TORONTO — The lights were bright, the music was blasting, fans had their Sharpies in hand, the purple carpet had been vacuumed several times to ensure it was pristine — not a speck of debris in sight — and then in came the stars.
Marie-Philip Poulin strode down that carpet wearing a green-and-white checkered jacket, matching pants and bright white sneakers. Renata Fast sported a diamond-studded suit. Emerance Maschmeyer threw her beige jacket over her shoulder and struck a variety of poses for cameras. Kendall Coyne stopped to sign autographs for fans and then smiled as she looked out at a packed crowd in the atrium of CBC Toronto’s downtown office.
Among the faces in that crowd: The one and only Billie Jean King, sporting pink-and-purple rimmed eyeglasses.
The moment was historic. It was big. It was flashy. It was, to quote American star forward Taylor Heise: “Iconic.”
On Monday afternoon, the Professional Women’s Hockey League held its inaugural draft to fill out the six-team league set to open its first-ever season, next January.
Minnesota, to nobody’s surprise, used the first overall pick to select the Minnesota-born Heise, the 23-year-old who owns a world championship MVP and Patty Kazmaier award.
The first-ever No. 1 pick sat in the crowd, straight-faced, right up until the moment when King — the Billie Jean King, one of the backers and biggest champions of the PWHL — announced her name as No. 1. Then a smile took over Heise’s face as she stood up and hugged her parents, walked up to the stage and was congratulated by King and Hall of Famer Jayna Hefford, the league’s senior vice-president of hockey operations.
“Being here, seeing the draft, seeing the purple carpet, seeing all my friends here, I think that’s what made it feel real,” Heise said of a moment she earlier described as “surreal.”
“This is really awesome, and I think this league is going to be one to be reckoned with.”
If Monday was any indication, the PWHL will be. So many of the best female hockey players on the planet were in the same building, and in a few months they’ll all play in the same league and they’ll be paid living wages. At last. The PWHL has been years in the making, and Monday was a big, professional step.
It was King who kicked off the afternoon. “Trailblazing is bold, it’s brave, and it can be very scary,” she told the crowd. “But it’s worth it.”
Jocelyne Larocque, who was Toronto’s pick at No. 2 overall, used the word “ecstatic” more than once to describe the feeling of being drafted to the PWHL. The 35-year-old is one of the best defenders in the world, and she’s won two Olympic gold medals and three world championship titles, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever play in a truly professional league.
“I’ve been playing hockey for many years, and the WWHL and the CWHL had so many skilled players from all across the world, but this feels different, and it is different because of the infrastructure behind it,” Larocque said. “I was getting a little worried that I’d maybe be a fan once all of this happened, but the fact that I’ll get to play, I’m ecstatic and I couldn’t be more excited.”
‘I feel honoured’: Jocelyne Larocque so excited to get drafted 2nd overall by Toronto
Toronto also got perhaps the biggest steal of the draft, picking up Natalie Spooner 24th overall, in round No. 4. The two-time Olympic gold medallist applied for a PWHL compassionate circumstance waiver so that she and her family — her husband and nine-month-old son, Rory — could stay together and continue to live outside of Toronto.
Rory, who was looking sharp in a brown bowtie while he periodically chewed on a plastic carrot, got a hug from Spooner before she headed up to the stage, and he was also standing (assisted, by Spooner’s husband) and watching her press conference.
Spooner was one of the last players to arrive, wearing a shiny green suit with purple piping, and a mega-watt smile.
“I was in awe,” the forward said, of the moment she walked into the building. “It was amazing. The energy, all the little girls that were lining that purple carpet, they were so excited, it just set the tone for the whole evening, and the setup is amazing.
“You can’t call it anything less than monumental, the fact that we’re here — we’re having a draft for a professional women’s league that has all the right bones in place, has everything in place to be so successful.”
“Today was the moment where it feels real,” Larocque added.
‘A dream come true’: Natalie Spooner heading home after being drafted by Toronto
In the leadup to Monday, Heise had been recording how she was feeling and what she was doing, sometimes on paper, sometimes in her phone.
“I wrote down what I did, the days I did it, just to make sure that I remember this for the rest of my life,” she said. “It’s a piece of history that I’m going to want to hang on to.”
And she isn’t nearly done writing. “I think I’m going to be doing a lot of reflecting this next week,” Heise said, laughing.
Asked what it was like to have King call her name first overall, Heise said, “Oh my gosh,” and then tried to address the magnitude of the moment, but admitted she couldn’t and was just “talking around” what it all means and feels like.
“I think on my flight home today, I’m going to be sitting there with my brain in a tussle,” she said, grinning.
“It’s just an iconic moment that some people didn’t expect to happen and some people didn’t think would happen,” Heise added, of the draft. “So, for us, we always had faith, we always knew that we would get what we deserved one day. And I’m glad today’s that day.”
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
Inter Milan winger Tajon Buchanan, recovered from a broken leg suffered in training at this summer’s Copa America, is back in Jesse Marsch’s Canada squad for the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Suriname.
The 25-year-old from Brampton, Ont., underwent surgery July 3 to repair a fractured tibia in Texas.
Canada, ranked 35th in the world, plays No. 136 Suriname on Nov. 15 in Paramaribo. The second leg of the aggregate series is four days later at Toronto’s BMO Field.
There is also a return for veteran winger Junior Hoilett, who last played for Canada in June in a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands in Marsch’s debut at the Canadian helm. The 34-year-old from Brampton, now with Scotland’s Hibernian, has 15 goals in 63 senior appearances for Canada.
Midfielder Ismael Kone, recovered from an ankle injury sustained on club duty with France’s Marseille, also returns. He missed Canada’s last three matches since the fourth-place Copa America loss to Uruguay in July.
But Canada will be without centre back Derek Cornelius, who exited Marseille’s win Sunday over Nantes on a stretcher after suffering an apparent rib injury.
The Canadian men will prepare for Suriname next week at a camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“We are looking forward to getting the group together again with the mindset that there is a trophy on the line,” Marsch said in a statement. “We want to end 2024 the right way with two excellent performances against a competitive Suriname squad and continue building on our tremendous growth this past summer.”
The quarterfinal winners advance to the Nations League Finals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., with the two semifinals scheduled for March 20 and the final and third-place playoff March 23, and qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Thirteen of the 23 players on the Canadian roster are 25 or younger, with 19-year-old defender Jamie Knight-Lebel, currently playing for England’s Crewe Alexandra on loan from Bristol City, the youngest.
Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies captains the side with Stephen Eustaquio, Jonathan Osorio, Richie Laryea, Alistair Johnston and Kamal Miller adding veteran support.
Jonathan David, Cyle Larin and Theo Bair are joined in attack by Minnesota United’s Tani Oluwaseyi.
Niko Sigur, a 21-year-old midfielder with Croatia’s Hadjuk Split, continues in the squad after making his debut in the September friendly against Mexico.
Suriname made it to the Nations League quarterfinals by finishing second to Costa Rica in Group A of the Nations League, ahead of No. 104 Guatemala, No. 161 Guyana and unranked Martinique and Guadeloupe.
“A good team,” Osorio said of Suriname. “These games are always tricky and they’re not easy at all … Suriname is a (former) Dutch colony and they’ll have Dutch players playing at high levels.”
“They won’t be someone we overlook at all,” added the Toronto FC captain, who has 81 Canada caps to his credit.
Located on the northeast coast of South America between Guyana and French Guiana, Suriname was granted independence in 1975 by the Netherlands.
Canada has faced Suriname twice before, both in World Cup qualifying play, winning 4-0 in suburban Chicago in June 2021 and 2-1 in Mexico City in October 1977.
The Canadian men, along with Mexico, the United States and Panama, received a bye into the final eight of the CONCACAF Nations League.
Canada, No. 2 in the CONCACAF rankings, drew Suriname as the best-placed runner-up from League A play.
Canada lost to Jamaica in last year’s Nations League quarterfinal, ousted on the away-goals rule after the series ended in a 4-4 draw. The Canadians lost 2-0 to the U.S. in the final of the 2022-23 tournament and finished fifth in 2019-20.
Canada defeated Panama 2-1 last time out, in an Oct. 15 friendly in Toronto.
Goalkeepers Maxime Crepeau and Jonathan Sirois, defenders Joel Waterman, Laryea and Miller and Osorio took part in a pre-camp this week in Toronto for North America-based players.
Canada Roster
Goalkeepers: Maxime Crepeau, Portland Timbers (MLS); Jonathan Sirois, CF Montreal (MLS); Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United FC (MLS).
Defenders: Moise Bombito, OGC Nice (France); Alphonso Davies, Bayern Munich (Germany); Richie Laryea, Toronto FC (MLS); Alistair Johnston, Celtic (Scotland); Jamie Knight-Lebel. Crewe Alexandra, on loan from Bristol City (England); Kamal Miller, Portland Timbers (MLS); Joel Waterman, CF Montreal (MLS).
Midfielders: Ali Ahmed. Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS); Tajon Buchanan, Inter Milan (Italy); Mathieu Choiniere, Grasshopper Zurich (Switzerland); Stephen Eustaquio, FC Porto (Portugal); Junior Hoilett, Hibernian FC (Scotland); Ismael Kone, Olympique Marseille (France); Jonathan Osorio, Toronto FC (MLS); Jacob Shaffelburg, Nashville SC (MLS); Niko Sigur, Hadjuk Split (Croatia).
Forwards: Theo Bair, AJ Auxerre (France); Jonathan David, LOSC Lille (France); Cyle Larin, RCD Mallorca (Spain); Tani Oluwaseyi, Minnesota United (MLS).
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
