Mount Pearl’s Ashley Stratton is the first Atlantic Canadian recruit for the University of New Brunswick’s women’s varsity hockey program, which will restart in 2018 after being sidelined for a decade.
The 17-year-old Stratton, who is playing with U19 women’s team at the Ontario Hockey Academy, in Cornwall, Ont., recently signed a letter of intent with UNB.
She was part of Team Atlantic’s entry at the national U-18 championship earlier this year after spending five seasons with Newfoundland and Labrador’s U-16 and U-18 programs, winning the Atlantic Challenge Cup in 2015.
Stratton was also top scorer for her bantam AAA team that won a provincial title and Atlantic championship.
UNB is restarting the women’s hockey program next season after reaching an agreement with the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission and former Varsity Reds women's hockey player and Newfoundland native Sylvia (Bryson) Dooley, who had filed a complaint after the program was cut in 2008.
“I’m looking forward to the reintroduction of female varsity hockey at UNB, and starting the culture for the Varsity Reds,” said Stratton, who plans on pursuing a bachelor of science degree, focusing on biology and chemistry, at UNB.
