Former Queen’s Gaels hockey player Slater Doggett has capped off a very good year on and off the ice in 2019 with one of the highest honours a Canadian university student-athlete can receive.
Doggett was named one of eight USports student-athletes from the 2018-19 season across the country to receive The Governor General’s Academic All-Canadian Commendation.
He received the award at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on January 22.
Doggett is the fifth Queen’s athlete to receive the award since 1994.
To qualify for the award, USports student-athletes have to achieve Academic All-Canadian status having maintained an average of 80 percent or better over the academic year while competing for one – or more – of their university’s varsity teams.
“I am very humbled to have received this USports award,” said Doggett in an email exchange from Italy where he is playing for for Sterzing/Vipiteno in the Alps Hockey League. “Being in Ottawa with the other seven athletes was hard to believe that I was considered with them after hearing their stories and how amazing they are in their sports, in the classroom, and how they demonstrate leadership in their respective communities,” he wrote.
“Receiving this award also makes me consider all of the great people that have been a part of my time as a member of USports and how thankful I am to have been surrounded by such quality individuals and groups.”
Doggett, 25, of Oakville, first came to Kingston at 18-years-old to play for the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League. In two seasons he scored 10 goals and 27 points in 126 games. After two years in the Limestone City he moved onto the Windsor Spitfires for his overage season where he upped his offensive output scoring 25 goals and 51 points in 57 games.
After a six-game stint in the East Coast Hockey League Doggett joined the Queen’s Gaels men’s hockey team in 2015-16 and played four years for the Tricolour while taking applied economics. In 103 career games, he scored 59 goals and saved his best hockey for his last season in 2018-19 scoring 21 goals and 34 points in just 25 games. In the playoffs, he led the Gaels to an Ontario University Athletics championship and a berth in the USports national championship in Lethbridge, Alberta last spring.
Doggett was named an OUA East most valuable player and a USports All-Canadian in his last season at Queen’s.
He also won a bronze medal for Canada at the 2017 FISU Winter Universiade in Kazakhstan, and competing for the 2018 USports All-Stars against Hockey Canada’s World Junior Prospects.
Off the ice Doggett has been involved in the Autism Mentorship Program, which pairs autistic youth and adults in meaningful one-on-one mentoring relationships. As well he’s contributed to Nightlight Kingston, volunteering his time with those who are less fortunate. He has also spent time with the Running and Reading Program, volunteering once a week at the Molly Brant Public School in Kingston.
“I enjoyed volunteer work because it was such an important part of being a Gael. On the men’s hockey team we worked with the Navigators organization and they set us up with volunteer opportunities that not only myself but every single player participated in. I found it very rewarding to see how much it made a difference that a group of young men cared to help them.”
Attending classes at Queen’s challenged Doggett in a way he could never imagine but was able to answer those challenges and become a success in the classroom as well.
“My Queen’s experience was full of things I never thought I would do,” he said. “I started university as a very average student and definitely below average relative to my peers at Queen’s. By using the resources available to me I found that I could succeed and be a better student than I ever expected.”
Doggett said he could write a full essay on all the people who helped him while at Queen’s including his parents, girlfriend, classmates, teammates, and coaches on the Gaels.
Doggett said Kingston has been his second home for six of the last seven years.
“I was fortunate to spend two years living in the west end and four years living in the Queen’s student community so I’ve seen a lot of Kingston and love the city. One of the reasons I decided to study at Queen’s was to be back in Kingston. I don’t have any immediate plans to settle in Kingston but I know I’ll be back to visit the beautiful city every year.”
