Every year the league honors graduating players who have gone above and beyond, not just for their team but for " Dedicated Service to Team, League, Sport."

Past winners have founded teams, kept them alive through crisis, volunteered for inner city hockey, and more -- for hockey, for us. 

On behalf of the league entire, the following leaders will be bestowed this honor, our version of a lifetime achievement award, at this Saturday's All-Star Game.

Kelsey has been the backbone of the IUP ice hockey team since she began as manager four short years ago. She quickly learned what it took to run a team and to help with practices and our coaches. Kelsey also stepped up as treasurer for our team and knew every aspect of her job. She has kept our team organized and helps in any way possible.  Kelsey took care of everything that happened behind the scenes. She took time out of her week to come to practices and workouts. Everything was always taken care of, because she knew her jobs so well. Kelsey has been a wonderful asset to our team and she will be greatly missed. Her hard work, dedication and loyalty prove that she should win this award. She has at times single-handedly kept our team up and running amidst chaos and troubling times. She has not only helped out IUP, but she is greatly involved with the DVCHC league volunteering her time to help with playoffs and other various activities through the league. Kelsey Adams never played hockey, but the love for the sport radiates from her. 

Goalies are the foundation of every hockey team. But not every goalie is the foundation of an entire hockey program. Kim had grown up playing with her sister in the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Organization. Her father was a coach for the program as well. As such, Kim grew up learning the importance of bringing hockey to every and any community, whether it be a city community or a university community. When Kim came to UPenn, she joined a women’s hockey program that was in need of a huge tune up. The roster was lacking and the enthusiasm was also, but Kim changed all that. Over her four years at the school, she recruited as many players as she could, even trained new players and a new goalie who became the future president of the club. Kim created a women’s hockey culture at UPenn and, in her junior year, saw the fruits of her labor when they went to playoffs and became the champions of the D2 Club Division. The year after Kim was a part of an even bigger step up for the UPenn program when we moved to the D1 Club Division. It was here that she was tested the most. A new level of play and a new commitments were just some of the new obstacles facing her. Regardless, Kim was fantastic every game in net and led us to playoffs in our very first year in the new division. I truly believe without Kim’s dedication and passion to hockey at UPenn, none of what was accomplished these last four years could have been possible. It takes a special person to give her time and energy towards anything the way Kim did for hockey and without her inspiring energy, UPenn would not have the great program we have today.

-Allie has worked hard as president for our team and has demonstrated many leadership qualities. She has dedicated a lot of time and effort into scheduling games, advertising, and keeping our team as a legitimate organization.

-Allie has kept this team alive. She was always on top of finances and even sacrificed part of her own account to help the team survive through a tough time. She made sure games were scheduled so that most of the team could make it and she let anyone have an opportunity to play on the team. Allie loves hockey and you could definitely tell by the way she treated the team. She was dedicated and committed to pushing the team forward and making it a stronger organization.

-Allie Griswold emphasis on SAVED A TEAM. and she plays beer league so that is more of a hockey community.

-Allie has done more than work hard for the team. She was treasurer and president for two years, assistant captain for at least two, and without a doubt the reason the team is still standing. She dedicated so much of her time and money to keeping the team a success.

Allie has worked tirelessly for all 4 years to grow the ice hockey program all while excelling in the classroom and in her other extracurriculars. She has held several positions and for a year she managed the responsibility of president and treasurer. Her commitment to this team and university is one of the strongest that I have seen and it has been a privilege to play with her and learn from her. She has helped publicize our team and recruit new members to ensure the longevity of our program.

-This award, in my mind, was made for Allie Griswold. UVa Women's Ice Hockey would have crashed a couple of years ago, if it hadn't been for her love of this club. Not only does she make every single new player feel incredibly welcome, but she opens up her home for our team events, is always only a phone call away when someone needs advice, and even put in some of her own money to keep the club afloat when we ran into some financial difficulties. Allie is one of the most highly respected students across UVa, and it is an incredible honor to call her a teammate. 

Every year, there was talk that a women’s hockey team at Loyola was imminent. Every year, Amanda Ghysel and Taylor Hadley had to wait through the frustrations and setbacks that come with starting a team until it was finally granted this year.

They had no reason to believe it could happen, other than the fact that they were determined that it to finally come together. They had a full game schedule before they had a coach. They had a spot in the DVCHC before they knew whether there would even be a team to play it. And of course, they had teammates because they found the hockey players on campus and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

But the hesitation at Loyola was never that these two could pull all of this off—it was that the team could survive without them. It’s hard to imagine at first blush, and it’s a shame they don’t get more than one year to develop a program they slowly brought to life for three years.

But Taylor and Amanda left Loyola women’s hockey in such a wonderful place. As our season ended, we talked about how one of the best things about our season was our team’s spirit and support of one another. No amount of losses changed that, and these two made sure of it. The women’s ice hockey team will be a credit to Loyola, the league, and most importantly, its two founders, all because of the four years of their lives Taylor and Amanda put into building it.

Emily has been integral to the success of the women’s ice hockey program at the Naval Academy.  Started by Ella Star in 2009, Emily joined the women’s ice hockey team in the very early days of the program.  She has not only watched it grow from a DVCHC Div 2 program to an ACHA Div 1 program; but has been instrumental in elevating the program to the competitive level that it enjoys today.

The status of the program at the U.S. Naval Academy is technically an “Extra-curricular Activity,” and not a “Club Sport.”  This distinction is pedestrian to an outsider, yet inside the institution it means a lot.  Because the team is not a Club Sport, the members must fulfill academic and military obligations first; team activities always take a back seat.  If there is a football game, or a formal military parade, team members must complete those obligations, and then practice or play games.  These are just a couple of simple examples; however, I want to impress upon you the time commitment and dedication that members of the team must have, in order to play ice hockey.  Club status would afford the team more privileges and status within, and financial support from, the institution.  Emily has worked tirelessly over the last two years to elevate the team to a club sport, and has leveraged influential people both inside and outside the Naval Academy to make this happen

Most importantly, Emily had the fortitude to reach out in the fall of 2013, to ask for assistance when the team most needed it.  The team was going through a “coaching crisis,” and it felt that it was heading in the wrong direction.   While I wholeheartedly applaud the efforts of those who stepped in to coach, they were not of the caliber needed to help the team attain club status.  Furthermore, the coaching staff had taken the team out of the ACHA:  and it was a requirement that the team compete in a national league in order to be eligible to become a club sport at the Naval Academy.  The student leadership, led by Emily Buzzard felt that the team needed new direction.  The 2013-2014 season was tumultuous as the student leadership had to navigate this difficult situation they found themselves in.  Sometimes doing the right thing is the hard thing to do; yet Emily stood strong with fellow teammate Allyson Strachan, and instituted the changes that they felt were in the ultimate best interest of the team, and of the long-term goals of the women’s ice hockey program at USNA.   

Finally, she has been team captain for two consecutive years, and consistently provides the on-ice leadership that the team desires. She has instilled confidence in her peers, coaches and officer representatives.  She is a knowledgeable ice hockey player and has been able to represent the team’s interests both on and off the ice.  Before attending USNA, she volunteered her time with the NOVA Cool Cats special hockey program.  The Cool Cats are a team of ice hockey players with developmental disabilities.  Throughout her time at the Naval Academy, she has continued her relationship with this team.  She was instrumental in fostering a relationship between our ice hockey team and the Cool Cats; each season our team attends Cool Cat events, signs autographs and hands out posters, and present awards at their annual ice hockey tournament.  In this way, Emily has fostered a love of ice hockey amongst her teammates, that goes well beyond the scoreboard.  Ice hockey is also about community, and sharing a love of a sport with all who play. 

As a player, Emily has been tireless.  The women’s ice hockey program had a busy year, with over thirty games and two post-season tournaments.  We competed in a wide range of competition; from DVCHC to ECWHL (ACHA Div 1) in which we played the best women’s club ice hockey teams in the nation.  We had weekends of games in which we would handily win DVCHC games by ten goals, and turn around the next weekend and lose by ten goals to UMASS or URI.  Throughout, Emily fostered a true love of hockey, and true sportsmanship.  It’s easy to display good sportsmanship when your team is winning; it’s much tougher to do when you are losing.  She kept her teammates motivated, with their heads held high; and at the end of every game she would find the little victories for each of her teammates to celebrate.  She never got down on herself, or the team.  And even in those tough losses this season, she would come back to the bench after every shift saying, “I love that we’re playing such great hockey.”  She’d walk away from a loss knowing that she had player her heart out: and she did it every day.

Emily has done so much to further the women’s ice hockey program at the U.S. Naval Academy.  She has had to make tough decisions, and implement them—no small feat for a student-run organization.  The team will achieve status as a club sport this year, and it is entirely due to her efforts.  She sought us out to coach the team, and we never would have been involved with the program if she has not approached us in the fall of 2013.  As coaches, we are blessed to be a part of the program, but it is her dedication to the sport, the naval academy, and the women on the team that truly elevated the team to its current state today.  We had our first-ever women’s ice hockey alumnae game last September.  Ella Star, the team’s founder returned to captain the alumnae team.  She even recognized Emily for how she had taken the team to an entirely new level.  Emily, like Ella, will always be remembered as an integral person in the history of women’s ice hockey at the Naval Academy.  

Crooker has been a member and leader of the Villanova team since her freshman year of college.  She has occupied almost every leadership position on the team, and has been the definition of a leader both on and off the ice.  Crooker is a natural forward, but stepped up to play defense for the past two seasons because she knew the team needed her there.  She has worked through coaching changes, short rosters, and years with limited funding, but has some how found a way to keep the team together while improving its overall competitiveness.  Whether it be leading dry land practices or spearheading volunteer and fundraising efforts to eliminate hunger, Crooker is always there to lend a helping hand and rally the team.  She put in place a mentoring program to have rising sophomores and juniors take over the role of club President to ensure the team had strong and prepared leaders.  

She continues to be a steward of the game outside of her academic and team commitments as an intern for the Ed Snyder Youth Hockey Foundation, where she works to help young Philadelphia children "learn to play hockey and succeed in the game of life."  She is totally committed to the game and the success of the team.  At our senior night celebration this year one of our players described Crooker as her role model.  As she finishes her senior year, she can look back on her four years of experience at Villanova knowing that she made a meaningful and lasting contribution to the team and the sport.