This year, Saint Mary’s celebrates the 50th anniversary of women in varsity sport. Throughout the year, we will highlight women in sport at Saint Mary’s, like hockey pro Courtney Schriver-Richard BA’11, who followed her dream to the NHL.
Courtney Schriver-Richard BA’11
Courtney Schriver-Richard BA’11 chuckles when she talks about her early days playing hockey. “I am your quintessential Canadian,” she says. “I basically came out of the womb as a hockey player.”
Born in Newfoundland but raised in Halifax, Courtney was playing hockey by the time she was three. She was inspired by an older brother, and even though there weren’t many girls playing in the 1990s, that didn’t stop her. “I was a bit of an anomaly at that time, but I started playing as soon as they would allow me to register.”
She had early and profound success as a hockey player, leaving her family for Mississauga when she was only 15 to play in the Ontario Women’s Hockey League. “It was an incredible experience but I was also homesick and forced to grow up quickly,” she says. “I thought of that as the price I had to pay for playing the game I loved so much.”
When it came time to choose a university, Halifax called her back. Saint Mary’s, with their strong hockey program and well-respected head coach, seemed like the obvious choice. “Lisa (Jordan) Haley had been a bit of a mentor and a role model for me growing up,” says Courtney. "I knew she was tough and fair and that she would give me the tools I needed to be successful in university hockey.”
And to the surprise of no one, Courtney, or “Schriv” as she came to be known, did succeed. Her long list of accolades includes AUS Rookie of the Year, AUS MVP, three-time AUS First Team, CIS Rookie of the Year, and CIS First Team All-Canadian. Most impressive of all, is the Huskies record that Courtney still holds for the most goals scored in a single season.
Head Coach Lisa Haley first saw Courtney play hockey when she was in her mid-teens and trying out for the U18 Canada Games team. “Her natural hockey talents were obvious to everyone,” says Lisa. “It’s like she had the puck on a string every time it touched her stick. And her shot was lethal.”
While it was clear that her hockey talent was at an elite level, that’s not what made Courtney a "generational" player, as the best in the game are often described. She was loaded with what Lisa describes as ‘grit.'
Courtney (center) drops the puck at a SMU Huskies hockey game. She was an Honorary Co-Chair of the 2019 Huskies Hockey reunion.
““I could see that she had so much potential, and that hasn’t changed. Schriv’s potential is still sky-high. She’s earned everything she’s accomplished in her amazing career and is also an incredible role model to the student-athletes who are following in her footsteps.””
Mentally tough. Incredibly focused. Driven. These are common terms used to describe Courtney both on and off the ice. It’s these qualities that enabled her to set her sights on the NHL early in her career and to make that dream come true.
Right from her graduation from Saint Mary’s, she made a point of trying to align herself with brands that were sports-related. Her first job was a Marketing position with Tim Hortons, where part of her job was managing the marketing portfolio for their TimBits Hockey. She then moved on to another Canadian sports brand, Boston Pizza, where she developed relationships with some of the NHL brands.
Her tenacity to work in the game of hockey paid off when she was offered the position of General Manager of Business for the Cape Breton Eagles, part of the Quebec Major Junior League. She worked her butt off, learning every intricacy of the game, not unlike a player or a coach, and this culminated in an offer from the Edmonton Oilers in 2022 as their Manager of Corporate Partnerships.
"Working at the highest level in hockey was always my goal and working in the NHL was the ultimate dream,” says Courtney, who adds it’s been a team effort. “I’m so grateful to my husband and son who have basically moved every two years in support of my dream of getting here. It hasn’t been easy but they’ve made those sacrifices for me.”
Her son, Nash, age 11, has followed in his mom’s footsteps, and plays hockey too, loving the perks of her job. “It makes me happy that my family, after all they’ve done for me, get to reap some of the benefits of my work,” says Courtney who takes her family to as many Oilers games as they can get to.
Courtney credits Saint Mary’s with helping her learn how to multi-task, perform under pressure, and be accountable to those she makes commitments to. “At SMU, I was a student first and an athlete second, and to play the game I loved, I had to do well in the classroom.”
She also deeply appreciates the deep and enduring friendships she made while playing for the Huskies. “There are so many amazing women who I shared experiences with and learned so much from,” she says, adding that they also had a lot of fun. She fondly remembers the bus trips, the hotels, and that first step onto the ice of the old SMU rink during early morning practices.
Courtney marvels at how things have changed for women athletes in the past couple of decades. “There are so many different paths for young women athletes to go down now, so many different options available. Many more than there were for me, it’s a different landscape.”
And when she gets the chance to talk to university-aged women athletes about their futures, she always makes a point of telling them that the NHL isn’t just for men. “There are so many jobs working in the game and there are jobs for you, as a woman, if the NHL is your dream too. If this is the place you want to be, there are opportunities here for you to live that dream.”
By Renée Hartleib