Expect Huskies’ alum to give effort to earn
place at next level
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| Kaitlin Willoughby celebrates an OT goal in January of 2017. |
Could Kaitlin Willoughby live out a situation that is meant
for a dream in Calgary?
From 1996 to 2013, Jarome Iginla starred at right wing for
the Calgary Flames, and when he left the Saddledome after practice or a team
function, he almost always stopped at the gates to the team parking lot and
signed autographs for all the fans that were waiting there. He became one of
the Flames most beloved players thanks to the culmination of small little
actions like that.
Willoughby, who graduated as the captain of the University
of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team after last season, may one day have
to stop and sign autographs for fans outside of the home rink of the Calgary
Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.
On Sunday, the 23-year-old Prince Albert, Sask., product,
who originally hails from Canwood, Sask., was selected in the seventh round and
37th overall in the CWHL Draft held in Toronto, Ont., by the
Inferno. The Inferno have a partnership with the Flames making the NHL
franchise a major supporter of the CWHL club.
The CWHL is a professional women’s hockey league established
in 2007, and it mimics the National Lacrosse League in establishing a
sustainable business model.
Willoughby announced publically on her Twitter account on
Sunday she plans to follow through on her draft selection and join the Inferno. Inferno training camp is slated to run Sept. 19 to 23 in Calgary. The CWHL regular season usually begins in October.
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| Kaitlin Willoughby gets set to fire a shot on goal for the Huskies. |
A number of steps still have to transpire for Willoughby,
who stands 5-foot-6, to ever attain star status in the CWHL. The speedy and
skilled right-winger is part of the top one per cent of female players in
Canada, and she deserves this opportunity.
During her time with the Huskies, Willoughby finished as the
second all-time leading scorer with the program recording 111 career points in
132 regular season games. Her career regular season goal total of 50 ranks
third all-time and career regular season assist total of 61 is fourth all-time
in team history.
Last season, Willoughby finished fifth in Canada West regular
season scoring with nine goals and 10 assists in 26 regular season games.
She has attended the women’s summer camp run by Hockey
Canada in 2016, 2017 and earlier this month and helped Canada win silver at
FISU Winter Universiade in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in February of 2017.
Still, Willoughby will join the Inferno coming in as an
underdog looking to make an impact on the CWHL ranks. If she makes an impact,
she could possibly open more doors in her hockey future like getting a shot to
make Canada’s senior national women’s team.
The six-team CWHL is made up of players from Canada, the
United States and Europe who are all part of the top one per cent of female
players in the world. Willoughby will be facing numerous players that are
veterans of senior national team programs and have played in the Winter
Olympics.
At this point in time, Willoughby will likely rank at the bottom
of that top one per cent of female players in the world. That won’t change
until she does something to raise her stature at that level.
Willoughby will be really busy with her new life as a
professional player as well, but she has already handled schedules that contain
very little down time. The CWHL is also a working women’s league, where most of
the players work full-time career jobs away from the game.
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| Kaitlin Willoughby gets set to start a rush up ice for the Huskies. |
Players can earn $2,000 to $10,000 per season playing in the
CWHL and teams operate under a salary cap of $100,000. Willoughby is still
finishing her studies in the nursing program at U of S, so her efforts to
finish that program will have to be worked around her hockey schedule similarly
to when she played with the Huskies last season.
In order for female players to continue with hockey at an
elite level when their university careers wrap up, everyone who is part of a
players’ support system have to be “all in” to make it work.
Willoughby has had the unconditional support of her family and
friends since her minor hockey beginning in Canwood, and the number of people
who back her have multiplied over the years. She will have the support system,
when she makes that jump to become a pro.
As far as the on-ice aspect of game is concerned, Willoughby
needs to play in the CWHL and with the top one per cent of players in the world
to get even better at the game. When she starts skating with the Inferno on the
CWHL circuit, Willoughby will likely find she likes it.
Everybody will have an elite skill set, and she will start
to realize there are more opportunities to be creative with her linemates. She
will probably discover she has more space to make plays due to the fact she won’t
be the target of agitator type players that will try to do something
underhanded to get her off her game like in the U Sports ranks.
At the CWHL level, anyone trying to engage in an agitation
type tactic really opens themselves up to being exploited by a skilled play.
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| Kaitlin Willoughby looks to make a play in the offensive zone. |
Most of the other players in the CWHL are usually good
character persons, so Willoughby will find that enjoyable too.
One thing that Willoughby does have that gives her an
advantage over the other players in the league is the fact she can respond and
act in a positive way when things go wrong or there is a really disappointing
outcome in a big game. On the media front, Willoughby can responsibly handle
tough questions from a tough and even a controversial loss, and she can get
herself refocused to do better the next time out.
While the most of the players in the CWHL are good character
people, a lot of them don’t know how to handling things when the water gets
really rough, because they have never experienced that before. With the CWHL’s
playoff and all-star games airing on television, the intangible of Willoughby’s
ability to handle that type of adversity has to be remembered.
In getting to this point in her hockey career, Willoughby has
earned her way here. Playing for the Prince Albert Northern Bears female midget
AAA team from 2008 to 2013, she recorded 34 goals and 63 assists in 96 career
regular season games. She was the team’s captain in her final season with the Bears.
Skating in an era of the SFMAAAHL when players like Emily
Clark, who is now on Canada’s senior national women’s team, and Olivia Howe
were putting up insane point totals, Willoughby was viewed as a good player but
not a guaranteed blue-chip prospect. She improved greatly during her university
career and outscored and outperformed players that scored more than she did in
the midget AAA ranks.
In my time dealing with Willoughby, I will never say she can’t
do something lofty or seemingly unattainable, because I will end up looking
bad, when she goes out and does it.
Willoughby still has potential to keep improving in the
future, and her best is still yet to come. It is great to see that she will have a
chance to reach new peaks in the sport.
Back in the Express with cover story on Dach
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| The cover of this week’s edition of the Express. |
I was back in the Saskatoon Express this week with a cover
story on Saskatoon Blades centre Kirby Dach.
The Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., product is entering his
17-year-old sophomore season with the Blades. As a 16-year-old rookie last season
in the WHL, Dach piled up seven goals and 39 assists in 52 regular season
games.
Earlier this month, Dach helped Canada win gold at the
Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which was held jointly in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta. The
Hlinka Gretzky Cup is the annual best-versus-best under-18 hockey tournament.
At that event, Dach played right wing on a line that
featured Peyton Krebs of the WHL’s Kootenay Ice at centre and Alexis Lafreniere
of the QMJHL’s Rimouski Oceanic at left wing. Dach netted two goals and five
assists helping Canada post a 5-0 record at that event.
I came away from the one-on-one interview with Dach more
impressed than I had been with him before. I liked the demeanour he had, when I
asked him about handling agitation tactics from opposing teams in the WHL.
His approach is similar to what former Regina Pats star
centres Adam Brooks and Sam Steel and former Swift Current Broncos star right
winger Tyler Steenbergen follows. That is a very good sign for Dach.
The hard copies of the Express containing the story on Dach
can be found at stands and locations throughout Saskatoon. You can also check out the story on Dach by clicking on the link right
here.
Four years ago today Sermon goes live
Crazy to think that four years ago today the first post ever
went live here on the Stanks’ Sermon blog.
I started this blog more as a vehicle to get back to
writing. I had left my position as a sportswriter with the Medicine Hat News on
June 30, 2014 to make a family move to Saskatoon.
I had been settled in Saskatoon for about a month, when I
typed my first post. That post contained thoughts that ran through my head on
what it was like to be back in Saskatoon and back living in the province of
Saskatchewan.
I was trying to figure out what my role and identity would
be in the community. I find that it has seemed to change over the last four
years.
I have enjoyed continuing to cover the sports scene through
this blog. I have gained a tonne more awesome memories I never thought I would
make, when I arrived in Saskatoon a little over four years ago.
With that in mind, I don’t plan to look back at various
memories I have made at this moment. I love marveling how simple my first post looked. It didn’t
contain a single picture, which is one aspect I know everyone enjoys when they
see my posts.
If you like to look back on that first post from August 29,
2014, you can do so by clicking right
here.
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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