Mya Headrick accepts scholarship to join Minnesota’s Bemidji State University

By Sam Laskaris

OAKVILLE – Though currently in Grade 11, Mya Headrick already knows what her post-secondary academic and athletic careers will look like.

The 15-year-old, a member of Garden River First Nation, has accepted a full scholarship offer from Minnesota’s Bemidji State University.

Headrick is hoping to take classes in the Exercise Science program and suit up for the women’s hockey squad at the university, located in the northern Minnesota city of Bemidji, starting with the 2022-23 season.

Headrick is thrilled she has already made a post-secondary commitment and does not have to spend the next couple of years deciding her future.

“It feels great,” she said. “It’s a weight off my shoulders.”

Headrick will become the third member of her family to play university hockey.

Her brother Owen started the trend when he joined Michigan’s Lake Superior State University for the 2015-16 campaign. He spent a year and a half there before leaving school to join the Pennsylvania-based Erie Otters, members of the Ontario Hockey League.

After using up his junior eligibility, Owen Headrick once again became a student/athlete. He is now at the University of Prince Edward Island, where he was selected as the school’s male athlete of the year for his efforts during the 2019-20 campaign.

Meanwhile, sister Jana Headrick spent the past four years toiling for the University of Toronto women’s hockey squad. She has since transferred to the University of New Brunswick to pursue a master’s degree and use up her final year of collegiate eligibility.

Mya Headrick said she consulted with both of her older siblings before agreeing to accept the Bemidji State offer.

“They told me to make sure it feels like home and to make sure that I’ll be happy about the decision,” said Headrick, who started playing hockey at the age of three with the Sault Female Hockey Association. “Bemidji felt like home. That’s where I wanted to go.”

Headrick added she was also seriously considering two other schools, one in Canada and one in the United States, before she chose Bemidji.

The Minnesota university is about a nine-hour drive from her home in Garden River First Nation, but she has already become accustomed to living away from home.

Headrick began her high school studies at St. Mary’s College in Sault Ste. Marie, the northern Ontario city beside her First Nation.

But the following year she moved to Sudbury and attended Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School for Grade 10. She spent last season toiling with the Sudbury Lady Wolves’ Midget AA squad.

As for this year, Headrick was on the move once again; now at Appleby College, an independent school in Oakville.

And she is also a member of the Etobicoke club in the Provincial Women’s Hockey League.

Because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, however, neither the Appleby school team nor the Etobicoke squad are playing games right now.

Though she would prefer to be playing hockey as well, Headrick said she is enjoying her current school year.

“I definitely like it,” said Headrick, who turns 16 on Nov. 29. “It’s a good experience to get me ready for university.”

Headrick said Bemidji officials had seen her play in tournaments last season. And they also saw her in action at a provincial girls’ under-16 camp in July 2019. But because of NCAA regulations, they were not allowed to talk to her until mid-June of this year. Following some discussions and a virtual tour of the school (the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Headrick from travelling to the U.S.), Headrick agreed to accept Bemidji’s scholarship offer.

“It was unbelievable,” she said. “I was extremely happy – through the roof.”