GUELPH, Ont. – Throughout the 2020 fall semester, the University of Guelph Department of Athletics will be highlighting various members from our Gryphon varsity teams as part of our "BioSteel Student-Athlete Spotlight." This week's edition features Aidan Pattison, a biomedical science major and OUA champion with the Guelph Gryphons field hockey team.
   
IN THE CLASSROOM AND COMMUNITY

Calgary native Aidan Pattison impressed on the field during her rookie season in 2019-20 with the OUA champion Gryphon field hockey team. She was even more impressive in the classroom.
 
Aidan's memorable first-year at U of G saw her earn U SPORTS Academic All-Canadian status after boasting an incredible 94.6% average while majoring in bio-medical science. For Pattison, who is now 19-years-old and in her second-year at U of G, the decision to major in bio-medical science was a clear choice. Her passion for medicine is something that was cultivated in her at an early age.
 
Aidan's father, Phil, is a radiologist, working in the Calgary area in several hospitals and clinics. As a child, Aidan recalls endless hours of entertainment playing with some of the instruments and tools found within her father's old medical kits in the house. When her father returned home from a day of work, it was not uncommon for him to be greeted with by his inquisitive daughter, who often had a list of questions for him about how his day went. The seeds were sown early for Aidan. And the bio-medical science major is now on track to pursue a career of her own in medicine. During the summer of 2021, Aidan is looking to take her MCAT and begin the process of looking into and applying to medical schools.
 
Although Aidan Pattison has made the move from Alberta to Guelph, she continues to make an impact in her home community during the offseason. During the summer of 2020, Aidan volunteered with "Brown Bag Lunches" – a school nutrition program organized by a pair of elementary school teachers in her home city of Calgary. The program provides healthy meals to disadvantaged kids in several elementary schools in the Calgary area. Aidan's volunteer duties included making trips to local caterers or grocery stores to pick up the food, or setting up COVID-19-safe protocols in school parking lots to distribute the lunches to those in need in a safe, socially distant manner. Pattison has also dedicated her time to coaching in her hometown, working with children ages 7-to-12 as part of the "Fun Sticks Program" – an initiative run through her former field hockey club in Calgary (the Astros Field Hockey Club) to help grow the sport of field hockey in the Calgary area and introduce youth to the basic skills and rules of the sport.
  
ATHLETICS

To say that Aidan Pattison was a bit of a late bloomer in the sport of field hockey would be an understatement. Hockey and soccer were the primary focus for Aidan throughout the majority of her childhood. But that changed in her Grade 10 year of high school, thanks to something she refers to as a spontaneous decision.
 
"I remember sitting in my classroom in Grade 10, and hearing over the announcements that there was a meeting taking place for anyone interested in playing with our high school field hockey team," says Pattison, who helped the Gryphon women's hockey team capture OUA gold and U SPORTS silver medals during the 2019 season. "I literally knew nothing about field hockey, but my neighbour had an old field hockey stick in their garage. I was a right-handed shot in hockey and in golf, so it felt pretty natural for me when I first picked up the sport. And I just fell in love with the sport right away."
 
It didn't take long for Aidan to establish herself as one of the top field hockey players in the province. Pattison was selected to Team Alberta's U18 field hockey squad and was one of just two girls from that team to be identified to the Team Canada Next Generation Junior Development Squad in 2018. When it came time to apply to University, Aidan's goal was simple: to find a school where she could study in a field related to medicine, while also competing in field hockey at the varsity level. Ontario was a natural destination for the Calgary native, who considered Western University, before ultimately landing on U of G after a trip to Guelph.
 
"I just remember loving the campus and the overall community and atmosphere at Guelph," says Pattison, a product of Western Canada High School in Calgary. "Obviously my academic program was the most important thing, but also having the ability to contribute to a prestigious varsity field hockey program like the one they have at Guelph was the icing on the cake."
 
The same versatility that Pattison showed growing up as a standout in hockey, soccer and field hockey was also on display during her freshman season at U of G, where she played multiple positions for the Gryphon field hockey team, making an impact at both midfield and forward. The memorable rookie campaign was capped off with an OUA gold medal, the program's fifth OUA banner in program history and first since 2013.
   
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PAST SPOTLIGHTS
 

Student-Athlete	Sport	Date
Tyra Boug	Track & Field	Nov. 25, 2020
Evan Kiser	Baseball	Nov. 18, 2020
Jakson Paterson	Men's Volleyball	Nov. 11, 2020
Hannah Tait	Women's Hockey	Nov. 4, 2020
Emily Power	Women's Lacrosse	Oct. 28, 2020
Guerschom Mukendi	Men's Rugby	Oct. 21, 2020
Justin Lauzon	Football	Oct. 14, 2020
Misaki Ojiro	Figure Skating	Oct. 7, 2020
Andrew Masters	Men's Hockey	Sept. 30, 2020
Avery Cameron	Women's Wrestling	Sept. 23, 2020