Adriana Leon was offered an NCAA hockey scholarship alongside teammates Erin Ambrose, Jill Saulnier, Kelly Babstock, and Shannon Turner. She chose soccer, and won Olympic Gold and has appeared at multiple World Cups.
Adriana Leon was offered an NCAA hockey scholarship alongside teammates Erin Ambrose, Jill Saulnier, Kelly Babstock, and Shannon Turner. She chose soccer, and won Olympic Gold and has appeared at multiple World Cups.
Erin Ambrose and Jill Saulnier know what it's like to represent Team Canada. They both have Olympic gold medals. So does Adriana Leon, although hers isn't in hockey, she won Olympic gold with Canada's national women's soccer team.
Flashback to the 2009-2010 season however, and the trio were all members of the Toronto Aeros hockey team playing in the PWHL, Ontario's top Junior league for women, which is now known as the OWHL U22 Elite.
It was a roster filled with talent. The leading scorer for the Aeros that season was Kelly Babstock, a three-time PHF all-star and PHF Foundation Award winner who notched 60 points in 33 games that year. On the blueline was Ambrose, and Shannon Turner, long time captain of the PHF's Connecticut Whale who recently announced her retirement from hockey. There was also future pro hockey player Jenna McParland and several NCAA standouts.
Leon was one of the best on the roster, scoring 20 points in 20 games, in what would be her final season of hockey, as she transitioned to become a full time soccer player. But hockey has remained part of her life, as Leon launched the "Leon Charity Shinny Game" in 2018.
“We lived the Canadian culture growing up,” Leon said in an interview about her hockey career..“Whenever there was ice we tried to get on it and play hockey.”
From King City, Ontario, Leon now plays for Manchester United in England's Women's Super League.
Growing up she played 'AA' hockey for Vaughan and Willowdale before joining the Aeros. During her Midget 'AA' season, Leon was named tournament MVP at the Can Am Challenge Cup and famed Stoney Creek Showcase, where she scored the tournament winning goal.
Her final season of hockey in 2009-2010 with the Toronto Aeros Junior team ended in provincial gold.
“I remember playing with [Leon] and being, ‘wow, she’s so fast. I can’t keep up,’” said Jill Saulnier. “She was a spitfire out there. She was the fastest one on the ice and just tenacious all the time.”
Warming up for hockey games, Leon and her teammates would often play soccer, an unfair proposition given her exceptional soccer skills.
“We would joke, ‘OK, you against the rest of the team,’ because she was so good,” said Saulnier. “She always had a soccer ball in her hand, even when she was at the hockey rink.”
When it was time for the NCAA, Cornell offered her a dual scholarship to play both soccer and hockey, but she chose to focus on soccer, committing instead to play for Notre Dame.
“Still to this day it’s a pretty tough decision – I miss hockey a lot,” said Leon. “I wish I were still playing, but I had to make a decision.”
Years later, while Saulnier and Ambrose collected Olympic gold for Canada, so did Leon, only with a ball on her feet instead of a puck on her stick.
“She’s achieving on so many levels,” says Ambrose, “and I’m really happy that I got to know her as a person, as a hockey player and now I get to see her succeed as a soccer player.”