Two weeks before Beverly Rankin was scheduled to get on an airplane for the other side of the planet to play field hockey for Team Canada, she tore her meniscus. The pain was almost too much to bear.
She thought, after months of planning and training, that her chances to play in the 2016 Masters World Cup in Canberra, Australia, had suddenly vanished. Rankin cancelled her flight, succumbing to the pain. The Lebanon resident could barely run and didn’t want to let her teammates down.
That is, until the day Team Canada was scheduled to meet Down Under. Suddenly the pain didn’t feel so consuming, helped along by a cortisone shot. Rankin, who grew up in Ontario and is now the vice president of patient care services at Alice Peck Day Hospital, scrambled to make last-minute plans: She rebooked her flight and packed everything she needed. She spent nearly 20 hours in the air before landing in Sydney.
“It was kind of amazing,” Rankin, 58, said last week. “I played hockey for years in Canada, and I’ve played for three different provinces on provincial teams (Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia). But I’ve never been selected for a national team. I’ve only worn provincial colors.”
Rankin’s first tournament representing Canada on the national women’s over-50 team didn’t go exactly as planned. The 17 Canadians on the roster, including only three subs, were swept in six games without scoring a goal. But for Rankin, the experience was more than worth it. In fact, Canada’s poor play was due to factors not entirely within their control: It was the country’s first trip to the Masters World Cup, an biannual international tournament with several different tiers based on age groups, and the team hadn’t practiced once before arriving in Australia. Against international powerhouses like New Zealand, Ireland and England, which play and practice field hockey year-round, the Canadians didn’t stand much of a chance.
“I was really proud to be there,” said Rankin, who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years and has worked at Alice Peck Day for the past 5½ years. “I’m glad I was able to go. I can’t tell you how appreciative I was for the opportunity.”
Despite the losses, Rankin and her Canadian teammates got the chance to experience competition on an international stage while taking in the sights. The team visited Sydney’s tourist spots and took in an Australian rules football game. They were even invited to the Canadian Embassy, along with Canada’s over-50 men’s national team, for an evening reception with the wife of the Canadian ambassador.
“That felt pretty good,” Rankin said.
One of Rankin’s goals has always been to, one day, represent her country. She can now add to a list of accomplishments in field hockey that stretches through stints playing and coaching on both sides of the border.
Rankin grew up in Orangeville, Ontario, where she, like most girls, was introduced to field hockey at an early age. She played her way through high school, but the thought of playing in college didn’t occur to her until the final game of her varsity career.
“During the last game of high school, our school was strong. We were in the provincial finals, and one of the umpires just happened to be a university coach.” Rankin said. “I had no plans to play in university. But I ended up going to the University of Guelph.”
After playing for four years with the Gryphons, Rankin attended McGill University to attain her nursing degree before trying her hand at coaching. She coached a U18 team in Nova Scotia and at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. When she moved to the U.S., Rankin helped organize a field hockey program at Rutland’s Mount St. Joseph Academy before relocating to the Upper Valley. Rankin’s daughter, Shauna, played field hockey for Lebanon High and is now a junior at the University of Massachussets.
“When you can play on the right surface, it’s a fast game. It’s fun,” Rankin said of her love for field hockey. “I like how the stick is sort of an extension of you. I guess I always leaned toward team sports. I love the team comraderie.”
It’s a love that she’s passed along to her daughter over the years. Field hockey, by extension, has become a mother-daughter bonding experience, and Rankin’s accomplishment’s overseas had a resounding effect.
“I’m really proud of her,” Shauna Rankin-Byrne said last week. “(Competing overseas) is something I’d like to do one day.”
In the near future, however, the Rankin pair would like to find a way to play on the same team, something they have yet to experience. Shauna has two more years at UMass before she graduates, and Rankin will keep her eyes on the 2018 Masters World Cup in Madrid, Spain. This time, she said, Team Canada will have plenty of time to organize in an attempt to compete with the world’s best.
“That’s the discussion we’re having,” Rankin said. “We had an over-50 team, but most of our team was older. If we had entered as an over-55 team, we would have only lost three players. But that would have probably been a better fit.
“We talked a lot while we were there about what we should do going forward. Maybe we’d have two teams. But that’s the strategy we’re talking about now. There’s a fair bit of dialogue about how we want to strategize. We want to be competitive.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or at 603-727-3306.