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2003-2004 HUMANITARIAN AWARD WINNER
Northeastern University
 BOSTON,
Mass. – Northeastern
University senior goalie Chanda Gunn, who has
combined an all-star career as a collegiate hockey
player with a strong commitment to her community
and team, along with studies, has been named recipient
of the 2004 College Hockey Humanitarian Award.
The Award, which recognizes college hockey’s
finest citizen, was presented to Gunn today (April
9th) at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall as
part of the festivities surrounding NCAA hockey’s
Division 1 Frozen Four.
This marks the ninth year the Award is being presented,
and Gunn is the second woman to be honored. In
1999, Kristine Pierce, from Rochester Institute
of Technology, became the first woman and first
non-Division 1 player to be honored. The previous
Humanitarian Award winners were Boston University
goalie J.P. McKersie, who received the initial
Humanitarian Award in 1996. University of Michigan
defenseman Blake Sloan was the 1997 recipient,
while University of Wisconsin’s Erik Raygor
was the 1998 Humanitarian. Following Pierce being
honored in 1999, the University of Maine’s
Jim Leger won the Award in 2000, while Jason Cupp
from the University of Nebraska-Omaha was the
2001 recipient. In 2002, the Humanitarian Award
winner was Buffalo State’s Rocky Reeves and
last year, Cornell’s Sam Paolini took the
honors.
Ironically, a year ago, Gunn was one of the five
finalists for the Award, but it was Paolini who
was judged college hockey’s finest citizen.
This year, it is Gunn who so richly deserves the
award.
On the ice this past season, as the Huskies’
team captain, she compiled an overall record of
8-11-8, including three shutouts. She led the
nation in save percentage with a .938, while she
was 10th in the nation in goals against average
with a 2.06. For her performance for the Huskies,
who finished with an overall record of 13-13-8
and were fourth in Hockey East, she was selected
the Co-MVP of the league and was voted First Team
All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association.
In addition, for the third straight year, she
was a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, which
is presented to the nation’s top collegiate
women’s hockey player.
However, her playing career did not end when the
Huskies’ season concluded. In fact, she was
on the U.S. Women’s National Team that won
a silver medal in the 2004 Ice Hockey Federation
Women’s World Championships in Nova Scotia.
One of Gunn’s highlights was an 8-0 shutout
of Russia on Thursday, April 1. It marked her
first shutout in international competition.
A native of Huntington, CA, Gunn finished her
Northeastern career with an overall record of
38-34-12 with 11 career shutouts along with a
1.92 GAA and a .937 save percentage.
The mere fact that she is playing hockey is remarkable,
let alone excelling in the sport. The reason is
that in the fourth grade she was diagnosed with
epilepsy and didn’t pick up hockey until
she was 14 years old. It didn’t take her
long to excel, though, and by the time she was
ready for college, she matriculated at the University
of Wisconsin.
Despite posting a 3-3-2 record as well as a 1.91
GAA and a .933 save percentage, things didn’t
work out for Gunn so she transferred to Northeastern.
She saw limited action in her first year as she
was adjusting to life at Northeastern, while beginning
her course of studies in Athletic Training and
serving as the backup goalie for Northeastern.
It was during her sophomore season that she emerged
as one of the top women’s collegiate hockey
players in the nation. She rewrote the Northeastern
record books as a sophomore with 23 wins and a
.950 save percentage. Her complete statistics
were 23-6-1 with a 1.37 GAA to go along with the
save percentage.
As a junior, she became the first woman collegiate
hockey player to be named a finalist for both
the Kazmaier and Humanitarian Awards after finishing
the season with a 7-16-3 record along with a 2.18
GAA and a .928 save percentage. Her save percentage
ranked third in the nation, while she was 12th
in goals against average. In addition, she made
the 2003 USA National Team for the World Championships
in Beijing, China and the Four Nations Cup. This
season she is captain of the Husky team, while
continuing to put in top-notch performances starting
in net.
As committed as she has been to improve as a hockey
player, that is how focused she has been on helping
others.
Her involvement in community activities began
in 1995 while still in high school in her native
California. From 1995-98, she was a volunteer
coach with the local mite and squirt teams and
began teaching in the “Skate/Mommy and Me”
programs. She also began working at summer clinics,
camps, and pre-season practices for the Cal Selects
(formerly Team California) girls’ hockey
program at all age levels.
She then spent a year at the Taft School before
matriculating at the University of Wisconsin.
While at Taft, she worked in a soup kitchen.
During the 1999-2000 season, she was a head coach
for the Cal Selects U12 team, and, even though
she is attending school in Boston, she continued
to coach the Cal Select U12s.
Her desire to help in the local community continued
when she began at Northeastern. During the 2000-01
season, she began assisting the local U12 South
Shore Kings in the league’s initial season
and assisted the team with practices and in tournaments.
She also participated in the Campus Clean Up Day
and volunteered for the Boston Breakers in the
initial season of the WUSA.
In 2001-2002, she organized the team to raise
money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and
she remains active with the CFF and the Great
Strides Walk, which raises money to help cure
Cystic Fibrosis. She has currently raised over
$3,000 for the Foundation. In addition, she trained
with a Hospice program to become a Hospice volunteer,
which she still does today, to aid those suffering
from terminal illnesses, most with less than six
months to live.
Last year, she was an active member of the Northeastern
Student Athlete Advisory Board. She was also a
student mentor for freshmen in the athletic training
program, and became a Big Sister in the Big Brother/Big
Sister of America Program.
This year Gunn serves as the President of the
Northeastern Student Athlete Advisory Board, founded
the Inner City Youth Hockey Program, works with
SCOR Boston to provide underprivileged kids with
hockey instruction, coaches 10 and 12 Massachusetts
Spitfires girls teams, raised $1,000 for Jennifer
Goulet, a Niagara hockey player, who was diagnosed
with throat cancer, works with Heroes Among Us
(Epilepsy Foundation), is a student mentor in
the athletic training program, helped with YMCA
Halloween and Christmas parties, helped with NU
Student Athlete Auction, speaks at elementary
schools, is a student-athlete at NCAA YES program
and adopted a family during Christmas.
“I am deeply honored and flattered to be
receiving this award,” said Gunn. “I
got involved in activities for different reason.
Generally, I would look at something and say this
is really interesting. Or, this is something that
needs to be done. I really love helping out and
sharing with people. I think I am happiest when
I am helping others. I do love seeing people,
kids especially, smile.
“I really don’t expect people to come
to me and say ‘Thanks for making a difference,’”
Gunn continued. “The thanks I get is when
I feel that I have helped someone.
“Something happened over the last couple
of days (April 2nd and 3rd) that I am really proud
of,” she said. “The California 12-and-under
team that I coached last summer was playing for
the national tournament. In the semifinal game,
one of the youngest kids on the team scored the
game’s only goal and the team, 1-0. After
the game, the players gave the girl the puck,
but she turned around and gave the puck to the
goalie and said she deserved it more.
“Then, in the championship game, our team
lost and they called me on the phone,” said
Gunn, who was in Nova Scotia with the U.S. National
Team. “They told me that after the game,
they took off their gloves and went through the
line to congratulate the team that beat them.
I always told the team that it’s a sign of
good sportsmanship to take off your gloves, and
the players couldn’t wait to tell me that
they had taken off their gloves just as I told
them they should do. I was so proud of those kids
when they told me that story. That’s all
the thanks I needed. That’s why I coach.
“I am also proud that some of my Northeastern
teammates come along to volunteer in some of the
activities,” Gunn said. “I’m glad
that many of them then become as enthusiastic
about something as I am.
“After graduation, I am not sure what I am
going to do,” she concluded. “I do know
that I want to make the U.S. national team for
the 2006 Olympics. Outside of hockey, I don’t
know what I will do after graduation, but I do
know that whatever I do will have to involve kids.”
“As much as a catalyst Chanda is for our
women’s ice hockey program, she is having
the same positive impact within the community,”
said Northeastern women’s hockey coach Joy
Woog. “Her contributions to society lead
far beyond hockey. She does so much for others
in her free time that I can’t keep track
of it all.
“When a player dedicates herself to her team,
her education and ministering to others, you find
yourself cheering in her corner,” concluded
Woog. “Through her search to be the best
person she can, she unknowingly challenges me
to do the same. I believe she does this for many.”
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