Brienne (Brie) Stairs

Brienne Stairs was a standout competitor with the Canadian Women’s Field Hockey Team. During her 12-year playing career, Brienne accumulated over 190 senior caps, the number of official international matches she played for Canada’s senior national team.

Born in Kitchener in 1989, Brie displayed a natural athletic ability at an early age. She was introduced to field hockey at Forest Heights Collegiate Institute in Grade 9, the start of her competitive involvement in the sport.

In 2007, Brie enrolled at the University of Guelph (U o G) where she balanced demands as a student with a prominent role as a forward on the women’s field hockey team.

A prolific scorer, Brie logged 94 goals over her career with the Guelph Gryphons, a record which still ranks third all time in program history. Her leadership helped secure the Ontario University Athletics championships in 2007, 2009, and 2010, and a silver medal in 2008.

At the national level, the team earned its first Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) silver medal in 2007 and a bronze in 2010. Brie won back-to-back Liz Hoffman Awards in 2009 and 2010 as the CIS MVP in women’s field hockey. She was also named National Player of the Year in 2009 and 2010, the first Gryphon to receive the national honour. In 2010, U of G awarded her the President’s Trophy for both her academics and outstanding achievement as the top female student athlete.

In 2011, when she graduated with a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences, she received the W. F. Mitchell Sportswoman Award and the Honour Award, both acknowledging her combined excellence and overall university involvement. In 2022, Brienne was inducted into the University of Guelph Athletics Hall of Fame.

Brie’s first major international tournament was at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she led the Canadian team in scoring with six goals. In 2013, the team won the bronze medal at the Pan American Cup in Mendoza, Argentina. By 2014, she led Canada with 12 goals, placing her among the top 10 female goal scorers in the world that year. At the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, when they won the bronze medal, Brie scored the only goal in the team’s 1-0 victory over Chile. She was named the Women’s National Team Player of the Year in 2015.

Brie competed in numerous international tournaments and matches, including the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and 2018. At the 2022 Women’s Pan American Cup in Santiago, Chile, she scored 7 goals in six games, leading Team Canada to a bronze medal and earning a berth in the Women’s World Cup for the first time since 1994.

When Brie retired from playing at the end of 2022, she had accumulated an impressive 191 caps, a Canadian women’s record. She had become the all-time leading scorer for Team Canada women in 2019 with over 100 goals.

Today, Brienne, who had gone on to earn an MSc in Human Health and Nutritional Science, lives in Kitchener, and is a Medical Manager at MEDUCOM Health Inc., where she develops medical content and strategic guidance for clients. She continues giving back to the sport, using her experiences to mentor and coach youth and, coming full circle, she assisted the University of Guelph women’s field hockey team in 2021.