For Elora resident Emma Nankivell playing on just one hockey team isn’t enough; she has her sights on making a splash in the international sporting environment.
Nankivell, 14, is set to begin her first season as part of the International Selects Hockey Program which chooses players from North America and Europe to participate in international hockey tournaments.
Selects Hockey is an elite hockey prospect development program owned by Legacy Global Sports that helps develop top 12- to 16-year-old hockey players and expose them to educational and professional opportunities.
Nankivell began playing hockey when she was seven years old with the Grand River Mustangs but about three years ago she switched to play for the Guelph Gryphons.
“It’s more competitive and they have better coaches and it’s a higher level,” Nankivell explained. “They can make better teams because they have more people.”
Nankivell’s father, Dave Nankivell, said the Mustangs had ‘B’ or ‘BB’ teams but with the Gryphons there was the opportunity to play on ‘A’ and ‘AA’ teams, as well. Come September Nankivell will be playing on the Midget ‘AA’ Guelph Gryphons team.
However, the road to the Selects team began when Nankivell was still a Mustang.
“You were on the Grand River Mustangs playing against the Waterloo Ravens at the time and somebody on Waterloo was the coach of this Green Glove team, which is a spring hockey team,” Dave explained. “So they saw her and asked her if she would like to be part of the Green Gloves team.”
It was while she was playing on the Green Gloves, a spring hockey team that has tournaments in April and May, that Nankivell first saw the Selects team in 2013.
“The Green Gloves team went to a tournament that the Selects went to and then I saw them and I saw the flags on their jerseys and their sweaters,” she said. “Their logo is Selects and it has the Canadian flag and the American flag so then I was like, ‘Oh that’s cool’ because no other team has that.”
After researching the team, Nankivell said she learned about the travelling opportunities and emailed the organization expressing her interest in joining the team.
In 2014 she was invited to play with the Selects team in Boston as an alternate for the Beantown Classic.
But it all changed when she received an email last November saying she was no longer an alternate.
“I got the email and my mom told me because she was at home and got the email but I didn’t see it first, I think I was at school, and then she told me and I was like, ‘are you kidding,’ and I was freaking out that whole day and I was like running around and I was so happy … and then when I got home I was like ‘I’ve got to see this’ so I looked at the email and then I started freaking out and then I called [my dad] and then we were freaking out,” she said. “Everyone was freaking out.”
The Selects had invited her to play in Italy and she was a full player on the team.
Nankivell said one of the challenges she faces on the Selects team is getting to know the players she’s playing with for each specific tournament.
“Off the ice you have to start talking to them … so they know your name and they feel more comfortable, since we’d never played with each other before we don’t know where each other are on the ice and things like that or what our voices sound like,” she said. “But after a few games you get used to it.”
Though she said she had a different coach every game at the Beantown Classic when she was an alternate, Nankivell said they were so skilled and knowledgeable that she felt they were working and adapting to the type of coaching style the players needed.
“They try and adapt to all the different coaching styles that we’ve had so they just give us outlines and then we can alter our systems and things to what we’re used to so it’s a more comfortable transition,” she said.
Nankivell also said the pace was much quicker than her Guelph league.
“They make you think so much faster and stuff when you play at high levels because the other team is really good too,” she said. “So instead of having three seconds to think about what you’re going to do you have like half a second and … the pace is way higher… and shots are harder.”
Nankivell will be competing in four tournaments with the Selects team. First will be the Ponytail Challenge in Toronto in June, then the North American Prospect Showcase in Rochester, New York in June, then the Beantown Classic in Boston in July and then the World Selects Invitational in Bolzano, Italy in August.
Though Nankivell said she practices three to five hours a week, she also puts in her own practice time. For two to three hours almost every day after school she practices rollerblading and shooting on her driveway and in her garage. She even has a slab of fake ice that allows her to practice stick handling.
In addition to developing her skills, the Selects team has access to scouts from NCAA schools in the U.S. and, with her above 90 per cent Grade 9 average at Centre Wellington District High School, Nankivell has made it her goal to earn a scholarship to an Ivy League school.
And after that Nankivell has her sights set even higher.
“Watch for me in the Olympics … that’s the plan,” she said.
