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.

Beth has symbolized a true “Founder” and has certainly showed a dedication to the Sport of Ice Hockey and Service to the Towson University Ice Hockey Club and Team.  Beth loves ice hockey and played for the Susquehanna Rapids organization in Youth Hockey.

When Beth arrived at Towson 4 years ago and wanted to start the Women’s program.  She took her freshman year to play Rugby and learn how other clubs operated and did all the research and gathered all the information to understand what it took to start a club.  She showed great enthusiasm, resilience and determination is going through all a University requires to start a new program.  She found a faculty advisor, she worked hard and closely with the Sports Club Organization at Towson to ensure that she crossed every “T” and dotted every “I”.  She then set out to find a team.  Starting with former team mates and word of mouth.  She found just enough to start the team including the all too hard to find goalie.  She found a willing coach and then started the real work of creating, developing and running a club.

As president, Beth is a well-organized and tireless worker who pulled together and managed the budget, and organized fundraising activities, community service activities, transportation, negotiated ice time for games and practices with the rink, worked to get donations for team needs and made sure all travel arrangements worked, attended league meetings and activities and still maintained excellent grades and kept up as a student.  Beth helped many dreams come true for these student athletes to compete in a sport they love through college.   

As incredible and a great story as this sounds, it gets better.  The team has won three straight League titles since joining the league (first three years of existence).  Beth, the coaches and the players have volunteered to grow girls hockey by volunteering with learn to play clinics and leading skills clinics and working with local girls ice hockey programs and by scrimmaging Youth teams. The program also held their first ever Alumni and player and coaches game in 2016.  The team has grown and is now rewarded with even more funding from the University.

Beth has created a wonderful legacy for herself as well as for all the student athletes who started and dedicated and stayed with the program.  No matter what happens from here, the effort and dedication to create and develop a successful program will certainly follow her and the players who started this team. Beth will be definitely be missed as she represents the foundation of this team, but her accomplishments will live on through the program’s continued existence and success.

In my senior year at Maryland we almost had to fold the team. I don't think even now, four years later, I can accurately describe how crushed I felt at the prospect that I wouldn't play hockey for my last year. It's a complicated story but at the end of it, our goalie decided at the last minute that she wasn't going to play for us anymore. She told us this the week practice began, about a month before games started. There were no recruits brought in that year for goalie, no players on the team with any goalie experience, and no leads for any players on campus who could come play last minute. 

That's when Amie Stephens stepped up. A freshman and younger sister to a girl on the team, Amie had never played an organized sport before, let alone skated. And she volunteered to play in net. It was beyond comprehension to the whole team and it meant the world to the seniors. 

Amie had to learn in one season what most goalies took years to develop. She simultaneously learned the game of ice hockey, learned to skate, learned to play in net, and learned to be part of a team. All with a smile on her face and an indomitable heart.

It would have been enough that year that we got to play and that the team lived on. It would have been enough to know that the team would continue for at least the next four years with Amie guarding our net. It would have been enough that Amie's laugh was contagious in the locker room and she soaked up all the advice we could offer, working hard every practice and game to improve. But 'enough' wasn't good enough for Amie. 

We finished the 2012-2013 season at second place in our division with 7 wins and 6 losses. In the first playoff game Amie recorded a shutout against 15 shots. In the semi-final game she only allowed one goal on 34 shots. In that year we went from possibly folding the club to playing in the championship game and finishing the season in second place. And Amie made that possible. To the seniors of that season, Amie is our hero. 

Amie stayed in net for all four of her years at Maryland. She continuously learned and improved with each year and rose to become a leader on the team, proudly serving her senior year as an assistant captain, as voted by the team. Amie's contribution to this team cannot be understated and is most deserving of this award. 

Penn Women's Ice Hockey would not be the living and breathing entity that it is without Kieran Koch-Laskowski. Thanks to her leadership and initiative throughout the past two years, the team has been able to smoothly transition into a successful season with an entirely new coaching staff and the addition of over 10 new girls, many with absolutely no prior hockey experience. Kieran has been absolutely instrumental in ensuring that every single function of Penn hockey has been able to occur, from every single DVCHC conference call, to every game, even to team holiday potlucks. She has been consistently thoughtful with every decision she has made, always thinking of the best interests for each player on the team. Kieran has put more time, effort, and heart into this team than any other team member, and we've been more than blessed to have her this season.

CHELSEA HAS BEEN PLAYING HOCKEY FOR OVER TEN YEARS, SHE HAS BEEN A PLAYER FOR CAL U OF PA. THEN TRANSFERRED TO SRU THE PAST TWO SEASONS. SHE IS A LEADER AND A COACH OF THIS TEAM. SHE HELPS EVERYONE. FROM THE COACHING STAFF, OFFENSE AND DEFENSE PLAYERS, TO THE GOALIE AND NEW PLAYERS. 

SHE KEPT THIS TEAM FROM FOLDING THIS SEASON. SHE KNOWS THE GAME, CONTINUES TO RECRUIT, FUNDRAISERS, SPEAKS HER MIND IN THE LOCKER ROOM, ON THE BENCH, IN THE RINK AND OUTSIDE THE RINK. 

I SEE HER AT NHL GAMES AND WHEN I'M AT THE GAME SHE TEXTS ME, CALLS ME, AND TELLS ME THINGS THAT WE CAN IMPROVE OUR TEAM SO WE CAN BE COMPETITIVE.

SHE IS A SUPPORTER TO BREAST CANCER AWARENESS AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS. 

SHE IS SO DESERVING OF THIS AWARD.

Erin Lyons

Danielle McKnight joined Navy Women’s Hockey team in its early years of inception; it was the first time she had ever played hockey.   During her time as a player she has always proved to be a rock which the team could lean on.  She embodies servant leadership by putting the team first.  Dani serves as a mentor to both younger and older players on the team.   Her junior year she served as the operations officer, overseeing all travel and financial arrangements for the team, on top of very strenuous academic load.  This was no small task and Dani carried it out with efficiency beyond her young years. 

By her senior year the Navy Women’s Hockey team was officially recognized as a club team, elevated from an extracurricular activity.  This may seem like a small jump, but at the Naval Academy gaining club status meant the team would receive more ice time and funding from the school.  Even after she graduates, Dani will continue to assist the team by organizing their upcoming schedule and logistics. 

There is no one who is more dedicated to hockey than Sara.  Not only does she love the game but she puts her heart and soul into it on and off the ice.  We needed new jerseys for the team this year and Sara was the first to offer to organize getting them and financially contribute to them.  She represents the team in the most positive way on social media by spreading word about fundraisers, games and overall information.  As a law student, Sara has been able to take her experiences from undergrad and use them to demonstrate leadership on the team. Everyone looks up to her because of her skill and dedication to the team.  Even on the off season, Sara organizes open hockey ice slots for the team to practice and get together to keep a positive team dynamic.  Sara is always the first to volunteer when something needs to be done for the team.  Even over the summer, hockey is always the first thing on her mind.  She is constantly thinking about what can be done for the next season and without her contributing both on and off the ice next year, she will certainly be missed. Even though she will no longer be on the team next season, she will still have still influenced the team an immense amount.  Villanova hockey is one of the most important things to her and she will be seen as a legacy because of how much she has contributed the past three years and how much she has influenced the team in growing as a program.