Northeastern alum Chanda Gunn, winner of the Hockey Humanitarian Award, was named the 2004 female recipient of the NCAA Sportsmanship Award last weekend.
The award was the second Gunn had received this year out of a pool of all NCAA female athletes. She also received the Honda Inspiration Award as part of the Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards in June. In earning the NCAA award, she was selected out of 44 conference winners.
Gunn will receive her honor later this fall on the Northeastern. Gunn and the male sportsmanship honorees, the Mesa College football and High Point basketball’s Danny Gathings, will be recognized at the NCAA Convention during January in Dallas and the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance Awards Reception during Summer of 2005.
The NCAA criteria for the award included those who displayed a demonstrable act of sportsmanship; demonstrated proper and ethical behavior in his or her daily participation in intercollegiate athletics; demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting; and stayed in good academic standing.
From 1995-98, she was volunteer coach with the local mite and squirt teams in her area of California, and she began coaching in the “Skate/Mommy and Me” programs. She also began working at summer clinics, camps and pre-season practices for the Cal Selects girls hockey program. She then spent a year at the Taft School in Watertown, Conn. that she attended after graduating from Marina High School in California. At Taft, she worked in a soup kitchen. At Northeastern, she began assisting the local U112 South Shore Kings. She also participated in Campus Clean Up Day, and volunteered for the Boston Breakers in the initial season of the WUSA. She organized the team to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, remains active in the CFF and is a Hospice volunteer. She also works with several other organizations. She raised $1,000 for Jennifer Goulet, a Niagara hockey player who was diagnosed with cancer.
In addition to awards her performance off-the-ice, Gunn also received several accolades for her efforts on the ice. Gunn, one of three Patty Kazmaier finalists, earned All-American honors and was one of two goaltenders named to U.S. national team that won a silver medal at the World Ice Hockey Championships in April. She also won a silver medal with the U.S. at the World Inline Hockey Championships this summer.
