It turns out age is just a number after all, especially when it comes to specific roles on a hockey team.
What other explanation could there be for 15-year-old Carmen Elliott emerging as a bona fide leader on and off the ice for the Ridley College Tigers, a club with some 19-year-old post-graduates hitting the ice.
“Although I don’t have a letter, I feel like I am a leader on the ice,” said the daughter of Stephenville’s Barbara and Shane.
She actually joined the team last year for her Grade 9 season as a 14-year-old, which common sense might dictate, would lead to a few awkward moments attempting to establish herself as a go-to voice in the locker room and on the ice.
Elliott acknowledges it was difficult to do so in her rookie season, but as the campaign wore on, her natural tendencies seemed to take over. She even wound up as the team’s rookie of the year, a feat she duplicated with the school’s rugby team when the hockey season ended.
“If a girl is down, I’m always the one to bring them back up and encourage them,” she said.
Elliott knows a fair bit about falling down and getting back up, so to speak, as a former figure skater. Those were her first experiences on the ice, for four years, until she decided to join hockey as an eight-year-old on the encouragement of her father and in the footsteps of her sister.
She immediately put away the figure skates for good.
“I don’t know … being a figure skater was just not competitive enough for me,” she said.
Never one to set the bar low, Elliott donned the No. 4 on her jersey, a tribute to her dad’s favourite player, Boston Bruins great Bobby Orr, who was the very personification of the term “smooth-skating defenceman.”
She has done everything in her power to emulate his game, tying for fourth in scoring on her team last year with 12 points (4G-8A) in 27 games, first among the team’s defence corps.
Route to Ridley
The idea to leave home at 14 to attend a prep school to play hockey first blossomed after attending a showcase in Prince Edward Island a couple of years ago. There, she met Tigers head coach Amanda Wark and assistant Celeste Doucet and made a first impression.
When she competed at the 2016 Atlantic Challenge Cup, Wark contacted her and invited her to the school.
Saying so long to her parents at such a young age was tough, but so is she.
“It was exciting, but also scary at the same time,” said Elliott. “But (her parents) know where I want to take hockey, so it was the best decision for me.”
The life at Ridley has been a steady diet of hockey and schoolwork, but, now in her second year, she’s gotten more used to it.
“I feel my time management kills have gotten better since I’ve been here,” she said.
Her day begins around 8 a.m. with a morning practice or workout, then school awaits until 4 p.m. From there it’s an after-school practice, supper, then homework until lights out.
The team made it all the way to the CISAA (Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario Athletic Association) game last year, but fell short. With mostly the same group back again, Elliott likes the clubs’ chances of faring even better.
Also on the horizon, however, is the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta. in February.
Elliott will be on Team Newfoundland and Labrador and, as a testament to her leadership qualities, was named an alternate captain — as an under-ager.
She is a little blown away at that show of respect from the Team NL coaches, but isn’t letting herself get caught up in it. She just wants to step into the role they believe she can fill, and do the same things she’s been doing with the Tigers to earn her teammates’ trust.
They’ll be looking to her for guidance, but those won’t be the only eyes on her during the Canada Games.
She’s been told there are plenty of university scouts planning on attending, and that there is a star marked next to her name in their notebooks.
“It’s going to be crazy,” she said. “That’s going to be a big tournament for me.”
