A HEART FOR HOCKEY
Saratoga’s Lilly Holmes is finding success at the NCAA Div. 1 level with the University of Vermont
BURLINGTON, VT. >> Lilly Holmes skates like the wind, has a quick hard wrist shot, and plays with rugged determination on the penalty kill.
What stands out most is the way her face lights up each time she steps on the ice.
Holmes’s passion for hockey has taken her to the University of Vermont, where she’s quickly become a valued contributor in her freshman year with the Division 1 Catamounts.
“I was working at this National Development Player camp in St. Cloud, Minn., and I was watching her in practice,” UVM coach James Plumer said. “I just skated over to her and said, ‘You love hockey, don’t you?’ She had the biggest smile on her face. From there, it was like we’ve got to watch this kid. She was going into eighth grade at that time.”
Holmes, a Greenfield resident, has been opening eyes since she first laced up her skates with the Blue Knights, a boys team in the Saratoga Youth Hockey Association.
“My coach, Jeff Smith, never treated me different for being a girl,” Holmes said. “He expected a lot from me, but always knew I could make it.
He shared my passion for hockey. With him as my coach, my Saratoga Bantam A team made it to states.”
Then she began playing for the Clifton Park Eagles, an all-girls team coached by her father, Robert, a former Elmira College star whose five brothers played college hockey, too.
“I come from a hockey family,” he said. “Early on I knew she had a gift for skating. Every summer I would bring her down to Westchester where I was from, and would have her in camps with really good Tier 1 and prep school girls. She would play against girls two or three years older, just to see where she stood.”
“I’d ask friends and coaches I knew down there: ‘How do you think she’s doing?’ They would say: ‘She looks great, keep it going.’ Then when she was playing 14U, she made the National Development Team for the best girls in the country.”
It was the first of four straight invitations to the program.
When it came time for high school, Holmes had a difficult decision to make – stay home and attend public school, or choose a path more likely to make her hockey dreams come true. The Westminster School, a prestigious prep school in Simsbury, Connecticut offered her a partial scholarship, an offer she couldn’t refuse.
“It was hard,” said Lilly’s mom, Barbara. “But I knew that’s where she was supposed to be. She has an incredible gift to make friends. She typically has a small tight group that she surrounds herself with. I’ve never had to worry about her not fitting in. She just does, everywhere.”
In addition to being named captain and Most Valuable Player, Holmes also played for the MidFairfield Stars club team, which made it to nationals three out of her four years on the squad. She was this team’s captain as well.
“When I was looking at schools to play college hockey I was interested in Brown, Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence, Northeastern and Dartmouth,” Holmes said. “I chose UVM because it had always been my dream to play hockey here. Ever since my first tournament in Burlington as a 14-year-old, I knew I wanted to play here. The campus is gorgeous, the people are so nice, it has solid academics, and it has D1 college hockey. It doesn’t get better than that.”
Actually it does because she’s there on a full athletic scholarship.
“It’s amazing to play with such a talented group of girls that work hard every day, all day,” she said. “They are my family away from home. The biggest adjustment for me is how fast the game is and being able to make quicker decisions.”
“I’m trying to improve on my stick skills,” she said. “I need to be better at shooting, and stick handling while keeping my head up and feet moving. My goals are to be a contributor for my team and find my role that best benefits everyone on the ice.”
Holmes sees people cheering from the stands, but for the most part her world is devoid of the frenzied sounds associated with hard-fought, fast-paced hockey games. At 4, while still in pre-school, she was diagnosed with a serious hearing disability.
Last spring, during a speech to fellow Westminster students, she said, “I won’t hear you yell my name in the hall, on the field or on the ice, no matter how loud you call.”
Occasionally, it’s caused somewhat humorous situations during hockey games.
“Refs tend to take it a little personally when I can’t hear them,” Holmes said. “Sometimes I’ll be skating away when they’re talking to me. Or I’ll start play before the whistle, or I’ll keep playing after they’ve blown the whistle several times.”
But she’s learned to embrace, rather than regret, her lack of hearing, which inspires everyone around her.
“Every day I try to see my loss as a gain,” she told classmates. “So I urge you, find those things that scare you. Be the little kid who’s not afraid to stand out or be different. Be who you are.”
Plumer said Holmes’ hearing impediment never manifests itself in practice or games. In fact, it might have given her the inner qualities he admires most about her.
“The thing I really like about Lilly is that she’s independent,” he said. “She believes in certain things, she has a lot of integrity. Sometimes kids are susceptible to peer pressure. I don’t think Lilly’s that kind of person. She’s a leader.”
Lilly’s dad said she’s always taken her hearing loss in stride.
“She wore her hearing aids like a badge of honor,” Robert Holmes said. “If anything, if someone said anything to her she’d stand up for herself. I think she’s a strong personality. She just doesn’t let it bother her. I don’t think it ever affected her in a negative way.”
Barbara Holmes said, “Lilly has never used her hearing loss as an excuse or a crutch. She isn’t embarrassed by it. It’s just been the way it is. She learned early on to read lips. When doing drills, she’s never first in line. She stays back so she can see what the coach’s instructions are. Many of her coaches didn’t even know about her hearing loss. Lilly never wants to be treated differently.”
Holmes’ biggest challenge now is simply adjusting to the intense demands of playing with and against many of the best women’s hockey players in the world. In addition to several Canadians, the UVM roster has players from Finland, the Czech Republic and Austria.
“It makes for a really unique locker room,” Plumer said. “We have people who bring different perspectives on life. Some of the Europeans are a little older. We even have a 21-year-old freshman. We’re developing a special culture, but it takes time and the right people. That’s one of the things that attracted us to Lilly. We like her character. She buys into what we’re doing as a program. When you get enough critical mass of people who do that, it makes for the sum being much better than the parts.”
Holmes took several penalty killing shifts during UVM’s 5-4 victory over Merrimack on Saturday.
“She’s fearless,” Plumer said. “She’ll block shots. She pays attention to the game plan, as far as what the other team’s power play is doing and then she goes out and executes. I think the shot-blocking thing can’t be overstated. She really relishes that.”
In this regard, Lilly’s style has always clashed with her father’s, which he admits caused “lots of tears and arguments throughout the years.”
She plays forward, but has a strong defensive mindset.