A former Jasperite, Olympian and advocate for women's sports was inducted into the University of Alberta's new Sports Wall of Fame last week.
Before moving to Edmonton to attend the U of A in 1979 and before competing in the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics as a member of Canada's women's field hockey team, Debra (Covey)
Barnett was a Jasper high school student and athlete.
“Every single sport that you could do at school, I did,” she said, crediting teachers, coaches, community members and parents for mentoring her in her youth.
“I was so lucky that with my passions, whenever I was ready to go to the next level, there was always somebody out there willing to mentor me.
“I got such a good foundation from all the mentors that were in this town.”
By the time Barnett left Jasper to attend university, pursuing a Bachelor of Physical Education, she said she was well prepared to take on a higher level of competition, so she joined the university's volleyball team and soon became captain.
“I did that for three years and I won athlete of the year for women of the whole university for volleyball.”
That same year, the volleyball team decided to play field hockey as part of its cross-training and Barnett was invited to join the school's field hockey team for a tournament.
“When we got back from that, the field hockey coach said to my coach, 'she needs to play field hockey, she will make the provincial team and she has a shot to make the national team. This is her sport, she's good.'”
When Barnett's volleyball coach relayed the message to her, she was crushed, thinking she was no longer wanted on the team.
“But she said to me, 'you've got to know I want you to play for my team, you're the best captain ever, you're so talented, but you're just too short to make the national team.'”
So the next season Barnett joined the field hockey team and in no time she was at a training camp with the national team and on the backup squad for the 1984 Olympic team. She didn't compete that year, but four years later she found herself competing in Seoul, where her team finished sixth, and another four years later she was in Barcelona, where it finished seventh.
“As a team, we were one of the most successful women's teams of all time, in terms of getting to the Olympics,” she said, noting that Canada hasn't had a women's field hockey team in the Olympics since the games were in Barcelona.
While Barnett was competing at the top of her sport, she was also completing her education, gaining a bachelors and masters degree, working as a field hockey coach and fighting for women's rights in sports.
“We were fighting for home and away games, because ours was a tournament format and the guys had home and away; and the guys would get uniforms and practice jerseys as part of being on the team, we had to fundraise for all of that; they would have four or five coaches and we had one poor coach doing everything.
“My cause was a vision for getting women's sport more on par with the men's sport and I was around all of these people who helped support that.”
While completing her masters and competing for Canada's senior national team, Barnett was also assistant coach for her old team at the U of A, until she moved to the University of Calgary where she served as the head coach of its women's field hockey team from 1992 to 1999, as well as assistant coach to the junior women's national field hockey team from 1994 to 1997.
When she speaks about coaching and the many women she's worked with over the years, Barnett's passion shines through. She can recall making the athletes shovel off the field in -30 degree weather, just so they could practice, and being endlessly impressed by their dedication to team and the sport.
More recently, Barnett has been living in Australia where she is the head coach of the Newtown City Hockey Club in Geelong. The club boasts nearly 300 members between the ages of three and 70, including Barnett's two sons, Matthew and Caleb.
Barnett was recognized amongst 28 alumni in the annual University of Alberta Alumni Awards, and as one of four alumni to be inducted into the Sports Wall of Fame.
As each of the alumni was introduced at the awards ceremony, Sept. 24, she said was quick to compare herself, questioning how she ended up on the list.
She said it was a humbling experience—one that was only made better by a touching Facebook post written by her son that praised all of her achievements, not only in sport, but as a stellar mom.
Nicole Veerman
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