MONTREAL – Each Wednesday for a six-week period from May 20 to June 24, one of the 2020 inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame will be profiled. In our fourth installment, meet soccer player Odile Desbois, a current Montrealer.

Born Sept. 2, 1973 in Sherbrooke, Que., Desbois attended Ecole primaire Brebeuf in Sherbrooke, then Ecole secondaire Mitchell-Montcalm and Collège de Sherbrooke before moving on to McGill in 1992. A member of the Quebec provincial team from 1989 to 1993, she also had summer stints with a couple of club teams, namely Les Mistrales de Sherbrooke and Dorval United. 

At McGill, Desbois played five seasons for the soccer Martlets. She earned a physical education degree in 1996, took the next season off -- while starting a science degree in physical and occupational therapy -- and then returned to the soccer pitch at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium in the 1997-98 school year. She completed her BSc in 1999 and currently is employed as a physiotherapist.

The 5-foot-5 speedster was a defensive midfielder who also had occasional stints as a forward. A four-time Quebec conference all-star, she made the second team in 1992, then merited a berth on the first squad in 1994, 1995 and again in 1997.

Desbois received CIS All-Canadian honours on three occasions, making the second team in 1994, followed by first-team status in both 1995 and 1997.

From 1992 to 1995, Desbois helped lead McGill to four consecutive RSEQ conference championships and a silver-medal finish at the 1992 Nationals. She was voted Team MVP in her senior year and twice won the league's player-of-the-year award -- in 1995 and 1997. In her final campaign, she was honoured with the Chantal Navert Award as CIS national player of the year.

Other new laureates joining Desbois in the 2020 McGill induction class include basketball All-Canadian Nasko Golomeev of Sofia, Bulgaria, hockey All-Canadian Vanessa Davidson of Kirkland, Que., football all-star Glenn Miller of Beaconsfield, Que.,  All-Canadian hockey player Bryan Larkin of Saskatoon, Sask., and Mike Richards, a former hockey player from Estevan, Sask., who was inducted in the builder category.

The hallowed Hall now has 157 honoured members, 27 of them Olympians, since the pantheon was initiated in 1996. The 25th annual induction luncheon was expected to kick-off the University's 2020 Homecoming Week celebrations in late September but the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a probable postponement for a date to be announced later. Profiles for all previous inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame are also available online at: www.mcgillathletics.ca/hof.aspx


SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca