MacGregor’s Tamara McVannel finished out her fifth and final hockey season at the University of Regina this past year.

The defenceman put up a total of 12 points in 28 games in 2019-20, which marked her second-highest point total in her Cougars career.

“We had a really young group of girls coming in and we had three girls who were my age who were the leaders of the team,” says McVannel. “We came out pretty hot in preseason and had a pretty good start overall to the season. Near the end of the first half of the season, it kind of went downhill, however, after Christmas break we started to pick it back up again and went on a little bit of a win streak which helped us place back into the playoffs. We made it into the first round of the playoffs but unfortunately lost there.”

She says the season was bittersweet for her. She said she really wanted to make the playoffs for her final season and when they were out of a postseason position at the holiday break, she rallied the girls. She says everything came together after that and the team bonded really well. She says this made the season great despite being ousted early in the playoffs.

She talks more about her time with the Cougars and the note she ended her career on.

“I still don’t think it has even hit me yet that I’m not going back next year,” says McVannel. “It was one of those moments that you knew was going to happen but you just didn’t want it to end up going that way (being eliminated). I made so many friendships and memories through my five years with the University and I have no regrets looking back at it, I just hope that I was a good enough leader that I inspired some of the younger players to carry on and follow their dreams on the hockey team.”

In her career with the Cougars, McVannel put up a combined total of 54 points through five seasons. She explains the main thing she learned over the last five years.

“It’s not always about skills,” says McVannel. “It would be more about the team meshing together. We had a lot of girls that were skilled players but when we didn’t mesh together our outcomes weren’t great, however, when we came together and played as a team, that’s when everything went the way we wanted it to go.”