Hayley Wickenheiser

(http://www.rockyview.ab.ca/ prairiewaters/images/hayley_wickenheiser.jpg)

My hero is Hayley Wickenheiser. She is my hero because she is inspiring and stands up for what she believes in. She was born on August 12, 1978 in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan. In 1980 when Hayley was only 2 her dad took her to see her first hockey game. As she started getting older her dad encouraged her to play hockey. She decided she would try it but unfortunately there were no girl teams, so she played on a boy's team with her brother Ross.

When Hayley started playing she loved hockey and playing forward. She scored the most goals on her team. But her father put her back on defense to learn the purpose of the game and not just to score goals. Hayley then moved up to Rep hockey and there she decided she wanted to play in the NHL; she even practiced signing autographs. "I felt nothing was going to stop me from playing in the NHL," Hayley explained. She later moved up to bantam and noticed there were some disadvantages of being the only girl in the league, like not being able to change in the same dressing room and her team mates would treat her differently because she was a girl.

People were always crushing Hayley's dreams, saying she couldn't play in the NHL because she was a girl. Some people would say girls can't play hockey and Hayley would remember saying, "Watch this."

(http://www.righttoplay.com/images/ content/pagebuilder/16578.jpg)

Hayley is an inspiring person to me and other people. She always works hard in everything she does, even off the ice. Hayley is very dedicated to hockey, her coaches and her teammates and that is why she made the Captain for the Women's National Hockey team. Hayley was also the first woman to score a goal in a professional men's team when she played for Salamat, a team in Newfoundland in 2004-2005. Unfortunately she just got cut from her recent tryout, but she still plays for Women's National. Besides being great at hockey, Hayley also does some charity work. Last year she organized a hockey game and all the tickets bought would go toward breast cancer research; they even wore pink uniforms. She is also involved with other charities like AARC and the Canadian Cancer Society.

Hayley won the Olympic Gold Medal in 2002 in Salt Lake City and was a five times world champion. She has inspired me to try hard in everything I do and she taught me that you can do anything you put your mind to. And when someone tells you that you can't do something, believe in yourself and you can achieve anything. For example, people tell me "Girls don't play hockey," or "You'll never win," or sometimes I even doubt myself. Whenever that happens I think of what Hayley went through and how she turned out. Hayley says, "Hockey was my destiny, something I was born to do and I realized it was something I was good at and I liked it." Hayley is brave, dedicated and stands up for what she believes in. That is why she is my hero.