by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
WHITEWATER REGION (Beachburg) — At the age of 20, Beachburg hockey player Katie Comeau has fulfilled a dream.
Her university hockey team, Lady Flames from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, won its second American Collegiate Hockey Association championship in four years. However, this is the first ACHA championship Katie has won.
She joined the team three years ago when she began studying exercise science at the university on an academic scholarship. The first year they lost in the semi-finals of the ACHA, although they had not lost a game all season, Katie said. In her second year, the team lost in the finals.
“In my third year, we won the championship,” she proudly said.
But, it took a few years of playing hockey for Katie to get good enough to earn a spot on the team.
She started playing hockey when she was five years old and her family had moved from Beachburg to Oromocto, New Brunswick. She is the daughter of Allen and Debbie and sister to Jeff.
In 2004, the family moved back to Beachburg and Katie began playing in the Muskrat Minor Hockey Association, on both competitive and house league teams. She played on the atom team in 2007, peewee in 2009 and bantam in 2010. Katie was the first female player to try-out for the Ottawa Valley Aces Minor Bantam Double A team.
Still wanting to play competitive hockey at the highest level possible, she made the transition from boys to girls, playing in the Ottawa Valley District Girls Hockey Association Thunder teams. She played bantam and midget before moving on to the Perth Predators Midget AA hockey team from 2013-2015.
Katie was also a member of the Fellowes High School Falcons hockey team in Pembroke, along with many other sports teams.
During her first year in Perth, her dream of playing at the highest level started to become a reality, her father said.
She was one of four players invited to participate in the Rush Hockey Prospect camp in Toronto in June 2014, where she met Paul Bloomfield and Scott Bloomfield, the coach and scout respectively for the Lady Flames. She travelled to Lynchburg to meet the team and check out the school and area.
A year later, she arrived in Lynchburg, Virginia to begin her dream of playing at the highest level of hockey for her.
Katie can’t remember when or why she fell in love with the game, but she does credit Kyla Simmons with mentoring her. Kyla was a good hockey player and Katie’s babysitter. Kyla died when she was 23 years old on December 1, 2013.
“I always wanted to be like her,” Katie said. “I still have her numbers in a heart on the back of my helmets. I get my competitiveness from Kyla.”
As a member of the Lady Flames, Katie noted the season begins with try-outs in August and once a member of the team, there are games through to March. There are practices in April and May and then the team disperses for the summer.
However, that doesn’t mean the work stops, Katie said.
“The trainer will provide workouts for us to do,” she said.
Playing defence, Katie doesn’t get the opportunity to rack up the stats, but noted she didn’t miss any of the 22 games and has garnered only six penalty minutes this year.
“Playing defence is more challenging,” Katie said. “Everything is planned out, you don’t play as you go. You have to know the angles and you have to have good timing.”
Katie believes she has one more year with the Lady Flames and her goal is for the team to win another ACHA championship.
But, that doesn’t mean hockey is out of her life. She has helped coach at Thunder hockey camps and when at home, helps with Kyla’s Kids Club, a free hockey program at the Beachburg Arena that provides an opportunity to children to try out the game of hockey. She knows she will either play recreational hockey or coach hockey, or maybe do both.
Her dad Allen is proud of her.
“She works hard,” he said. “She’s competitive. She has a good work ethic. The coaches say she has dedication.”
