| Courtesy of... |
|
The Fredericton Daily Gleaner Bad press for UNB DON MACPHERSON / BRIAN KEMP Chris Stevenson, dean of kinesiology at UNB, said a CBC hockey commentator's remark regarding Therese Brisson's treatment by UNB was "a little bit of a misrepresentation of reality." A comment about Brisson having to quit her professorship at the University of New Brunswick in order to continue her Olympic hockey career - because the school wouldn't give her a requested two-year leave of absence - was heard by millions glued to their TV sets Thursday night for the gold-medal game in Salt Lake City. Brisson, who plays defence on Canada's women's hockey team and now boasts a gold medal after her team's defeat of the United States, worked as an assistant professor of kinesiology at UNB for four years. Brisson was also a member of the silver-medal-winning Canadian team in Nagano in 1998, at a time when she was still employed at UNB. However, the 34-year-old Quebec native and the university parted ways in 2000 so she could pursue her hockey career. At the time, Brisson cited financial reasons - the cost of travelling to and from Toronto for Olympic training - as one reason for her departure from her job. But another factor was getting time off. The Daily Gleaner reached Brisson last night in Salt Lake City as she was heading with her teammates to the main medal plaza in the host city for medal presentations and a night of music. Her still-excited teammates could be heard in the background as she talked on a cellphone. Brisson said she had asked for a two-year leave of absence from UNB but was refused. Brisson said she would have appreciated the leave, and would have liked to come back to Fredericton, where she has many friends, but carried no hard feelings against the university. "I made the right decision. They made the right decision." Brisson guessed that the CBC commentator made the comment about what happened with UNB to make a point on hard it is to make it to the Olympics. Stevenson said Brisson made no secret of how important hockey was to her when she was at UNB. "That was her main priority, no question about it," he said, and her decision to leave the university and Fredericton stemmed from that. "She had some hard choices to make and she made them." Stevenson couldn't go into more details about the situation because it is a personnel matter, and those are kept private. "I can't get into that." A news release issued by UNB in 2000 about Brisson's resignation noted she was leaving the school "to pursue her dream of leading the women's hockey team to a gold medal in the 2002 Olympics." Friday, UNB president Elizabeth Parr-Johnston said in a release that the university was proud of Brisson. "This is just one of the many occasions on which we have been able to express our pride in her," said Parr-Johnston. In the same release, Stevenson is quoted as saying that during the Nagano Olympics the university provided Brisson with financial support and a six-month leave. "We also provided her with other leaves for national team play," he added. In his interview with the Gleaner, Stevenson said that Brisson and UNB parted on amicable terms, though, and there were plenty of people at UNB cheering her on this week. It's too bad UNB can't lay claim to a gold medalist now too, he said. "It would have been a feather in our cap," he said. "I am delighted for her." Brisson played on the UNB women's hockey team, and coached some high-school players in Fredericton as well. Amanda Boies was one of them. Boies, 20, now plays on the UNB women's team, coached by her father, Bev Boies. She said UNB has nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to losing an Olympian who has achieved what Brisson has. The decision to leave Fredericton was hers, and it was made in order to achieve the dream that became reality on Thursday, she said. "She had to make sacrifices," Boies said. She didn't think the comment about UNB during the gold-medal game gave the school a black eye at all. In fact, she said she was proud UNB was connected so publicly to the victorious Canadian team. The gold-medal has helped Boies' own dream to grow. "I've always had the Olympic dream," she said, and she wants to follow in Brisson's footsteps even more than ever now. Boies, who also plays defence, is thinking about trying out for a pro women's hockey team in Switzerland next year, with an eye to returning to Canada to try out for the Olympic team. She still feels Brisson's influence today, even though she coached her five years ago. "She knows her hockey and she knows how to relay that to the players," Boies said. Right after the gold medal game Thursday night, Brisson contacted a bunch of friends who had gathered at a Fredericton club to watch her play in the gold-medal game. "I asked how the party was going and it sounded like they were having a really good time," Brisson said of the brief conversation. "They're really special people." Thursday night was pretty special for Brisson and her teammates as well. "After it was over I thought, 'Oh my Gody, we've done it.' It was pretty exciting." Brisson expects to make it back to Fredericton soon. "I have a trip planned to Fredericton," she said as the bus she was travelling in neared the main medal presentation stage in Salt Lake City. Illustration(s): HAPPY DAYS:Therese Brisson is shown in a file photo. Category: Front Page; News © 2002 The Daily Gleaner - Fredericton. All rights reserved. Doc.: 20020223FG158683
|