June 26, 2006

Wayne State University head women's ice hockey coach Jim Fetter has announced the signing of forward Katrina Protopapas (Chatham, Ontario) to a national letter of intent.

WSU's 2006-07 recruiting class stands at five as forward Brandi Frakie (St. Louis Park, Minnesota) and defensemen Chelsea Burnett (Ridgeway, Ontario), Tegan Schroeder (Lumsden, Saskatchewan) and Christine Jefferson (Nepean, Ontario) signed NLI's earlier.

Protopapas, a 5-6 forward, played her last two years of juniors with the Bluewater Hawks. She had 48 points on 20 goals and 28 assists in 71 games during the 2004-05 season and scored 20 goals in 43 games during the 2005-06 campaign. Protopapas graduated in 2006 from Chatham-Kent Secondary School where she participated in basketball, volleyball and soccer and served as a team captain in both soccer and hockey. She was also named to the academic honor roll all four years.

"Katrina is a strong aggressive forward that play toughs and battles hard," said Fetter. "She is a smart player that will help in both ends of the ice. We are looking forward to working with her."

The daughter of Nick and Frances Protopapas, she has three older brothers, Terry, Basile and Raphael, and one younger sister, Irene. Raphael played professionally in the United Hockey League (Motor City Mechanics) and Central Hockey League (Topeka Tarantulas). Katrina is undecided on an academic major but her career ambition is to be a dentist.