you know what, it’s a grind, but at the same time you have to embrace it,” she said. “We’re super grateful to be where we are.”
She said people who had the greatest influence on her hockey career include her father.
“It goes without saying that I wouldn’t be where I am without my family and my father specifically,” Vasko said. “He coached me for a number of years and he sort of had to go between that role of being a father and being a coach.
“It was sometimes difficult on car rides home or being at home, but I’m super grateful for what he did,” she said. “I think being a coach’s daughter always comes with the territory, but I think he really did a good job with the dual balancing act.”
She also praised Dave Keracher, her atom BB coach.
“It was the first time I was playing sort of rep hockey. Yeah, he put a lot of pressure on me, but I really think he made me into the player that I am today,” she said. “He made coming to the rink super enjoyable. That year was my first year of rep hockey, and we won our first provincials.
“He really sort of sparked my dream, and I will forever be grateful for that.”
Vasko’s parents and her sister Oliva were expected to represent her at Monday’s award presentation at St. Catharines city hall.
She had two goals, including a game-winner, in 24 regular-season games with the Toronto franchise and appeared in both playoff games as of Monday.
Vasko, who spent three seasons in the Provincial Women’s Hockey League with the Stoney Creek Sabres, is a great-niece of the late Elmer (Moose) Vasko. He won a Memorial Cup patrolling the blue line with the then-st. Catharines Teepees in 1954 and a Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks seven years later.
Moose Vasko, a native of Duparquet, Que., spent 10 National Hockey League seasons with Chicago and three with the Minnesota North Stars. He died in 1998 at age 62.