Women's hockey assistant coach Bourgeois feted by Alma Mater

Danielle Bourgeois, left, is one of four former University of Alberta Pandas on the Griffins women's hockey coaching staff, joining Katie Stewart, head coach Lindsay McAlpine and Lindsay Inglis (not pictured) in guiding the Griffins to the 2016-17 ACAC Championship (Len Joudrey photo).

Posted: Jun 02, 2017

Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics

You can add trailblazer to Danielle Bourgeois' long list of accomplishments.

On Thursday, the University of Alberta announced that Bourgeois – an assistant coach with the MacEwan Griffins women's hockey team – will be the first Pandas hockey player to go up on their Sports Wall of Fame.

"It's huge. It's a bit hard to describe," said Bourgeois, who is one of the most decorated players in Pandas history, including winning the CIS women's hockey player of the year award twice (2004 and 2005). "It's obviously a big honour to be the first one.

"I feel like it's just reflective of the program and the strength of the program. They had to choose someone to be the first and I'm lucky to be the one named. But I feel like it's a responsibility that I carry for everyone that's been a part of the program to date. It's a big honour."

Bourgeois kicked off her playing career by winning the CIAU rookie of the year award after amassing 29 goals in 29 games during the 1999-2000 season. When she was done in 2005, she had led the Pandas to four national championships, while amassing 212 points in 85 conference games. Bourgeois remains the leading goal scorer in program history with 106 tallies, while her points total is second on the U of A's career list.

Now in her second stint on the Griffins' coaching staff, Bourgeois returned to the team in 2016-17 after a two-year break spent focusing on her work as a partner at Field Law and her passion for running, which has included finishing 25 marathons and triathlons.

She's been able to build off her history of winning and share that wisdom with MacEwan's players.

"I think a lot of it is trying to impart upon the athletes a sense of pride, a sense of team and the importance of execution of plays," said Bourgeois, who oversees the forwards and the power play on the Griffins. "The message is that women's hockey continues to grow, the hockey at the ACAC level continues to grow and just trying to add to that as best as I can.

"Coming back this year, the quality of hockey is basically night and day. It's grown a lot for MacEwan even over the last three or four years."

She has been an instrumental part in growing the program together with a full bench of Pandas alumni. Head coach Lindsay McAlpine and fellow assistant coaches Lindsay Inglis and Katie Stewart also donned the Evergeen and Gold in their playing careers.

"It's actually such a neat thing," said Bourgeois. "I played with Lindsay for four years and I've been friends with Lindsay since I was a teenager. With her and me it's been a seamless transition because we've played on teams together. We're great friends outside of hockey as well. With Lindsay Inglis and Katie Stewart, I actually coached them on the Pandas.

"It's almost three different generations of Pandas behind the bench."

The benefit to the future of the Griffins women's hockey program is obvious, considering their coaches have a combined 10 national university titles between them. When the Griffins claimed their first ACAC championship since 2008 in March, they laid down a winning blueprint for future teams to come.

"Some of our best players this year were rookies, so I think that just gives you a sense or a preview of what things are possible," said Bourgeois. "It will be important with these younger athletes to make sure that having success early on is terrific but you can't just be satisfied with winning in your first year and ride the wave for the rest.

"That's the start of it. Once you get to the top, it's harder to stay at the top than it is to get there," she added. "It will be important going into next season to ensure that we're challenging the girls and holding them accountable and sending that message that 'yeah, OK, we won last year and we should still be proud of that, but there's plenty of work to do.'

"Success is relative to your own potential. I think it will be important that we're holding the girls to that level, as opposed to how we compare with everyone else."