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Ottawa Gee-Gees

Five selected for Gee-Gees Women’s Soccer Hall of Fame’s inaugural induction class

Five photos of Gee-Gees women's soccer players and the Hall of Fame logo.
July 4, 2024

The first class of inductees to the Gee-Gees Women's Soccer Hall of Fame will include four highly decorated alumni in the athlete category, and one all-star player who is being recognized as a program builder.

The athletes, in chronological order of their careers in garnet and grey - Danielle Vella, Noel Trepanier, Gillian Baggott, and Pilar Khoury - will be inducted alongside Vicki White in the builder category at a ceremony on campus on September 21, 2024.

Inductee Profiles:

Danielle Vella was a two-time All-Canadian at midfield and an all-star member of the first Gee-Gees varsity team in 1994. Vella was also a Gee-Gees club team member from 1991-1993, and scored a goal in the team's first official varsity match. Her All-Canadian seasons came in 1995 and 1996 as she helped bring immediate national success to the newly varsity program. In fact, the hometown standout and alumna of J. S. Woodsworth Secondary School was named a conference all-star in the first three seasons the Gee-Gees competed in OUA (then known as the OWIAA).

Vella was a member of OUA conference championship-winning teams in 1996 and 1997 and scored the national championship-winning goal in 1996. She was named the 1996 National Championship tournament MVP. Vella recorded 20 regular season goals over her four-year OUA career, which still ranks 14th in program history. In Vella's final season, which was shortened by an early-season knee injury, the Gee-Gees secured the 1997 national silver medal.

With her club, Nepean United, Vella won provincial and national championships in both 1997 and 1998. She went on to represent Canada on the senior national team at the 2000 Algarve Cup, starting at forward in the tournament's opening match. Vella continued her soccer career with the Ottawa Fury and the Ottawa Royals, including scoring the Ontario Cup-winning goal in 2006. She earned her Master of Computer Science from the Faculty of Engineering in 2000.

Noel Trepanier was a two-time All-Canadian at fullback and was named the university National Player of the Year in 2000 to cap her Gee-Gees career. Trepanier was a team member from 1993-1997 and returned for her fifth varsity season in 2000. An OUA All-Star in 1996, 1997, and 2000, she was an All-Canadian in 1997 and 2000, also garnering Gee-Gees Team MVP honours in those seasons. Trepanier was the 2000-2001 uOttawa Athlete of the Year.

Trepanier was a member of three OUA Championship-winning teams, in 1996, 1997, and 2000, and earned two national silver medals in 1997 and 2000 in addition to the 1996 National Championship win. A member of Nepean United, Trepanier won national championships at the club level in 1997 and 1998. She made her Senior National Team debut in 2001 at the Algarve Cup, recording six starts. She returned to the national team roster at the 2002 Algarve Cup, and leads all Gee-Gees alumni with eight total caps at the senior level. An alumna of École secondaire catholique l'Essor in Tecumseh, Ont., Trepanier was inducted into the Windsor-Essex Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. In Ottawa, she was also a co-captain of the Ottawa Royals Ontario Cup champions and a member of the Ottawa Fury. 

Nine years after Trepanier's final university season patrolling the back line, Gillian Baggott suited up for the Gee-Gees for the first time in 2009. That was the first of four straight seasons as an OUA conference all-star for the defender from Ottawa who had started her collegiate career at Florida Atlantic University before transferring home. In 2011 and 2012 Baggott earned All-Canadian honours and she was named both the OUA East Most Valuable Player and the National Player of the Year in 2012.

In 2012, Baggott helped lead the Gee-Gees to an undefeated regular season and the OUA Championship. That season, the defensive dominance was on full display as the team set a program record by allowing just 0.06 goals per game in the regular season – one goal allowed in 16 games played, followed by three more shutouts in the conference playoffs. The team finished fourth at the 2012 National Championship. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, Baggott's Gee-Gees earned conference bronze medals and added a national bronze medal in 2011.

Baggott, a St. Joseph Catholic H.S. grad, was the team's Most Valuable Player in 2011 and 2012, and was the 2012-2013 uOttawa Athlete of the Year. She represented Canada at the 2011 Summer World University Games and was a member of the Ottawa Fury's W-League Championship-winning squad in 2012.

A fellow four-time conference all-star and teammate of Baggott's, Pilar Khoury is the most recent Gee-Gee athlete selected for the inaugural induction class. Khoury holds the program record for career goals scored, logging 58 goals in regular season play over her five seasons. Khoury was named the OUA East Most Valuable Player and an All-Canadian in both 2014 and 2015.

Khoury twice scored the OUA Championship-winning goal, first on home-field in 2012 and then in 2014 on the road. In addition to the two championships, Khoury holds a pair of OUA bronze medals from 2011 and 2015. At the national level, Khoury earned bronze medals in 2011 and 2014 and finished fourth in 2012. She was a member of Team Canada at the 2013 Summer World University Games. A Gloucester Hornets product, Khoury was the team's Most Valuable Player in 2014 and 2015, and was the 2014-2015 uOttawa Athlete of the Year. 

Immediately following her Gee-Gees career, Khoury began her professional playing career in France, including a Division 2 championship in 2023. Khoury was named to the Senior National Team of Lebanon in 2021 and appeared in the 2022 West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship. Khoury scored her first international goal in 2022.

Vicki White was named a conference all-star in 1994, one of four Gee-Gees to earn honours in the inaugural varsity season. White was the team captain in 1994 and 1995, the only two varsity seasons she played before graduating from uOttawa with a Bachelor of Laws degree. During her undergraduate studies, White was also part of the first varsity season for women's soccer at Carleton University, captaining the Ravens from 1987-1990. She was the recipient of uOttawa's President's Award in 1994-95 and was uOttawa's first ever recipient of the Top Ten Academic All-Canadian award presented by U SPORTS (then CIAU), in 1995-96.

White began her studies at uOttawa in 1993 and quickly cemented herself as a force in advocating for the soccer team's varsity status. In November of 1993, the team was elevated to varsity status for the following season thanks to White and her teammates' organization and tactical pressure. The establishment of the women's soccer team as a varsity program in Ontario University Athletics helped pave the way for women's rugby and women's hockey to become varsity programs in the next five years. 

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Following the 2024 inaugural inductions, inductions for the Gee-Gees Women's Soccer Hall of Fame will take place every five years.

The women's soccer program first competed in OUA conference play in 1994-95 and has been one of the nation's most successful programs throughout its thirty-year history. Two national championships, eleven total national championship medals, eleven OUA conference championships, nine undefeated regular seasons, 22 total OUA conference medals, 132 OUA All-Stars, 37 All-Canadians, and senior national team caps for alumni have highlighted the incredible sustained excellence by the Garnet and Grey.