Hockey Is More Than Winning Or Losing For DuSomme
Editor's Note - When MJ Independent first started almost four years ago we wanted to cover local sports.
The only team who replied at the time were the Moose Jaw Bantam Mavericks.
This year we are featuring the Milestone U18A Female Flyers where four Moose Jaw players - Ember DuSomme, Nikita Halyk, Sydney Ellingson and Taryn Sandbeck are finishing out their minor hockey careers.
First in a series.
By Robert Thomas
“I would not be the same person I am right now without hockey,” Ember DuSomme.
Hockey for Ember DuSomme was originally a means to get out of class but in the end it turned out to be an eight year journey of hard work, fun and friends.
“I started taking skating lessons when I was about six or seven years (old) and I didn’t like it really that much then,” DuSomme, a grade 12 student at Central Collegiate told MJ Independent.
But it wasn't the recruiting of Moose Jaw Minor Hockey Association (MJMHA) which gave DuSomme her first bite into the hockey apple and enjoyment of the game but rather it was an elementary school program and the desire to do something different in class.
“There was a hockey program at Westmount School. So I thought it was a good idea to get out of school and so I joined,” DuSomme said, adding “the fact is as a grade four (student) it gave me something to do in math class.”
DuSomme with Mavericks 18A goaltender Sydnee Christmann at the end of their final game together.
The COVID - 19 pandemic would shut down all games for the first time ever - Christmann would leave hockey for wrestling.
“You can just glide and get around the ice with grace. It is just fun to get around the ice,” she said trying to describe the feeling she felt when playing hockey.
Hockey is where DuSomme says she has discovered her true calling and it was easy to give up dancing in the tossing of dance costumes and shoes for a hockey stick and gloves.
“I don't know where I would be without hockey. I used to do dance and I just hated it.”
So as a ten year old grade four student she would spend six years playing hockey - two years with the school program and four years with MJMHA's Mavericks female hockey program.
While a member of the Mavericks she made SaskFirst hockey program in the second cut as well as had a tryout with Weyburn's U18 AAA team.
Other U18AAA teams would call and ask her to try out but she turned them down as she “wanted to stay closer to home.”
During those years in the Mavericks program DuSomme would be teamed up on a line with Sydney Ellingson.
The duo would become one of the Maverick's program production lines often involved in games where combined they would account for four or more goals per game leading their team to provincial finals.
Ellingson would be hurt and required knee surgery in two separate seasons and DuSomme said she missed her linemate during those times.
“Our chemistry is really good…when she wasn't there I felt it. The give and go was not as good as when we were together.”
Ember DuSomme in white battles for the puck - MJ Independent file photo
Despite her injuries Ellingson has returned to female hockey and is back playing on the same line with DuSomme.
“We are one-half of each other's brand DuSomme said.
Playing hockey was key to DuSomme and Ellingson becoming friends - it’s a friendship she sees as being life long.
“I think we would have heard of each other but we maybe would not have been friends like we are now,” she said.
DuSomme attended Westmount School and Central Collegiate and Ellingson attended King George and Peacock Collegiate.
Developing new friendships is what DuSomme sees as the number one thing she will take away from her minor hockey days.
“I would have to say the best thing is the friendships I made I don't think I can get that from any other sport.”
For DuSomme it’s not just the teammate friendships she developed in the Mavericks program but with the move to Milestone - due to no Maverick U18A program - she made a lot of friends through hockey she would not have made elsewhere.
Ember DuSomme hustles off of the Milestone bench - MJ Independent file photo
“It’s a lot of traveling,” she said about playing her final year out of Milestone.
But despite the driving to practice and games Milestone not only earned DuSomme a chance to finish out her minor hockey career but it also showed her a different side to hockey and life.
Fitting in at Milestone was easy. As her teammates welcomed her, and all of the Moose Jaw players, into the fold.
She said there wasn't the drama you might see elsewhere in life.
Playing in what is a country rink where life is often centered on the rink is something DuSomme sees as a big positive.
“It seems that there is more energy. Especially when compared to the Mavericks. Even at league games,” she said about the attendance which is often well over 200 fans compared to the often 45 in Moose Jaw.
“We would win all of the time with the Mavericks and people just expected it. In Milestone it’s more competitive and when we win they (the fans) show it.”
DuSomme said the Milestone rink “is a lot colder” and as a result the ice is more slippery. She sees the ice as a bonus as it enhances her rapid type of play.
Despite right now being the top points producer for Milestone DuSomme hockey is a team sport and it is great playing on an 18 member roster.
“Our whole team is really friendly and we all get along really well unlike other things…there is not the drama.”
Milestone is more than hockey with DuSomme saying she has met people and now has more friends she would not have if it not had been for hockey.
With this being her final year of organized minor hockey DuSomme says she won’t be giving up hockey but it will take a back seat to her education.
Her plans call for attending university in Calgary at SAIT where she may play hockey but only if it does not interfere with her studies in ultrasound, medical diagnostics and sonography.
Asked about her overall journey in hockey DuSomme sees it as building her in a positive manner.
“It has changed my whole perspective today…I would not be the same person I am right now without hockey.”
Next Up - Sidney Ellingson