You are visiting family on a quiet Thursday evening when you receive a call telling you that you are invited to the White House in three days.
This scenario might be worthy of a movie, but goalkeeper Jane Gervais experienced it in real life two weeks ago. On June 12, some fifty NCAA champion teams, from all sports, were invited to the American capital. The champions of the major professional leagues are received there every year, and this time, the invitation was also extended to collegiate athletes.
As players in the Wisconsin Badgers hockey program, Gervais and fellow Quebecer Marianne Picard were able to venture beyond the gates surrounding 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
Gervais was with her grandparents, in Quebec, when she received the call. “The invitation didn’t go the first time, so we found out at the last minute,” she told The Press.
From then on began a commotion. Three days after the call, she jumped on a plane in Quebec, bound for Washington. Arrived on Sunday evening, she left on Tuesday morning, not without having walked the lawn of the White House and visited the Capitol.
PHOTO AJ HARRISON, SUPPLIED BY NCAA
Jane Gervais and Chayla Edwards
At first, we wait in the street. Then the sniffer dogs come to inspect us. Then, the agents verify our identity. Security was really tight. We even had a team jersey prepared in the name of Joe Biden, and we couldn’t go home with it. We wanted to take a photo in the garden, near the fountain, and we were told that we were too far! It really was like in a movie!
University of Wisconsin Badgers goaltender Jane Gervais
“We arrive, there is security everywhere, guards with big guns, confirms Gervais. We weren’t able to enter the House, but up close, it’s so impressive! At some point, it started to rain, and as soon as it started, guards appeared with umbrellas. It was like in a movie, like in The Hunger Games. »
future pediatrician
Picard and Gervais are the only two Quebec Badgers. They met at Stanstead College and followed each other to Madison. “It’s good to have someone from Quebec with me, it’s comforting,” says Picard. Sometimes, between periods, if I need to talk and I don’t want the others to understand, I go to see Jane. »
PHOTO MEG KELLY, SUPPLIED BY NCAA
Jane Gervais and Marianne Picard
Picard plays on the attack. Victim of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the fall of 2021, she returned to a supporting role this season, “to pick up the pace”. “A year without playing was hard. Next season I should have more ice time. Under these circumstances, she was limited to 7 points (1 goal, 6 assists) in 42 games.
Gervais shared the job in goal with Cami Cronish at the start of the season, but an injury suffered in November caused him to miss two months of action. When she returned to the game, she played sporadically, as her teammate became difficult to dislodge, with 8 shutouts in 32 games. Cronish’s college career is over, however, and Gervais hopes to establish himself as the starting goaltender next year.
The two Quebecers have the chance to play in one of the most renowned hockey programs in the NCAA. The Badgers have indeed won three of the last four national titles and play in enviable facilities. Their home, the LaBahn Arena, opened in 2012.
We are treated like pros. The food and the apartment are paid for, the arena is open at all times. You can train privately with the coaches. I came here for Mark Johnson, one of the most famous coaches.
Marianne Picard, forward for the University of Wisconsin Badgers
Picard hopes that his years in the lands of Cole Caufield will open the doors to Team Canada and professional hockey. Among the options she would like to have: play for the Montreal Force and study at McGill. Because in two years, she wants to try her luck at medical school to become a pediatrician.
“By dint of working in hockey schools, I realized that I love children. So I can apply that to medicine. And I have a lot of energy! “, she says.
Gervais has just completed her bachelor’s degree in technology management and will begin her master’s in the fall, training that could, for example, allow her to manage sports departments in schools. But she finds that the option of a professional career “is coming really interesting”.
“Before, the options were not viable in the long term. But now, with the PHF, that changes. A friend of mine, Maude Poulin-Labelle, just signed a $69,000 contract. I have two or three years left in school and then I will see. »
In the meantime, the college route gave them the experience of a lifetime, even though circumstances meant that President Biden did not attend the event. He was having a root canal, lucky guy.
We didn’t go in, we stayed outside, but it was impressive. Kamala Harris made the speech, she was like 10m away from us. It’s crazy to take a second and realize you’re on the White House lawn! Few people will experience this.
Jane Gervais
A week later, her teammate Marianne Picard had still not come down from her cloud either.
“That’s when I realized that this woman is one of the most powerful people in the world. She, the Vice President of the United States. And me, the little girl from Quebec! Seeing her in person was unreal! »
Not the only ones
Marianne Picard and Jane Gervais were not the only Quebec representatives to set foot on the grounds of the White House on June 12. The champion team of the men’s hockey tournament, the Quinnipiac University Bobcats, included in their ranks four players from here. Goalkeeper Yaniv Perets, defender Charles-Alexis Legault and forward Cristophe Tellier were therefore allowed to visit, while the club’s fourth Quebecer, Christophe Fillion, was unable to attend. In water polo, Quebecer Floranne Carroll also made the trip, as a member of the Stanford University team.
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- The University of Wisconsin Badgers women’s program has won seven NCAA championships since 2006.