Botterill, Campbell-Pascall Release Memoirs

From the rink to the broadcast booth, the careers of Team Canada alumni Cassie Campbell-Pascall and Jennifer Botterill are heavily intertwined. Both multiple Olympic gold medallists have released memoirs this fall via Penguin Random House Publishing. “Just A Girl” by Campbell-Pascall was written in collaboration with Sean Fitz-Gerald, the 2015 Sportswriter of the Year named by Sports Media Canada.  Botterill partnered with veteran writer Kristina Rutherford for “Why Not You.”  

A public event hosted last Tuesday at the Toronto Reference Library celebrated the publication of both books.

“I dedicated ‘Why Not You’ to my three daughters,” Botterill told the assembled gathering of about 150 fans, family members, and former teammates. “My youngest, Willow, opened up the book and was the first one to notice the dedication. It was a beautiful moment for me.”

Botterill’s eventual journey to the Hockey Hall of Fame started in her hometown of Winnipeg, the strong-skating forward persevering to earn a spot on Team Canada’s 1998 Olympic roster as an 18-year-old.  Along with teammate Campbell-Pascall, Botterill and the maple leaf-clad squad fell to the rival Americans in the bid to become the first-ever women’s hockey gold medallists at the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

“We listened as they sang the American national anthem at the top of their lungs,” Botterill describes in a gut-wrenching chapter. “I had never felt so sad in my life.”

Of course it wasn’t all gloom and doom. As chronicled in “Why Not You,” Botterill went on to star at Harvard University, and to date remains the only multiple winner of the Patty Kazmaier Award that recognizes the top female player in U.S. collegiate hockey. 

Olympic fans of a certain age are familiar with the rest of Botterill’s storied international career. She excelled on  Canada’s rosters that went on to not only avenge the defeat four years later in Salt Lake City, UT, but also capture gold in 2006 in Torino, Italy, and again on home soil at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.  In the latter year, Botterill assisted on Marie-Philip Poulin’s opening goal of the gold medal game, a tally that held up as the eventual game-winner.

Following her retirement the following year, Botterill started a family with her husband Adrian Lomanaco. A renowned public speaker, she found work as a broadcaster on both sides of the border. Her pacifist views often clashed with Hockey Night In Canada panelist Kevin Bieksa and made her the target of armchair critics on social media. 

Nevertheless, Botterill has always remained resolute in her anti-violence stance. “It seemed the most vocal fans had only negative things to say about my opinions,” she writes. “I would have to remind myself… that I was there to have an impact, that it was worth any of the vitriol in sent in my direction.”

Both women’s hockey icons moved to broadcasting

Botterill was of course preceded on Hockey Night In Canada by Campbell-Pascall, who made history in October 2006 by becoming the first woman in the history of the iconic program to do colour commentary on a live broadcast.

In “Just A Girl”, Campbell-Pascall speaks of growing up in New Jersey, then Brampton, Ontario, before embarking on a university career that saw her star with the University of Guelph Gryphons.  Her experience in making Team Canada’s entry at the 1997 World Championship was far different than her teammates’. Having been identified as the most marketable player on the team – she had done some modelling –  Campbell-Pascall was singled out to appear on the event’s promotional posters, which earned her unwanted attention, particularly the nickname “Poster Girl.”

“I am twenty-three years old. Suddenly, I’m the face of this tournament. This wasn’t part of the plan. I feel alone and deeply uncomfortable,” she writes.

Nevertheless, Canada went on to beat the United States at the tournament on home soil prior to losing the inaugural women’s hockey Olympic gold medal game the following year. During the next two Olympic cycles – 2002 and 2006 – Campbell-Pascall made history by becoming the first Canadian – male or female – to captain two gold medal-winning teams in hockey.

It’s hard to imagine Canada winning Olympic gold in Torino, 2006 without either Campbell-Pascall or Botterill. But, both women describe in their books how the coaching staff led by Melody Davidson labelled each of them as ‘bubble’ players in the lead-up to the Winter Games in Italy. Yes, either of them could have just as easily been cut, a fate that unceremoniously befell American rival Cammi Granato that year.   

Thanks to both, women’s hockey is watched outside of the Olympics

Each of Botterill’s and Campbell-Pascall’s career paths is exemplified by resilience and perseverance, particularly as they starred in the early 2000s when women’s hockey was still a niche sport that had a lukewarm following outside of the quadrennial Olympic cycle. 

Furthermore, Campbell-Pascall gets deeply personal in “Just A Girl” as she opens up about her struggles with infertility.  This often traumatic chapter in her life does have a happy ending; she and her husband Brad became proud parents of daughter Brooke, now nearly sixteen years old at the time of this writing.

Each memoir has its share of eye-popping anecdotes. “Why Not You” outlines a Team Canada training exercise in which Botterill was figuratively backstabbed by a competing teammate.   “Just A Girl” contains a narrative of a practical joke that involved a dildo. No spoilers.

Both women have carved remarkable career paths in wearing the maple leaf for Team Canada prior to transitioning to broadcasting. Both of them have established themselves as role models for young hockey players in this country, particularly their daughters. 

And now, both Botterill and Campbell-Pascall have enjoyable memoirs in which to share their stories.