About three years ago, Prince Rupert’s Taylor Northcott was invited to play for a university prep school girl’s hockey team on Vancouver Island.
Northcott was happy being a northern kid, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take her game to the next level, playing in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League along with girls who play for Team Canada.
“Being all the way up from the north, it was a little bit intimidating,” Northcott remembers. “But we’ve been best friends ever since. Basically sisters.”
Being recruited by the Shawnigan Lake Stags was Northcott’s best hockey memory, until about five days ago when she was recruited by Arizona State.
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Not only has Northcott been recruited, she will help build the Sun Devils’ defences.
“Kind of leading the back end into better hockey,” Northcott, now in Grade 12, told the Northern View on a visit home during spring break.
Arizona State is relatively new to women’s hockey. The team’s inaugural season was 2016-2017.
When she tried out for the team on Christmas break, Northcott was told they’re looking to make a big jump this year from Division 1 of the American Collegiate Hockey Association to Division 3 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
“Taylor’s kind of the first high-end recruit,” Northcott’s dad Derek said, adding that Arizona has also recruited a player from the Okanagan Hockey Academy. “They’re starting the NCAA program and Taylor is basically going to be the star of their back end, the defence.”
“I was super excited when [the coach] told me she wanted to use me and the other girl that was recruited to build their program for the better,” Northcott said.
The 17-year-old is known for her leadership in the defensive zone and, although the Stags finished fifth out of eight teams after an overtime upset in the quarterfinals this year, she had the best plus-minus stat in the league.
Northcott said she’s dreamed of playing university-level hockey ever since she was a kid.
She said Arizona State makes sense for her because of the back end-building opportunity, and because her chosen civil engineering program prioritizes hands-on learning and “ranked above MIT” last year.
The fact that she can wear flip-flops to and from practice and play a conference with games in Las Vegas doesn’t hurt either, she said.
“I was just super excited to find a university where I could wear flip-flops and shorts to the rink, I thought that was awesome.”
With her offer accepted, Northcott said she has to apply for housing and will keep in shape with AAA rugby after spring break until June, when her new coach will likely send her a fitness routine. Then she will have undergraduate orientation, classes will start, and so will her hockey.
Northcott said she expects she’ll be practicing three, four times a week on-ice in Arizona, off-ice twice a week, with either games or additional practices on weekends.
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