Ivy League grad solid on defence

Posted 3 months ago

Richard Saad

Standard Reporter

When Katie Gray, 22, finished school last year, she still felt the need to play hockey.

Having graduated from the Dartmouth, an Ivy League school in the United States, playing hockey in the NCAA and finishing with a degree in mechanical engineering, she felt the call of playing hockey strongly.

Unfortunately, the only opportunities at the time were for the Calgary Oval X-Treme, but their schedule involved playing games during the day, which made having a successful career much more difficult. That's when talk of playing for the Rockies came up.

During Gray's senior year at Dartmouth, her friend Carli Clemis, the current goaltender for the Rockies, told Gray that she was planning on joining the Rockies once she graduated.

It was Clemis who told Gray how the Rockies' schedule of playing games in the evening, greatly afforded players the opportunity to play, while at the same time holding down jobs and/or going to school. Gray jumped at the opportunity.

"I thought if I could still play hockey while going to work then that would be awesome," said Gray, who is currently one of the assistant captains on the team.

The defenceman describes herself as a strong defensive presence on the blue line.

In fact, during her time in the NCAA, she was one of the best defencemen in the league.

However, with her time on the Rockies, she has started trying to expand her role by contributing more offensive punch to the position.

"I'm been working on being a little more offensive and I'm taking more shots from the point," said Gray.

"I just want to contribute to the scoring."

After five games so far this season, the Rockies are one game below .500. All of their games have come against their rival to the North, the Edmonton Chimos.

Gray admits that the Rockies still need to find a suitable rhythm together in order to translate that into on-ice success.

She feels confident, though, because the chemistry and talent on the team is a point of pride for her and the rest of the players.

"Once we find our rhythm I think we'll have much more success," said Gray.

"When that happens, we'll be dynamite."

Coach Tom Molloy has been steadily mixing and matching lines in order to find players who gel together. Despite all the practice time, Gray said the Rockies will only find more chemistry as teammates through the games.

"It's hard to see in practice but in games, you can always tell when it just works," said Gray, who is from Calgary.

Gray believes her role as an assistant captain is to be a beacon of leadership.

"We try to bring a positive vibe to the team and I think the other players see that and respond to it," said Gray.