FILE PHOTO JAMES TUBB
South Alberta Hockey Academy defender Kendal Davidson was named the top U18 female defender in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
When Kendal Davidson was snubbed for the 2021-22 CSSHL’s top defender award, it only added fuel to the fire as she prepared for her final season at the U18 level.
The South Alberta Hockey Academy defender was nominated for top U18 female defender this season after an impactful final season in the developmental league. On Wednesday, one year after she was nominated but fell short of the award, Davidson finally received her recognition being named the Canadian Sport School top U18 female defender.
“It shows me the hard work paid off obviously and I’m obviously doing something right,” Davidson said. “It’s been a relief in my mind too that people are noticing the hard work that I’ve put in and the effort and time I’ve put into becoming the player that I am. It’s paying off.”
The 17-year-old Union College commit put up 13 goals and 21 points in 26 regular season games for SAHA, adding two goals and three points in four playoff games. She remembers the feeling of being nominated but not winning last season and a conversation with SAHA head coach Evan Vossen.
“I remember texting Evan in the summer time, it was probably like 11 o’clock at night I was at the gym and I was like I’m not losing this award again,” Davidson said. “This is my goal for next year and when I won he actually texted me, ‘you set this goal last summer and here you are achieving it,’ so he was super proud of me that way. I’ve kind of been working towards it all year.”
She was in physics class when she received the notification on her phone of the league award. There was no one from her team in the room to immediately celebrate with her but Davidson says her other classmates took up the celebratory torch.
“I have one player on the guy’s team in that class and then my teacher said, ‘what happened,’ and I told him I won,” Davidson said. “He said, ‘what did you win,’ and I told him I won top D, ‘that’s awesome.’ Then he put the (award) video on the Smart Board and showed our whole class, it was exciting.”
The award video showcased just a sliver of Davidson’s highlight reel plays from her award winning season. The first being an end-to-end rush she scored on before falling in to the boards, “it really hurt when I fell.” Her favourite highlights were a backhand goal she scored against Edge and a goal against Rink Kelowna.
In her two full seasons with SAHA, the Lethbridge product had 24 goals and 40 points in 51 regular season games. She added three goals and eight points in seven playoff games.
Having achieved her goal of being the top CSSHL defender Davidson prepares for her first NCAA season playing at Union College. She is looking forward to playing at a new level and to build off her strong season.
“There’s only upwards from here,” Davidson said. “They don’t have the same awards as the CSSHL but still looking for those individual goals for next year and what I want to do with my university career rather than just my U18 team.”
She wasn’t the only SAHA athlete recognized with a league award. Defenseman Matthew Paranych was named the top U18 defender and Gavin McKenna received U18 MVP Honours.
Davidson leaves SAHA with a legacy, being one of the first female players on the roster and the academy’s first NCAA committed player. She credits those in the academy for their help over the years and is thankful she picked up the phone in the summer of 2020 to join the black and blue.
“I couldn’t have done it without the people in my corner, the whole academy and a special shout out to Evan, Darren (MacMillan) and Jane (Kish) for everything they’ve done for me, I couldn’t have done it without the people that I’ve had,” Davidson said. “I feel like I’ll always be part of the academy. I was here for their inaugural season, and we’ve come so far. We’ve built this program from scratch and so I’ll always have a piece of SAHA with me.
“I’ve done what I set out to do when when I got that phone call, I guess three years ago, from Willie (Desjardins) saying, ‘hey, we have an academy, would you want to come out here,’ and I’m thrilled I made that decision to come be part of the inaugural season and just build the academy.”
