Micah Zandee-Hart may have made history when she became the first British
Columbia-born player to make Canada’s Women’s Olympic Team, but she knows
she won’t be the last.
“Honestly, it’s not something I thought about until I came back from the
Olympics, and everyone told me I was the first … I didn’t even realize,”
she says. “I may have been the first, but I’m the first of many and I’m
just holding the door open for these younger kids.”
Zandee-Hart, a 25-year-old blue-liner with Canada’s National Women’s Team
has worked hard to get to where she is today. A product of Saanichton,
B.C., a small community 22 kilometres from Victoria on Vancouver Island,
she spent a lot of time on the ferry getting to the mainland to play
hockey, meaning her family had to make sacrifices for her to play and reach
her dreams.
“I always say that B.C. is a beautiful place, but our geography isn’t the
best setup for hockey because there’s a lot of travel,” Zandee-Hart
explains. “So, for me, ever since I was seven or eight, I started
travelling for hockey. My parents spent a lot of money to get me to
tournaments and camps. There wasn’t a lot of women’s hockey on the island
at the time, which meant travelling a lot.”
Growing up, Zandee-Hart played with the Peninsula Minor Hockey Association,
which delivers minor hockey programs for kids on the Saanich Peninsula. She
played hockey with the Peninsula Eagles until she was 15 years old.
As Zandee-Hart developed her skills, she sought out opportunities to better
herself and grow in the game.
Jeff Eaton leads the Advantage Hockey Group, a hockey development program
for players of all ages in British Columbia. He first met Zandee-Hart as a
12-year-old when she joined a development camp he ran in Vancouver. He knew
from that first meeting that she was a special person and player.
“She’s unique and special in every way,” says Eaton. “She went through the
program, and even then, I knew she was different. She has this innate
ability to lead and put others first. We still touch base and after every
conversation, she always teaches me how to be better.”
Throughout Zandee-Hart’s career, she has been a proven winner and an elite
teammate. She has won four medals, including Olympic gold in Beijing and a
gold medal at the 2014 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship. She captained
Canada to silver the following year, earning all-star honours.
“Micah has such a drive to be great, but she also always focuses on her
teammates and how she can bring them along with her,” Eaton says. “She
plays a full game and a mature game, but off the ice, she carries herself
so well. Everyone wants to be around her, and she makes people better.”
After basking in the glow of the Olympic gold (and the world title Canada
claimed a year ago in Calgary), Zandee-Hart went back to work this summer.
She was one of 142 invitees to the BFL National Women’s Program SummerShowcase, and one of 15 to come from B.C. – the most ever.
Of the other 14, 10 earned the right to wear the Maple Leaf in
international competition. Sarah Potomak joins Zandee-Hart at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship, six are a part of Canada’s National Women’sDevelopment Team for its three-game series against the United States (Anne
Cherkowski, Jennifer Gardiner, Rylind MacKinnon, Sarah Paul, Amy Potomak,
Sara Swiderski) and three made Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team for
its set against the Americans (Jordan Baxter, Morgan Jackson and Jaimee
Spring).
“Now that I have these other girls that are from the province as well, I
just have so much pride and I follow all their careers and I want them to
do well,” Zandee-Hart says. “I want us to have more B.C. players because I
see the skill and I see how our B.C. team is doing at the U18 level at
nationals, at Canada Winter Games, and I’m just so excited for what’s to
come. To have a few more B.C. flags on that roster I think would be pretty
special.”
Eaton believes that having a player like Zandee-Hart accomplish what she
has in her career is helping build interest and growth in the game among
younger generations.
“She gives a spotlight we’ve never had. Micah shares her experience with
the youth and showed how she got there,” he says. “We’ve had a lot of good
players come out of B.C. in the last 10 years and Micah must have helped
with that based on her stature and experience.”