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Fourth-year Hockey Mountie Jessica Desautels’ hockey career has had its challenges. She started as a figure skater at five and after watching her dad play hockey, she wanted to make the switch.

“My dad was playing hockey and I wanted to try it. I was awful at first,” she laughs.

Always one of the smallest players on the ice, she stuck with it, did power skating lessons, and made her way through the levels, eventually developing into a rep hockey player. She played with the Oakville Hornets and junior hockey with the Burlington Barracudas in her last year of high school.

As she developed as a player, she also experienced a number of concussions along the way. In her final year of high school, she had a bad collision with another player that would sideline her until November of her first year at 69���˵�Ӱ��. After a few months with the Mounties, she would face her longest break from the sport.

“My first year at 69���˵�Ӱ�� in February I got hit twice, which ended up taking me out of the game for a year,” she says.

Desautels decided to stay with the program on the coach’s roster.

“That year was tough to watch my teammates play, but it was a necessary year to recover,” she says.

In January of her second year she decided she wanted to come back to the sport and in her third year she returned to the ice with the Mounties.

She says because of the concussions, she has experienced challenges with her overall performance on the ice and with her memory. But it’s the love of the sport that keeps her coming back.

“Honestly, I just love being on the ice,” she says. “Putting on a pair of skates is just freeing and, no matter where it is, I just love getting on the ice.”

During her time with the Mounties, what stands out to her the most are the off-ice memories with her teammates.

“Sure there are big wins along the way that will stay with me as top moments, but I will remember all the time I spent with my teammates off the ice that has made us so much closer.”

Being a student-athlete in hockey is a full-year commitment, which means there isn’t a lot of free time between the sport and her studies, but she wouldn’t change a thing.

“It’s definitely a lot harder than people think, but I wouldn’t take it back for sure. It’s tough, but we have a lot of support around us,” she says.

A biology major with a minor in French, Desautels says she has fallen in love with studying biology and enjoys the human aspect of it.

“Being an athlete, I was fascinated with how my body works and how it moves,” she says. “And I’m also an animal lover, so I enjoy that part of it as well.”

When she does have some time off the ice and outside the classroom, she spends it with her dog — a burnedoodle named Caper.

After graduation she is interested in a couple different paths, including physio or athletic therapy, which was inspired by the challenges she faced with her sports-related injuries. She is also interested in possibly pursuing a medical path through the military.