Kisil a ‘Commanding Presence’
Skilled second-year centre a leader on Bison squad
Regan Sarmatiuk Staff
In only her second year with the Bison women’s hockey team, Leanne Kisil is making her presence felt. The 6’0’’ centre from Winnipeg has taken on a significant leadership role as an assistant captain and is currently leading the team in scoring with eight goals and eight assists through 16 games, good for fourth in the Canada West conference.
Kisil, who is currently in the faculty of science, is happy with the way this year’s relatively rookie-laden Bison team has gelled so far, and she tries to lead by letting her play and her attitude do the talking.
“I try to bring a positive attitude to every practice and every game. I try not to single anybody out and to have a relationship with everyone on the team, not just with certain individuals, and I just try to lead by example on the ice and show that I’m putting in 100 per cent,” said Kisil.
Apparently, her approach is working, as part of the selection process for captains on the Bison team involves a player vote, and Kisil received a lot of votes, according to head coach Jon Rempel.
“I don’t think of her as a second-year player, and that’s one of the reasons why she is an assistant captain this year. She’s a commanding presence; girls respect her and . . . she has really dedicated herself to trying to improve and to make herself better this year. . . . She’s a great player and a great person to have on the team,” said Rempel recently.
The Bison head coach also had nothing but high praise for Kisil’s ability on the ice.
“She has the ability to see the ice, and in female hockey, that’s a rare commodity right now, I find. Just the ability to have patience with the puck — she doesn’t throw the puck away. She has great hands and is a very, very highly-skilled player,” said Rempel, who also added that Kisil logs a lot of minutes on the team and is looked to for the power play and penalty kill as well.
Growing up hockey
Kisil, whose last team before joining the Bisons was the St. Vital AA Victorias, pretty much grew up immersed in hockey culture. She began playing at the age of six, and had an older brother who played to look up to.
“I used to go play shinny with [my brother] and his friends — I used to always take on the guys, and I used to go to his games and play mini-sticks with the other brothers and sisters,” said Kisil, who played for boys’ teams up until she was 13, when she switched over to a girls’ team.
“I was pretty much the only girl on the team most of the time [growing up]. . . . I was really shy, but I think I still played the same. I think they kind of stuck up for me, because I was the only girl.”
When asked to describe her most memorable hockey moment growing up, Kisil mentioned beating the dominant St. Adolphe Hawks, whom her current teammates Sara Stebeleski and Brandy Ross played for at the time, during provincials.
“It was just a round-robin game, so it didn’t mean anything by way of the standings . . . but it felt like we had won the whole thing, because . . . we always wanted to beat them because they were the top dogs,” recalled Kisil.
Today, Kisil said that she and Stebeleski share the odd laugh about the past — mainly because Stebeleski, a smaller player, used to get in Kisil’s face and “rock” her from time to time — but Kisil is just excited to be a part of the Bison team at such an exciting time in the program’s history.
Last year, the Bisons took home a bronze medal in their first-ever appearance at the national championships, and the significance of that is not lost on Kisil.
“I think for a lot of other girls out there, this would be a once in a lifetime thing. They’d love to be in this position, so you’ve just got to play with everything you’ve got.”
