Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – How the leading scorer of the Griffins women's soccer team, circa 1994, was convinced to become a competitive swimmer still draws a smile from Paty Dvorak.
"It happened by accident," recounted Dvorak, who was known then as Paty Batallas during a dominant three-season stretch (1993, 1994, 1997) where she scored 34 goals in 25 regular season games for the Griffins women's soccer team.
After signing up for swimming in an attempt to add more to her workout routine, she was shocked when the head coach entered her in an Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference competition.
"The first meet was coming up and he was like 'yeah, I've entered you in this, this and this.' I was looking at him and said, 'listen, I don't even know how to flip-turn,' " she said. "So, my only goal was to never be last and I was never last. From my first competition to my last, I had learned how to flip turn and by the end of it, I was finishing third-fourth in my races.
"It was definitely beneficial fitness-wise. I really enjoyed it. It was a great group of swimmers and I learned a lot from them."
Dvorak also helped them win the 1995 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference swimming championship – her first taste at conference supremacy.
Her second came less than two years later – one of the most memorable championships in MacEwan Griffins history. The 1997 ACAC women's soccer final was a slay-the-dragon moment for the upstart Griffins (new to ACAC women's soccer competition in 1993) as they prevented '90s powerhouse Mount Royal College from winning four-straight titles by claiming a penalty kick tiebreaker 3-2.
"That was at Mount Royal," recalled Dvorak. "They had been such an (unbeatable) team. We knew they were the team to beat."
Dvorak was among the penalty shot scorers as the Griffins claimed their first of four banners the program captured in a 20-year span in the ACAC. They also won a bronze medal at the 1997 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship.
"It was pretty amazing overall," said Dvorak, who tied a program record with 14 goals in 10 games to pace the ACAC that season. "We weren't playing on familiar ground, we were playing in Calgary. I just remember that elation all of us had because we all had done this.
"We were just so happy for each other. It was just such an amazing feeling that us, our little team that just started, we took down the giant," she added of a Griffins team that had previously lost in the ACAC final in both 1993 and 1994. "Mount Royal had been around for quite a while and had more club players than what we did. It was a good feeling, I remember that."
Paty Dvorak (nee Batallas) scored 34 times in 25 ACAC regular season games over three seasons for the Griffins in the 1990s, which still stands as a MacEwan career record (Courtesy, Paty Dvorak).
Fond memories of being a Griffins student-athlete are never far from Dvorak's mind as she continues to thrive in a dream policing career after graduating from MacEwan in 2000 with a diploma in Police Studies.
A member of the Edmonton Police Service since 2003 and currently midway through a secondment to ASIRT (Alberta Serious Incident Response Team), Dvorak has had the opportunity to serve the community in several different roles.
"I never thought I would be where I am," she said. "I always had it in my head that I would be a police officer, but for me at that point (graduation) all I could see was the front-line patrol and responding to calls. I don't think I realized what an opportunity the EPS was able to provide me. They provided it to me and I had to work for it as well, but I don't think I realized how big the organization was and how many opportunities there was.
"I always tell that to people. Yes, there are the front-line calls for service and that's the backbone of any police service, but if you have specialty interests … there's something for everybody. Being given that opportunity at Grant MacEwan with the education, but more so the team play, (was key). Being involved in sports – that really gets you ready for a policing career because you're working in a team. No matter what area you move to, there's some sort of team aspect to it."
Three years after graduating from MacEwan, Dvorak landed her first job with the EPS – a patrol officer position with the Northeast division.
"I loved it from the start," she said. "I loved training – going through the 21-week recruit training, I enjoyed. As soon as I got on the street, it was just that much better – everything I wanted it to be. I had a good crew that I went to with senior people and my training officers were fantastic."
Paty Dvorak, left, was recognized in 2016 with the Beverly Maclean Legacy Award to attend the International Women in Policing Conference in Barcelona, Spain (Courtesy, Paty Dvorak).
Soon, Dvorak was working foot patrol in the Beverly area, which allowed her to train in many other areas of policing, and also led to her co-founding the EPS' annual Bike Safety Festival in 2010 with her partner.
"When we were working in the Rundle/118 area, we were biking and we would like to stop and engage the kids," she explained. "We saw kids that either didn't have bikes or helmets or were not following the rules of the road – didn't know any bike safety. If we tried to stop and engage with them, a lot of them would be very scared to talk to us, so my partner – he was on the board of the Brick's Sport Central at the time – and I collaborated and came up with this bike safety festival idea where we would go to the Boys and Girls clubs and go to the local elementary schools and just ask kids if they wanted to come.
"We would get our other beat members and other patrol members to come and assist us in providing a day of bike safety. We just provided interaction with our officers, so we could break down those barriers and teach them that police were safe people. If they ever had any troubles, we were OK to approach."
The Alberta Motor Association signed on as a partner and the event grew to the point where every child attending received a bike helmet, lock and a bell for their bike.
"Any kids that didn't have bikes would get bikes after the event," explained Dvorak of the festival which ran until a couple of years ago. "The Expo Centre donated one of the halls where we could have it inside in case of inclement weather. And they also donated food so the kids could have lunch. We just made it a really fun day for them."
Over her career, Dvorak has also worked with the EPS tactics training unit and was promoted to the professional standard branch before her recent secondment to ASIRT – a government agency responsible for investigating all criminal matters involving police.
Working for EPS has also allowed her to remain committed to the sport she first loved.
"We have an Alberta female police soccer team," explained Dvorak. "It's EPS, Calgary police and some RCMP. Every year, minus COVID, we go to the North American Police Soccer tournament. We've (also) gone to the World Police & Fire Games."
She's enjoying the chance to continue playing the sport she loves even if she admits she's no longer the marquee goal scorer on her team.
"I'm more of the playmaker – if you get me the ball I'll get it back to you," she said with a laugh. "The girls I play with on our police soccer team are all much younger than I am. So, I bring the experience.
"I'm like the mom of the team, which they've called me. But I still have that experience and I can keep up with them, so I have their respect. I still score when we're at our tournaments, but just not as much as I used to."
Very few can. Dvorak's MacEwan record of 34 career goals in 25 regular season games still stands and remains on the ACAC's all-time top-10 list.
"I'm not sure how I did it – determination, I guess," she said. "I managed to hang onto the leading goal scorer's position for some time. It was neat to be able to say I had that."
The memories of being a MacEwan student-athlete never fade for Dvorak, whose legacy is cemented after she was inducted into the Griffins' Wall of Distinction in 2001.
"I look back on it as the time of my life," she said. "I truly had so much fun. It felt like family at MacEwan. Obviously, it's helped me get to the career that I have which I wouldn't trade for anything in the world."
