Darlene Stoyka
Darlene STOYKA – Olympian
In 1993, Darlene was a member of the Canadian team which went to Australia for three months of intense training leading to being at the international world cup where the team finished fifth. By this time, she had 18 international caps. Eventually that team became the Field Hockey Canada Hall of Fame Team for the class of 2020.
Darlene played in the women’s Olympic Hockey event in Los Angeles in 1984. Canada came 5th – the highest ranked team for all women’s team sports in that Olympics. As one of her Olympic colleagues writes: “She was one of the best goal scorers in the world during that time. She was an incredibly gifted hockey player”.
Darlene was born in 1956 and is one of 5 children. She played field hockey in Toronto/Mississauga. Her Dad had immigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia as a young boy. Darlene played university field hockey for St. Mary's.
The Dalhousie University, Halifax -THE GAZETTE – paper of March 21, 1985 stated:
“WHILE THE FOCUS OF attention in Halifax sporting circles was on the CIAU Final Four for men's basketball, a CIAU event of another sort was taking· place at York University in Toronto last weekend. The first CIAU indoor field hockey tournament, a pilot project, gathered teams representing four regions (British Columbia, the Prairies, OntarioQuebec, and the Atlantic) to contest for national honours. Team .Atlantic, representing Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEl, and Newfoundland, and guided by regional coach joyce Slipp of University of New Brunswick, defeated the OntarioQuebec contingent in the final to take the national title. The final could not have been much closer, with the score tied at four-all after regulation time, and five-all after the overtime period. It took penalty strokes to determine the final outcome, as Team Atlantic squeaked by 6-5. The Prairie and British Columbia squads were left to contest for third and fourth spots. All-Canadian selections included three Atlantic players: Kathryn MacDougall of New Brunswick, Darlene Stoyka of St. Mary's University, and Dalhousie's Claudette Levy.”
For a period in the mid-1980s she was a coach at Dalhousie University.
The Dalhousie University, Halifax -THE GAZETTE – paper of October 31, 1985 stated:
“THE DALHOUSIE WOMEN'S field hockey team lost their bid for an AUAA title, but will nonetheless travel to the CIAU playdowns this weekend in Toronto. The Tigers lost the final match 4-1 to a powerful University of New Brunswick Red Sticks squad at St. Mary's Huskie Stadium, the site of the title playdowns. Janice Cossar recorded Dal's only goal in the contest. Dal coach Darlene Stoyka, a member of last year's AUAA champion, St. Mary's Belles squad-, was disappointed with the outcome of the game. " I could tell before the game Field Hockey Tigers . off to CIAU's that they weren't quite mentally," said Stoyka of the Tigers team. "I know they can play better than that." "They were outhustled, beaten on tackles, and weren't playing tight defense," she added. Those are the things we'll be working on this week in preporation for the CIAU's."
After the Olympics, she played for two years in the 1990s with the Outaouais FHC.
https://olympic.ca/team-canada/darlene-stoyka/
dc 2022 Dec 12
JSN 2022 Dec 15
Darlene Stoyko and Sheila Forshaw two Canadian Olympians 1984