Willoughby will always be an all-time champ in life

Huskies defender under appreciated in her playing career

Morgan Willoughby skates out for a game on Feb. 8.

    Morgan Willoughby might have been one of the most popular players on the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team who never got her full due.
    Last Saturday, the fifth-year defender played the final game of her U Sports career when her Huskies fell 1-0 in double overtime in Game 2 of a Canada West quarter-final series to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. Having lost Game 1 of the set 3-2 in overtime one night earlier, the Thunderbirds swept the best-of-three series 2-0 in two epic clashes between archrivals.

Morgan Willoughby (#9) in action for the Huskies last Saturday.

    The loss on Saturday by the Huskies brought an end to the careers of eight fifth-year players who gave their heart and soul to the program in Willoughby, Leah Bohlken, Courtney Cormack, Shyan Elias, captain Brooklyn Haubrich, Rachel Lundberg, Emma Nutter and Elizabeth Salyn. Fourth-year defender Kayla Kirwan, who emptied the tank during her time with the team, is finishing her agricultural and bioresources studies and has elected at the moment to not return for her fifth year.

    Willoughby always puts others before herself and would hate to be put above any teammates she ever played with. I believe in this case an exception can be made, because she always seemed to do the right thing, and I feel we all took advantage of that characteristic.

Morgan Willoughby in action for the Huskies in October of 2015.

    You got so used to her be reliable you would never ask how she was doing on any particular day. It was like you never questioned Willoughby was going to come to the rink every day and be an effective physical defensive defender.

    When the opposing team’s top line hits the ice, you put Willoughby and Nutter, who is her long time defensive partner, on the ice, and you just expect them to handle it.

    If there are misunderstandings with the players in the dressing room or between coaches and players, it was like Willoughby will handle it and nothing will be a problem.

Morgan Willoughby (#28) enjoys a Huskies win in October of 2015.

    When the players from the Huskies go out to community events where they wear their jerseys, Willoughby is the first to return the jersey or any team items that were brought out to be used as the event. Other players often would do the young person thing and forget their jerseys in laundry piles at home for a couple of days.

    Willoughby was fiercely competitive, but she was always under control to never let that competitive streak make her go over the line on the ice or off the ice. That said, if there was something that had to be taken care of on the ice due to an underhanded play and a figurative bell needed to be answered, Willoughby would take care of that.

Morgan Willoughby pictured with teammates at 2016 Huskie Salute.

    With all that said, Willoughby only had 28 penalty minutes in her U Sports regular season career, and her presence alone lessened the motivation for anyone to start trouble.

    All these intangibles allowed Willoughby to be named an assistant captain for her final two seasons for the Huskies. While in that role, you never worried about what she was thinking or feeling. She would make the team go and that was never questioned.

    Physically, Willoughby, who stands five-foot-eight, had all the tools to be a solid defensive defender. Few could skate as well as she could.

Morgan Willoughby works the point in October of 2016.

    Of course with being a defensive defender, her statistics won’t blow anyone away. In 117 career U Sports regular season games, Willoughby had six goals, eight assists and a minus-four rating in the plus-minus department. The minus rating was due to the fact she consistently played against the opposition’s top forward units.

    This season, Willoughby appeared in 26 regular season games collecting one goal, two assists and a plus-five rating.

    If she had the scoring touch of former Huskies great offensive defender Julia Flinton to go with her current skill set and personality make up, Willoughby would have been on Hockey Canada’s radar to be brought into camps for Canada’s national women’s team system.

    Actually, it always seemed Willoughby would be destined to be underappreciated in some form, because the 22-year-old came up through the sport in the shadow of sister Kaitlin, who is two years Morgan’s senior.

    Kaitlin was the talented high scoring forward who could play with grit, and everyone marvelled at what she could do.

Morgan Willoughby in action in October of 2016.

    Morgan was often greeted with, “Oh, you’re Kaitlin’s sister, how sweet.”
    Kaitlin, of course, played five seasons for the Huskies from 2013 to 2018 and finished as the program’s second all-time leading scorer piling up 50 goals and 61 assists for 111 points in 132 career regular season games. Kaitlin was a plus-30 during her regular season career too.

    Kaitlin and Morgan played together on the Huskies for three seasons from 2015 to 2018.

    Good luck to anyone trying to find one time where Morgan ever got upset or jealous about Kaitlin being in the spotlight at any time. I am pretty sure it never happened with the Huskies or at any time in the respective lives of both young ladies.

    Morgan was always super proud of Kaitlin and tried her best to be viewed as her older sister’s biggest supporter.

    Believe it or not, I had been planning to write a column about Morgan Willoughby after her career ended for about the last four months.

    In my view, our interactions have had their bumps over the years, and it was never her fault.

    I never saw our interactions being in an outstanding, straight line fashion with no adversity like my interactions have been with a number of female players from Saskatoon, Prince Albert and surrounding areas who have been popular and have had a sizable impact in the local game.

Morgan Willoughby controls the puck in February of 2017.

    Some of those players include Jordan Ashe, Kianna Dietz, Ashley Messier, Mackenna Parker, Sophie Shirley, Willow Slobodzian, Abby Soyko and Cami Wooster.

    From my side, the bumps started and quickly peaked in the 2016-17 campaign, which was Morgan’s second season with the Huskies. At the moment, 2016-17 campaign still goes down as my least favourite covering the Huskies program as a whole, and that came about due to a number of things that happened that season.

    First from my view, I ended up getting on bad terms with Kaitlin. As usual, Morgan ended up being the go-between that helped navigate the rough waters. That navigation went partially into the 2017-18 campaign as well.

    Morgan didn’t have to play that role, but I am thankful on my side that she did. As time went on, I felt really bad on my side that Morgan was placed in that spot at all.

    That situation had the unfortunate timing of developing at around the same time when the awkward separation occurred where legendary Huskies football head coach Brian Towriss retired from the team and working at the U of S. 

Morgan Willoughby, right, moves in on a check in February of 2017.

    That whole situation when it developed in December of 2016 wasn’t handled well by the U of S and Huskie Athletics, and it was largely viewed in the public the Huskies had heartlessly cut Towriss adrift.

    There was a time the story on Towriss’s departure was the number two trending national story in Canada.

    That situation even consumed my life for the two-week period around the Christmas season that year when it went down. I have always respected Towriss a tonne having known him for a long time, and I was feeling a lot of pressure to do something to hold the Huskie Athletics accountable.

Morgan Willoughby (#9) salutes a home crowd with sister Kaitlin (#17).

    I was overwhelmed by messages that said anyone associated with Huskie Athletics was basically dirt and scum. I had alums from various Huskies programs including women’s hockey message me saying they were embarrassed to have ever been part of the overall Huskie Athletics program.

    With all that negative messaging happening and negative emotions swirling around Huskie Athletics at an all-time high, I ended up by chance attending the same public New Year’s Eve social function as both the Huskies women’s and men’s hockey teams. I didn’t know the two Huskies hockey teams were going to be at that function, which I was given an invite to.

Morgan Willoughby (#9) celebrates a goal in November of 2017.

    I don’t think they realized I was there, but I thought the two Huskies hockey teams got a little too rambunctious on that night out. Looking back now, I believe the teams acted in a more normal young person rambunctious manner that night, but with all that was going on at that time, I didn’t take it that way.

    I remember seeing Morgan out that night, and she was as always being the responsible one.

    I remember her looking absolutely stressed trying to ensure no one got really out of hand. The Huskies hockey teams left that social function a short time after I discovered them there.

    At that time, I hadn’t learned the lesson to let things sit for a day and then proceed to reflect on them.

    That night I sent Morgan a bad email saying she had no honour and the Huskies hockey teams she deeply cared about had no honour. I knew saying that would be the worst thing you could ever say to Morgan to hurt her.

Morgan Willoughby (#9) in action for the Prince Albert Northern Bears.

    Morgan is an alumna of the Prince Albert Northern Bears female midget AAA team and was a captain of that team for two seasons.

    In Prince Albert, those that play hockey in that centre try to live up to the romantic vision of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders in being the team of Mike Modano and Dave Mansion – the franchise where honour still matters.

    To think that Morgan had a point at any time in her life where she didn’t have honour is totally ridiculous. She has so many characteristics and traits in common with Manson it is actually crazy to think about.

Morgan Willoughby jets up ice in January of 2018.

    She always had honour and always lived up to that romantic vision – Kaitlin too, who happens to be another former Bears captain.

    I apologize to both thinking otherwise even for the shortest span of time that anyone can imagine.

    Thinking the Huskies hockey teams don’t have honour is dumb too, and I apologize for thinking that as well.

    Even with being that mean, Morgan still worked to be the one to bring everyone together, and as usual, she succeeded.

    My dealings with Kaitlin improved and approximately all four times we’ve crossed paths since her Huskies career ended have been outstanding.

    (*Side note – big props to current Huskies football head coach Scott Flory for bringing the family back together there and growing the family over the years since that rough time on the football side.*)

Morgan Willoughby, middle, walks to the ice in February of 2018.

    Still, it kept crossing my mind, “Don’t be mean to Morgan.”

    There are times I still feel like I slipped up on that front, and I feel ashamed of myself every time it happens even in the smallest instance.

    I believe I unintentionally made life hard on her during what turned out to be her final weekend with the Huskies.

    Leading up to the Huskies series with the Thunderbirds, I wrote a rivalry column about the two teams and inserted some old school Western Hockey League showmanship used to sell tickets by taking some jabs at the Thunderbirds.

    The Huskies had a strong regular season finishing third in the Canada West Conference with a 17-7-2-2 record, and they looked to have the potential to win the conference and possibly U Sports nationals.

Morgan Willoughby in action in January of 2019.

    The Thunderbirds underachieved during the regular season with a stellar and skilled roster finishing sixth in Canada West with a 10-13-4-1. They were 2-11-3 in their last 16 regular season games.

    In the emotional aftermath of the series, it is only human nature to think that there were players on the Huskies roster that felt that rivalry column cost the Huskies the series and post-season glory. There has been a big surge in page views for that rivalry column after the Thunderbirds claimed that Canada West quarter-final.

    The jabs in that column towards the Thunderbirds and Saskatoon product, Thunderbirds defender and former Bears captain Hannah Koroll, who has the potential to be one of the best players the Thunderbirds have ever had, was poking the bear, and that was very clear to see in that series.

Morgan Willoughby celebrates her final U Sports goal on Feb. 8.

    While the two games of that set were phenomenal, that was likely little consolation to the Huskies. Knowing how competitive Morgan is, I suspect those sort of thoughts have to cross her mind over the past few days as she has reflected on things.

    As usual, Morgan played like a warrior despite the outside noise. She did everything in her power to help her team.

    After the shock of the double overtime heartbreaking loss in Game 2, Morgan’s only focus was caring for and coming to the emotional aid of her teammates despite her career being over. That was clearly visible on the ice.

    Once again what she was feeling was secondary to helping her teammates.

Morgan Willoughby (#9) hugs Emma Nutter after last Saturday’s game.

    I apologize for every moment I made life slightly hard for Morgan and for taking her for granted.

    More importantly, I want to thank Morgan Willoughby for everything she did for me during her hockey career and especially during her time with the Huskies. 
    I also want to thank her for her leadership over the years and for being the perfect example of being a leader.

    I deeply appreciate everything she has done for me.

    She deserved to get a national championship ring throughout her hockey playing career, and it is one of the unfair aspects of sport that will never happen. Still, she will always be a champion in the game of life.

    With saying that, I suspect there are others out there that have taken Morgan Willoughby for granted too.

Morgan Willoughby will always be an all-time champ in life.

    I hope you all will correct that oversight and thank her and tell how much she truly is appreciated.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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