The Portage College mascot Eddy Rocks plays a lot of roles – explorer, adventurer, guide, sidekick, cheerleader … and Cupid? Yep, he can do that too.
Eddy and the northeastern Alberta college he represents are central to a Valentine’s story that has played out over the last few years, beginning when two students – both Portage College Voyageurs athletes – first met after a college hockey game in January of 2023.
“January 14 to be exact,” says fourth-year Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (ATEP) student and Portage Voyageurs women’s soccer player Ashley Tweedy. She remembers that first chat with Xavier Halterman clearly. “It was after a Voyageurs’ hockey game, a group of us all went out and were hanging out. That was the first time we had really met, and we just started talking.”
A Bachelor of Arts student at Portage, and a member of the Portage Voyageurs men’s hockey team, Xavier shared many of her own interests.
“We talked about sports and family and schooling, and there are a lot of personal values we share – and after that night we just started talking more,” Ashley recalls.
Those talks led to the most important conversation of their young lives last October, when they each said, “I do.”
Ashley, who was raised in Winnipeg, and Xavier from St. Albert, were married in a fall-themed wedding in front of family and friends.
Xavier describes the path that brought them together as “life altering.”
“I have friendships, memories, and a lifelong partner that are all a result of coming to Portage College,” he says. “I think about how one Saturday night lead into a lifelong partner. I think about how lucky I am to have a person by my side who loves me, supports me, and wants to be with me for life.”
Xavier, an academic award-winner and Portage’s 2025 Male Athlete of the Year, wraps up his five years of study with the college and his five years of eligibility on the hockey team this year. Although Ashley will graduate with a Bachelor of Education through the four-year ATEP pathway developed between the University of Alberta and Portage College this year, she is thinking about one more year of schooling and soccer. Due to a knee injury last year that kept her off the field, she remains eligible for one more year of college sports.
“I don’t think my time is finished here just yet,” she says with a smirk.
The couple is also not finished with the community that started them on their journey five years ago. Currently living together in a student residence, they plan to remain in the area after graduation, finding work in their respective fields.
Looking back, Ashley, who turns twenty-three this year, says the past years of schooling, sports, community volunteerism, and romance have been a whirlwind – filled with great memories and great people.
Academically, she has been at the top of her class, even as she keeps a schedule that includes soccer practices and games, coaching minor league soccer, volunteering at the local homeless shelter and her recent newlywed status. Ashley earned a Female Academic Excellence Award from Portage College and the University of Alberta faculty of Education Academic Excellence Award in 2025 for a perfect 4.0 grade point grade average.
She credits a support system that never lets her down.
“I work hard. It is easy to do when I have people in my corner helping me out along the way,” says Ashley who was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age. “I have friends to talk about ideas with, coaches who help to keep us all on track and keep us on our toes about homework and studying, teammates we can talk to and make sure we are all doing good mentally and with our education.”
And of course, Xavier helps too.
“Oh, my days, absolutely. He is doing his degree for Psychology – so when he’s doing his homework, I’m doing mine at the same time. He helps to push me harder because he is a very good student and I want to match that,” she says, side-stepping a question about which of them is smarter as well as you’d expect from a talented midfielder, National Scholar Award recipient, multi-award winning student-athlete – and loving wife thinking about Valentine’s Day.
“It’s smarter not to answer that question,” she said with a big grin.