Women’s hockey team assistant captain Becky Conroy started the new season off with a bang over Thanksgiving weekend. The forward notched three goals and five points in wins over the York Lions, ranked tenth in Canada, and the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.
Conroy received CIS and OUA female athlete of the week accolades for her performance. She said her play was surprising given she’s playing on a line with rookie winger Brittany McHaffie, after the departure of last year’s captain Cassie Sparks.
“I’ve been playing with Kelsey [Thomson] for a few years now,” she said. “Right from the get-go it worked and we felt it on the ice.”
The Gaels are now ranked ninth in the country. Conroy said that’s indicative of her hopes for the team this year.
“In my four years, this is by far the best team I’ve been a part of,” she said. “I have high hopes for this year and I think we have the potential to be the team to beat in the OUA.”
Conroy said her family helped her kickstart her hockey career.
“My older brother played and I followed his footsteps and got into it,” she said. “I come from a big family and all of my siblings and parents have been very supportive and come out to a lot of my games.”
Conroy said being a student-athlete can be difficult given the amount of time athletes dedicate to their sport.
“Your marks might suffer a little bit from it, there’s an opportunity on long trips to work and we can’t be out late anyways so you might as well use that time to work,” she said. “You’ve got to keep your average up anyways to play so that’s incentive to do it. … Some of the girls coming in are nervous about balancing the two, but there’s always tutors and extra help available.”
—Amrit Ahluwalia
What is your favourite team in any sport?
Embarrassingly enough, it’s the Maple Leafs, but I’ll stick with them, even though they don’t put up the numbers anymore
Who is your favourite superhero?
I like the Incredibles so we’ll go with that.
What do you think about UnderArmour?
I like it. There’s a few girls on my team that like it more than I do, though, so I make fun of them a bit. All in all, I suppose I’m an UnderArmour supporter.
What is on your iPod?
Everything and anything.
Mullets or Mohawks?
I’m from a small town, so I’m probably more used to the mullet
Celebrity crush?
George Clooney.
Any hidden talents?
I can juggle a soccer ball pretty well… that’s normally what we do for warm-ups.
Anyone you’d trade lives with for a day?
I don’t want to say something stupid like Paris Hilton… I’ll say someone on the Olympic team. It would be interesting to see what their lives are like.
Childhood dream job?
Hockey player.
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