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“ Yeah , I just love it here ,” said Tom , a defenseman with the Junior Women ’ s Hockey League ’ s Boston Shamrocks . “ I love coming to the rink every day to play hockey with a group of girls that I just love being around .
“ I love playing for Sean ( Shamrocks head coach Sean Fisher ) and it ’ s just so much fun playing with our group . We don ’ t get into Boston , into the city , very often , but we play in an area that is just so close to so many major colleges , it ’ s just a great atmosphere to play in . And it ’ s just so welcoming . It ’ s a great place to play .”
Tom , who was the captain of the gold-medal winning Team Manitoba at the 2017 National Aboriginal Hockey Championship in Cowichan Valley , B . C ., is one of the
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best players , both on the Shamrocks and in the JWHL . Last spring at the NAHC , she led Manitoba with five goals and eight points in six tournament games . This year , the traditional stay-at-home defenseman , who happens to have tremendous speed and skills , has stepped up her game significantly in Boston . And her coach is thrilled with her improvement .
“ Taylor has really come into her own here in Boston ,” said Fisher , the former assistant to Jon Rempel at the University of Manitoba . “ She has some great physical tools -- she shoots it well , skates well , checks , angles and defends well .
“ I have found her to be a very coachable player , she is eager to learn and is thinking the game at a very high level
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right now and that has clearly helped our team achieve some positive results through the first 20 games of the season .”
That ’ s another thing Tom likes about playing for the Shamrocks . While the team had played seven JWHL games through the middle of November ( 5-2-0 ), they had actually played a total of 20 games against some of the best competition on both sides of the border .
As a result , Tom is now at the point where she is beginning to sort out her scholarship offers . She has a couple of official visits and although she hasn ’ t yet made a decision , she ’ s getting closer .
“ I ’ m not a huge fan of the really big schools ,” she said . “ I want to go to a university where I see some familiar faces every day , people I
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CAPTAIN TAYLOR TOM ( MIDDLE ) AND HER TEAM MANITOBA NAHC FEMALE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS |
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132 | GAME ON | DECEMBER 2017 |