Field hockey great enters Sports Hall

Shelley Winter Andrews admitted her family got “a bit welled up” when her plaque was unveiled as part of the Class of 2015 enshrined Thursday into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in Vancouver.

That emotion was well earned as the Victoria great became the first field hockey player to be inducted in the 47-year-history of the B.C. Sports Hall. The Oak Bay High graduate was part of a shining era in co-captaining Canada to the silver medal at the 1983 World Cup, bronze at the 1986 World Cup and to fifth place at the 1984 L.A. Summer Olympics.

“For me, it came down to determination, commitment and a little bit of luck, which you always need to have,” said Winter Andrews, a retired Lansdowne Middle School teacher.

The Islander became the first Canadian player to reach 100 career caps.

“As a national team, maybe we didn’t have the technique of Germany or Holland, but we made up for that with our fitness,” said Winter Andrews, who still plays in the Island Third Division for Oak Bay.

Also inducted with the Class of 2015 was a hockey star of the ice variety. Paul Kariya of North Vancouver played 15 seasons in the NHL from 1994 to 2010 and was a class act all the way, twice winning the Lady Byng as most gentlemanly player and three times named first-team all-star. He recorded 989 points in 989 regular-season games for a rare, exact point-per-game. Kariya won silver and gold medals, respectively, for Canada at the 1994 Lillehammer and 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Also enshrined in the Class of 2015 Thursday was four-time Olympic medallist speedskater Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, Olympic runner Leah Pells of Vancouver and five-time wheelchair rugby Paralympian Garett Hickling of Mica Creek. Inducted in the team category for 2015 are the B.C. players from the 2012 London Summer Olympics bronze-medallist Canadian women’s soccer team — Emily Zurrer from Crofton, Christine Sinclair of Burnaby, Sophie Schmidt from Abbotsford, Brittany Timko of Coquitlam and Karina LeBlanc from Maple Ridge.