Born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1980, Matt moved to Victoria at age two with his family. As a youngster, he was active and interested in all sports, but gravitated to ice hockey when he was around seven years of age. Matt played seven years of hockey at the Victoria Racquet Club and won back-to-back Pee Wee Provincial Championships as a 12- and 13-year-old.

 

At 16 years of age, Matt played Junior A hockey in his hometown for the Victoria Salsa where he went on to earn a full athletic hockey scholarship to the University of Denver after graduating high school from Mount Douglas in 1998. The University of Denver’s hockey team won the WCHA Championship in Matt’s freshman season. In his sophomore year at Denver, Matt was chosen to represent Team Canada at the 2000 World Junior Hockey Championships in Sweden, where the team won the Bronze medal. After playing in the World Juniors that year, Matt decided to leave university and play for the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL for the remaining four months of the season which was his NHL draft year.

 

2000 was a good year for Matt. In addition to his World Juniors medal, he was selected in the 2nd round, 43rd overall, to the Washington Capitals where he would play over 330 games for that team. He scored over 52 goals and assisted on 47 others during his stint in DC, including scoring 20 goals in the 2005-2006 season. There he was teammates with the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Jaromir Jagr and Ollie Kolzig.

 

Matt was again chosen to play for Team Canada at the 2005 World Championships held in Riga, Latvia, where the team finished in 4th place. In the 2007-2008 season, Matt was traded to his home province Vancouver Canucks where he would play parts of two seasons. He played the 2008-2009 NHL season in Tampa, Florida with the Lightning before playing his final NHL season with the Vancouver Canucks organization in 2009-2010.

 

Matt and his family then took his playing career overseas, playing five years in the German Elite League. His first two years were spent playing in Cologne, Germany where his daughter Abby was born. He finished off his playing career in Hamburg, Germany for a final three years of professional hockey.

 

Overall, during his professional hockey career, Matt played in over 850 professional games spanning 15 seasons. With his wife, Chelsea, and children Abby and Luke, Matt returned to Victoria and now works as a realtor at Avison Young with his well-known realtor father, Rick.

The trailblazer for women in Canadian shooting over a 22-year career from 1930 to 1952, Gwen Spencer Hethey began shooting at age 22 under the tutelage of her neighbour and GVSHOF 2001 inductee Maj. Fred Richardson. She had such a natural eye that Fred introduced her to military fullbore rifle at Heals Range. She joined the James Island Rifle Club and BC Rifle Association (BCRA) in 1930 and became the first female ever to compete in the annual Fullbore Championships.

 

Just two years later, in 1932, Gwen won the provincial Weiler Trophy against seasoned male military and police shooters and went to Bisley as the first and, at that time, only female ever to represent Canada, paying her own way as only military men were funded. She won 1st place in the Non-Military Open Class and became the first Canadian ever to win the Amazon Trophy.

 

In 1936, Gwen won the BC Lieutenant Governor’s J. Dunsmuir Trophy – the highest award in BC – and is still the only woman to have won this trophy. She shot 15 bullseyes from 900 yards – setting the women’s world record - and was carried on a chair on the shoulders of her fellow competitors to collect her prize. In 1937, she won the BC Douglas Cup Trophy and, in 1938, Gwen returned to Bisley at her own expense. She placed 6th of 1200 competitors in the All-Comers Aggregate and was presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace as the top ranking woman shot in the Empire. She was not allowed to compete for the King’s Cup because she was a civilian.

 

For that same reason, by 1937, Gwen had three times earned a place on the provincial team to the Governor General’s Cup but was not allowed to compete. At the urging of her admirers, the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association (DCRA) changed the rules and Gwen competed in 1938. She won the first stage with a perfect score (a feat only twice before accomplished by men) and tied for first place in the final. With the first four places reserved for the military, Gwen was dropped to fifth. However, in 1939, the regulations changed, reserving the first two places for the military, and Gwen received a letter of regret from the DCRA, saluting her for having achieved the highest overall score in the 1938 competition and including the bronze medal, retroactively.

 

All competition was suspended from 1940 through 1946. In 1947, Gwen was inducted as a Life Member of the BCRA and in 1948, won the BC Grand Aggregate Silver Badge - the first female to be placed in the BC Scroll of Marksmanship since its inception in 1874.

 

Widowed at 39 with two young boys, Gwen withdrew from competition in 1949 but continued her involvement at the local level into the 1950s. Seen in the context of her times and the culture in which she had to compete, Gwen’s achievements were truly amazing.