Danny Stone

Danny Stone is entering her fifth season with the Huskies women’s hockey team and as pre-season action gets underway, she is already being recognized as an offensive powerhouse with the Dogs for another year.

Having closed out the 2011-12 regular season tied for fifth in the Canada West scoring race with 13 goals and 12 assists in 25 games, Stone is carrying that success into this year. She scored a hat trick in a pre-season match against the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology on Sept. 14.

At the end of this season, the forward from Prince Albert, Sask. will exhaust her Canadian Interuniversity Sport eligibility, but after four years with the club Stone already knows she will always cherish her time with the Huskies.

“There are so many memories made with the girls you meet and play with. I’ve remained friends with lots of the players who have already graduated,” Stone said. “The whole experience with this team is more than anyone could ask for.”

Stone will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in sociology this spring and eventually intends to continue her education, pursuing a bachelor’s in social work through the University of Regina.

She says social work has always been a natural fit for her, especially working with youth. In her free time she volunteers with the Saskatoon Sports Council helping run inner-city sports programs with children from grades four to seven. The group, which boasts a handful of Huskies athletes, puts on sports clinics at six different schools in Saskatoon, each for an hour a week.

Stone has more than just hockey skills to show the youth. In addition to floor hockey, Stone has been involved with basketball and soccer clinics with the city’s sports council. Upon entering university she was forced to turn down scholarship offers from the Huskies’ basketball and track and field teams in order to accept one in hockey and focus her efforts on the ice.

After this year, however, Stone intends on taking a break from hockey and school before finishing her second degree. She plans to save up some money and travel with a friend to Fiji for a few months.

“I’ve always had school and hockey as priorities in my life, but at the end of the year I’ll be graduated from both of them,” she said. “My friend asked me to go to Fiji and with those priorities gone I couldn’t say no.”

After four years with the Huskies, Stone has become a leader on the team and will show it on her jersey this season as one of the assistant captains. This new position on the squad will not change Stone’s pre-game routine, though, which relies on her trusty sidekicks Fro and Muncher.

“Me and Fro [Megan Frohaug] like to skate around the ice before we get our equipment on and I always have Muncher [Brooke Mutch] taping up my stick before every game,” Stone said. “Little things like that help us keep calm and focused on the game.”

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf