The OUA Amplifying Voices Series will share the stories, the efforts, and the impacts of the OUA's champions of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), from those who have earned conference awards within their respective sport to those who continue to make a difference within their team, their campus, and their community.
Cailey Davis learned early that success requires commitment. The Sutton, Ontario native and captain of the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold women’s hockey team wears many hats as an Academic All-Canadian student-athlete, coach, and inspirational community leader.
Davis never shied away from work. She was a multi-sport athlete in her youth, excelling at soccer and lacrosse, in addition to making an impact on the ice. By the age of 13, Davis realized hockey, a game with deep roots in her family, would be her focus.
She attended Bill Crothers Secondary School, a sports-centric institution that was over an hour away from her small-town home. Those high school years laid the foundation for the tireless worker she’d become.
“It made me mature,” Davis says of Bill Crothers’ structured atmosphere, where she was surrounded by like-minded people. “It was far away so I had to get up at 5:30, on the bus at 6:30, and in school by 8:00. It took a lot to get there, and it made me realize how important hockey was to me.
“It was never a task.”
Davis recently completed her time at TMU with a psychology degree from TMU. But she was always destined to be a hockey player. Davis was actually born in Ingolstadt Germany, while her dad Ben was overseas coaching the Deutsch Eishockey League. Ben, whose family roots are Jamaican and Antiguan, and his wife Jackie, were both York University hockey alum. And Jackie’s four brothers all played. Her younger brother Cole currently plays with the Windsor Spitfire in the Ontario Hockey League, though he will head south to the University of Connecticut next season on a scholarship.
“I was in skates as soon as I could be,” says Davis. “Hockey always meant so much more to me than the other sports. My parents were so happy that I was playing, and I just got a lot of enjoyment from the game.”
Both Davis kids were ultra-competitive with each other. Be it one-on-one hoops, mini sticks in the house, or road hockey, Ben and Jackie usually had to step in to separate the siblings because each refused to accept an L. Even though Davis considers Cole more of a fancy, skill player, the opposite of her grinder persona, they learned from each other’s games. And grew incredibly close.
Between the battles with her brother and countless hours on the ice, Davis was ready for TMU. She knew assistant coach Ken Dufton from her 18 AA days and in head coach Lisa Haley, she saw a legend who had contributed so much to the women’s game. Davis was inspired to join the Bold and make an impact on an already successful program.
On the ice, the gritty forward established her place in TMU record books. Davis finished her five -year career this past season with the most games played (125), 10th most points (38), and 10th most assists (26) in program history, all while earning Academic All-Canadian honours in each of her first four years.
She was a player who lifted others. And that’s exactly what Davis is doing off of the ice, as well. The recipient of the OUA Champion of EDI Award has spent as much time working in her community to help others as she has logged minutes on the ice.
“My first year at TMU was at the end of COVID,” says Davis. “There were a lot of social movements happening that were really eye-opening for me. I was always kind of aware that I was, more often than not, the only ethnic person in the dressing room.
“I came in expecting to see more diversity. And I realized that hockey is not really that diverse of a sport. It was something that I wanted to address. I remember we were doing an anti-racism month, and I felt there wasn’t enough awareness, and we weren’t doing enough. I had conversations with Lisa about it.
“I had worked so hard to get there. And there weren’t many role models that looked like me. Stepping into that role became important.”
Coach Haley supported the idea for the team to do more. The coach put together a presentation showing diversity statistics in the OUA and Davis was eager to get involved in more initiatives.
Opportunities arose through her dad’s school Hyperfit Hockey, which has locations in Toronto and Chicago. Karim Corringham runs the Chicago school and does work with black hockey organizations throughout North America. Davis got connected to a Caribbean Women’s Hockey Team, an organization that advocates for participation in the game in places not exactly known for their devotion to the sport.
In August 2025, Davis played for the Caribbean team in a tournament in Miami, at the Baptist Health IcePlex, the practice facility for the NHL’s Florida Panthers.
“I had great conversations with Lisa about going,” says Davis. “I played against teams from Puerto Rico, Greece, and Argentina. It was a really cool experience. I had never really played on a team where everyone looked like me.
“Competing against all these other countries and ethnicities, it was amazing. The tournament was huge, with so many age groups. The representation was incredible.”
Davis remains passionate about advocating for diversity in her sport. She’s been actively involved in TMU Student-Athlete Advisory Council social media campaigns and also participated in a First Nations Equipment Drive with her Bold teammates.
With her OUA playing days behind her, Davis hopes to make an impact through coaching, where she can blend her knowledge of the game and psychology. She got a taste for work behind the bench through experiences at Hyperfit. From a young age, she was tasked with training players on the ice and in the gym. Davis joined Ben to coach a boys’ team that travelled to a Hong Kong for a tournament. And the school also expanded into girls’ spring hockey, which is growing fast in Ontario. That led to a coaching staff role with Ben’s U15 Durham West girls’ team.
“I really enjoyed getting to work with the girls and see how much it all meant to them,” she says, acknowledging that as a youth player, she didn’t see many female coaches. “It was cool to be a role model for them as someone who was in school playing at a high level.
“Lisa ended up recommending me for the Hockey Canada Creating Coaches program. That’s been an amazing experience for me. They provide a lot of professional development opportunities and a foundational experience to keep women in coaching.
“I was also learning some of these things while I was playing, so it made me open my eyes to things I had never thought of on the ice. I learned so much from that and it’s definitely something I want to continue.”
Davis has a few other things to wrap up before fully committing to a coaching career. She would love to earn a roster spot on a pro hockey team in Europe, like many of her peers. But completing her master’s thesis on women in sport is first on the to-do list.
“I’ll examine what implicit perceptions and stereotypies people hold about athletes, especially in female-dominated sports that are growing right now,” Davis says. “I’m excited to get deeper into that.
“I have put so much value and love into sport throughout my life, that as I continue in school, I want to incorporate it as much as I can.”