Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – It just made too much sense.
Rebecca Thiessen saw a teammate doing triathlons last summer and realized how much of a fit the sport was for her.
The MacEwan Griffins defenceman worked as a swim teacher and biked to work regularly. Further, she had a background in running track and cross-country.
"I was like 'this sounds perfect,' " she explained. "So, I put my name in and registered. I actually used it as a fund-raiser for my community pool. I think I raised about $500, which for a small town is pretty good amount."
The Morris, Man. native liked it so much, she bought a proper road bike and entered another triathlon before the summer ended and hockey season began.
"I'm a competitive person by nature," said Thiessen. "I think that compete level is something I need in summer when I'm off of hockey to get my butt in gear and get me moving.
"It really did transition well into hockey because my training scores went up more than I thought they would. I think it helped me a lot on the ice with my speed and endurance."
Thiessen will lead the Griffins into their final action of the first semester as they visit cross-town rival Alberta on Friday (7 p.m., Clare Drake) and will host the Pandas on Saturday (5 p.m., Downtown Community Arena, both Canada West TV).
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Griffins interim head coach Chris Leeming said Thiessen's fitness level has been noticeable and it's helped her find success on MacEwan's blueline in her second Canada West season.
"She's definitely one of the strongest players on our team, in my opinion," he said. "How that translates onto the ice is she's been one of our most efficient penalty killers, she leads our team in blocked shots, she's able to win net-front battles and keep the puck away from our net. When our penalty kill was having a lot of success, she was a big part of that."
And on the offensive end, Thiessen recently scored her first Canada West goal. It came against Saskatchewan in Saskatoon on Nov. 11.
"They were cycling it and I intercepted the pass and beat the defender because she fell," Thiessen recounted. "It was kind of a breakaway and (Jayme) Doyle was coming with me. Their defence was able to get back and turn around. She put her stick out, but I brought the puck in and fired it top right.
"I was speechless. I was freaking out. There were so many emotions going on. I'm proud of everything my team and I have accomplished. It was kind of like 'I scored my first Canada West goal. This is super cool.' Not a lot of females can say they've scored a Canada West goal, so it was kind of an honour."
Thiessen is among seven of eight Griffins rearguards who are in their first or second seasons and it's fun for her to be a part of a young group learning and growing together.
"That's the exciting thing moving forward with our group here is the D corps is set for a few years, in my opinion," said Leeming. "We've already seen some growth from Day 1. We've embraced the reality of making mistakes to learn. We've made our fair share of mistakes as everyone does in the game of hockey, but we're seeing a lot of growth."
Rebecca Thiessen is one of seven MacEwan blue liners in their first or second year of university eligibility (Timothy Matwey photo).
Part of their learning process happened when the Griffins' young D went against Canada national development team member Amy Potomak of the Trinity Western Spartans, who leads the conference in goals with 11 in 15 games.
"She was really good," said Thiessen. "We started to adapt to how she was playing. Sometimes you'd get a little bit intimidated, but we just took it back and said 'you know, we've got this. Just take her body, and put your stick on puck. When we took it back to the basics – just body on body – I think we were shutting her down a little bit more than when we started."
Those are key learning moments as the team tries to stay in the playoff hunt heading to the second semester. The Griffins (3-10-1) have some ground to make up as they trail Manitoba (7-9-0) by seven points for the final post-season position after losing twice to them their last weekend out, but they have two games in hand on the Bisons.
Alberta (10-5-1) will be a big challenge this weekend, but the Griffins will be hungry coming out of a bye week.
"The Manitoba weekend was definitely a disappointment big picture for everyone involved with our team," said Leeming. "The last two weeks of practice have been very good. We had a really strong week last week and it's carried through to this week. I think they're excited.
"Even the exhibition games we played against U of A, the girls competed. It's that inner city rivalry that the girls get up for. They're excited to compete and hungry to get back at it."
