What a week this was in Canada and the United States for three tremendous ladies that I am fortunate to work for. These three are Meghan Agosta-Marciano, Tessa Bonhomme and Caitlin Cahow.
Let's start with Meghan.
Meghan has been a member of the past 3 Olympic Championships for Canada. She is a graduate of Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA and has a degree in Criminology. If you get a degree in Criminology, you would certainly like to use your degree at some point in your life.
This past summer on the heels of her victory in Sochi, Meghan made a career decision. I want to become a police officer and still play hockey. With the blessing of Hockey Canada, she was able to take interviews in different locales throughout the nation and felt at home enough to apply to the Vancouver Police Department.
On September 18, she was sworn in as one of 16 new recruits to become a member of VPD and to protect and to serve the people of Vancouver who only 5 years ago had the opportunity to cheer her and her teammates on to a home Olympic championship over the United States. During the Olympics, Meghan was the MVP and leading scorer of the 2010 Olympic Games.
Meghan will continue her journey to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea and will suit up for Hockey Canada again in international play and balance her policing responsibilities. She will most likely not though be playing in the Four Nations Cup in Kamloops, BC though because she will be at the police academy, but look for her return in time for the 2015 IIHF Women's World Ice Hockey Championship in Sweden.
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Caitlin Cahow
Caitlin had to retire in Spring 2013 due to Post Concussion Syndrome. She was able to make it back and even won her last competition in the CWHL with the Boston Blades, but she knew she was one hit away from a lengthy rehab just like her previous time and decided to make the prudent move and finish her law degree at Boston College.
Over the next 6 months, Caitlin made the decision to talk about her sexual orientation in public and embrace causes that were near and dear to her heart by her own choice. In November 2013, President Obama made his selections to be on the United States' Official Olympic delegation to represent the nation in Sochi. His selection of Caitlin was a clear message from the United States that as a nation we represent diversity as opposed to what the messaging was coming from the Russian Parliament, President and Prime Minister.
Caitlin handled herself as any ambassador of the United States should do and that was with class, not to duck any issues with the international media and be a proud American cheering on her fellow citizens in international play after the Opening Ceremonies.
Caitlin was offered the opportunity to serve the United States again this past Spring of 2014 and that was to use her knowledge as an athlete and join the President's Fitness, Nutrition and Health council. Honored, Caitlin accepted a 4 year term and was sworn in at the White House on September 15, 2014.
Additionally, now living in Chicago, Caitlin has now taken the Illinois Bar Exam awaiting her results and is a clerk for the United States Bankruptcy Court. A little over a year and a half removed from taking her USA jersey off, she is still representing her nation today.
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Tessa Bonhomme
When do you say goodbye. You say goodbye when you know you have done all that you needed to do and you know what exactly you want to do next.
On September 17, Tessa made her official retirement from international hockey and announced her Hockey Canada days were over, but not her days on the ice in a game she still loves. Playing on the national team though takes a long term commitment and Tessa has been able to find something that makes her enjoy and be as passionate about her time in hockey and that is being a broadcaster.
At the conclusion of her time on CBC's Battle of the Blades, she was offered the opportunity to take a chance and become a broadcaster with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment's Leafs TV and GOL Canada TV covering Toronto FC. Early on being on the other side of the camera had its challenges. Challenges though are things that every athlete knows that they can overcome with the right guidance, coaching and most importantly work ethic. When you make mistakes or you aren't quite comfortable after a game, you go back and look at the tape and figure out how to do better. This was never lost on Tessa and she progressively become a better broadcaster with thanks to caring producers like Frank Hayward amongst others at Leafs TV.
Putting her broadcast career on hold (which she was balancing between Hockey Canada + the Toronto Furies of the CWHL) and moving to Calgary for another opportunity to win another Gold medal at the Olympics for Canada, the Olympic dream was cut short when she was let go from the team in November 2013. Having moved back to Toronto, she began her job again with Leafs TV in January 2014 and was given the opportunity by TSN to work on national television during their rebroadcast of her 2014 Women's National team play at the Olympic Games in Sochi. While this might have been a sad note for some, a true broadcast professional could handle it.
After the Olympics and back on Leafs TV / GOL TV Canada, both TSN and Rogers gave her additional opportunities, but in the summer of 2014, TSN gave her an entirely different role and that was to take a shot at hosting a sport she had no connection to, tennis. Just as Canadian Eugenia Bouchard was taking the world by storm with a historic run at the French Open, Tessa got to cover it in-studio in Toronto. Following the French, she was given the opportunity to work on Wimbledon and TSN was sold.
With the launch of TSN's new channel offerings on August 25, 2014, they were give her the opportunity to become an anchor for SportsCentre. Officially, TSN named her as a full-time member of their SportsCentre staff on the day of her retirement from international competition and begin her new career.
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All three of these ladies are driven to be the best that they can be whether that be in court, in law enforcement or covering the latest in sports. They learned all of this in a team environment that came from ice hockey. A great game that distilled teamwork, leadership, adversity, championships, defeat and hard work to what is next. THE GAME OF LIFE.
This is one game that I know that the 3 of them will always have a leg up on their competition and am very proud to work for all of them.
b
