Janice Cossar of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, has always been a busy woman, most notably dividing her time between being a talented multi-athlete and an excellent role model for young women. Janie multi-tasked all through university, collecting three degrees, playing varsity soccer and field hockey, and supporting herself financially. Janice’s interest in sports began in the backyard where she eagerly participated in whatever sport her brothers were playing. The lack of organized sport for young girls never discouraged Janice, but simply caused her to explore new avenues. At age 10, she started playing ringette because she longed to be on the ice, but there wasn’t a girls’ hockey team. Janice became an excellent scorer in ringette and, as former coach Paul Puma puts it, “a real student of the game”. Janice participated in multiple national ringette championships, including 1989 when she played on “virtually one leg” after suffering a severe ankle sprain. Paul explains that Janice was “a team player” who “would never quit no matter how much pain she had to endure”. Janice’s unselfish nature made her an excellent mentor for the other players, and her humble attitude impressed coaches such as Paul.

Janice brought her skill and cordiality to ice hockey as well, joining Saint Mary’s club team at age 15 and playing in the national hockey championships as the youngest participant, at age 17. In high school, Janice also took up basketball and softball, before commencing field hockey at Dalhousie. She caught on to new sports quickly, scoring 14 of Nova Scotia’s 16 goals in field hockey at the Canada Games, after playing for only a year. Despite her success in all sports, Janice chose to focus on soccer because she wanted to “see how far she could go” in a sport with fresh opportunities.

During her years at Acadia University, Janice participated in three AUS soccer championships, helping to bring home the gold every time. She was also named CIS All-Canadian three times as a keeper. Janice gained the honour of playing for the Canadian National Women’s soccer team from 1987-1990, representing Canada internationally. Janice describes the experience of playing in China in front of 50,000 people as “surreal”. Throughout her athletic career Janice has been recognized as a five-time All-Canadian in ringette, a two-time AUS All-Star in field hockey, a three-time CIS All-Canadian in soccer, and as the 1988 CIS tournament MVP for goaltending. Janice has proven her philosophy that “there is no need to make excuses” by allowing her accomplishments to outshine the challenges she has faced.