Scott Tupper, Danielle Hennig, and Brienne Stairs were honoured with the 2014 Field Hockey Canada Player Awards on Saturday in Vancouver, B.C.
At the end of each year of competition, the Canadian Men’s and Women’s National Teams recognize their top players from the past twelve months by awarding the Player of the Year and Top Goal Scorer designations.
For the second straight year, veteran defender and Men’s National Team captain Scott Tupper (Vancouver, BC) earned both accolades. Tupper, 28, also plays club hockey internationally for Racing Club of Brussels. He scored eight goals for Canada during officially sanctioned international competition in 2014.
“It feels good to be recognized for having put in some good performances,” said Tupper upon receiving the awards. “At the same time its based on the way team plays. If the team is not playing well, I’m not going to look too good and vice versa.”
The focus on team-play was a common sentiment among all award winners.
Defender Danielle Hennig (Kelowna, BC) took home Player of the Year honours for the Women’s National Team. Hennig, 24, has played in 79 international matches for Canada and has become a leader on and off the turf.
“It’s a huge honour, and really unexpected,” she said. “With any team sport, you can’t do anything without the rest of the team. I know as much as it’s a big honour, all the credit goes back to my teammates.”
Brienne Stairs (Kitchener, ON) was the Women’s National Team’s Top Goal Scorer in 2014. Not only did Stairs, 25, lead Canada in scoring, she was among the top ten female goal scorers in the world.
“It was a team effort that I was able to get all these goals,” she said. “It was a good year, I think we’re building off of that and hoping for the best in 2015.”
With Olympic qualification up for grabs through World League and the Pan American Games, both the Men’s and Women’s National Teams will be looking for continued strong performance from each of their award winners throughout 2015.
