Leah Herrfort Looks To Grab A Golden Opportunity At FISU Games

While most university students are spending the holiday break preparing for the new semester, some student athletes have their focus on a potential career-defining tournament.

Canada announced their roster for the 2025 International University Sports Federation (FISU) Winter World University Games for the women’s hockey team on Dec. 10, which will be held in Torino, Italy, the tournament’s birthplace. 11 winter sports will be hosted over the course of 11 days.

Leah Herrfort is one of two players returning from the 2023 gold medal Canadian winning roster, where she averaged a point per game en route with three goals and four assists in just seven games.

The Waterloo Warriors’ forward was crowned the Ontario University Association (OUA) Player and Forward of the Year in 2023 after she broke the Warriors all-time record for points in a single season with 15 goals and 21 assists (36 points) in 23 games, only missing three games while she was playing in the FISU Games.

Herrfort is on pace to excel the same way this season with three goals and eight assists in just twelve regular season games so far.

“I really just am honoured to have even been considered among all the athletes that were considered,” said Herrfort. “The OUA specifically I know has tons of talent, and then you look at U Sports and all the teams out east and west, so it’s such an honour to have even been considered, let alone accepted.”

Heading into the tournament, she has been maintaining her training consistently, which has looked different since she has the month of December off from playing OUA games.

While she credits her Warriors coaching staff for ensuring that there is always available ice to practice on daily and open gyms, she relies on herself to keep herself game ready.

“It’s up to me to do my own on-ice stuff and be in the gym and everything like that, just holding myself accountable and keeping my schedule as similar as it would have been.”

While she acknowledges herself as a veteran presence on the team and looks forward to contributing, she doesn't know what the dynamic will be until the tournament edges closer.

“I know that I have a little bit of experience at the tournament, so I can bring that to the team,” said Herrfort. “I understand that as an athlete, sometimes your role changes. I know with Waterloo I might have a different role then on the Canadian team. I’ll do my best to get to know everybody and hopefully if I can emphasize that, then that’s something I definitely want to do.”

The feeling of camaraderie is something that Herrfort looks back on fondly from the 2023 FISU Games, where she was able to bond with players more closely off the ice.

“It was really cool, we had a little hockey community where everyone on the team was staying at a university, so everyone on my team shared a hallway, and we were all just roommates,” she giggled.

This provided her the opportunity to not only get to know her teammates, but players across the tournament.

“At the dining hall, every single team was there, so you got to meet all these people and chat with different teams,” she said. “We played cards with a bunch of different teams pretty much every night, it was kind of like a camp, I felt like I was a little kid again.”

Despite the focus of remaining dialed into competition and performance, the FISU Games is also a test for students who juggle their schoolwork and athletics, which can be difficult given that the tournament starts right at the beginning of a new semester of classes.

For Herrfort, who is majoring in economics, the key is finding pockets of free time to dedicate towards keeping up with her classwork.

“It’s definitely challenging, I won’t lie,” said Herrfort. “Every kind of downtime we get, we really do some schoolwork and heading into this tournament, I think that is going to be my plan. It’s a balance, you want to be able to keep up with your work and then also be able to see Italy.”

Overall, Herrfort knows what is ultimately at stake for the female athletes involved in this tournament: a chance to be seen by Professional Women Hockey League (PWHL) scouts. Herrfort is expected to enter the 2025 PWHL draft class.

Herrfort acknowledges that the FISU Games can be “huge” for the future of a student athlete who wants to continue their playing career.

“Now that there is the PWHL, that’s just awesome,” she said. “Now coming into the tournament full stem ahead, I know it’s an option if you want it and want to work for it, so that kind of helps with my mindset going in.”

The women’s hockey event will run from Jan. 12-22, 2025.