The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Avi Adam pursuing her dream
Valley star joins Lucy Phillips at Canadian under-18 tryout camp
Avi Adam hopes to end a rollercoaster of a hockey season on a high.
The 17-year-old daughter of Mark Adam and Katrina Macfarlane found out on Dec. 23 she had made Team Canada for the world under18 championship in early January in Sweden.
“I cried,” the five-foot-nine, 160-pound forward from Gaspereau recalled recently. “I had dreamed of being on the national team since I could stand.”
But that jubilation quickly turned to disappointment the next day when the team was informed the International Ice Hockey Federation event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fast-forward five months and Adam is preparing to head to Calgary for the national team selection camp from May 24-29. Canada will
compete at the rescheduled worlds in Wisconsin from June 6-13.
Adam will be joined by Lucy Phillips, a goalie from Upper Tantallon, was also invited to the initial camp. Phillips played for the Halifax Western Capitals of the Maritime Major Under-18 Female Hockey League this past season.
“I am very, very happy and thankful that our (tournament) got rescheduled for June,” Adam said. “It’s very, very special.”
The 2021 world championship was also cancelled because of the pandemic. Adam was part of the Canadian program, which included a number of Zoom sessions through the summer.
Adam said she hopes to make the team later this month and get a chance to wear the Maple Leaf at an international event for the first time. It would also provide an opportunity to play against the world’s best players at her age group.
“I feel like I thrive in that atmosphere,” she said. “I’m just really excited to be back with everybody (in camp) and hopefully (earn) another spot on the team.”
Adam played for the Etobicoke Junior Dolphins of the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHA) under22 elite league this season as well as Appleby College, an independent day and boarding school in Oakville, Ont., where she has attended classes for Grades 11 and 12.
She is described as a wellrounded player who is able to fill whatever role her team needs.
“Avi has the total package. She has the size, she has the skating, she has the strength,” said Dolphins’ head coach Joe Butkevich.
While those fundamental skills are measurable from watching her on the ice, intangible qualities quickly became apparent to Butkevich when Adam joined the team, including “her absolute passion for hockey and her love for the game.”
Butkevich said Adam hates losing more than she likes winning, a quality he can relate to.
“She’s a gamer. She has high expectations for herself,” he said. “She works hard. She puts in the time. She puts in the effort in the gym, off the ice. She does all the necessary things to be successful.”
The bench boss, who is entering his seventh season with the Dolphins, was not surprised Adam received the invite from Hockey Canada.
“She has world-class ability and skill set.”
And she has shown the ability to rise to the moment in pressure-packed situations. Adam recently scored the overtime winner as the Dolphins defeated the Durham West Junior Lightning to capture the Ontario provincial championship after losing to them in the league final two weeks earlier.
Butkevich recalls the play well, noting Adam stripped the puck from a Lightning player along the half wall, came in, changed the angle on the goalie and beat her low blocker.
“She has that game-breaking ability. Anytime she’s on the ice, she can win a game for ya.”
ROAD TO ONTARIO
Adam started playing hockey on a co-ed team in the Acadia Minor Hockey Association when she was five years old. She played for the Valley Wild Female Hockey Association from her first year of atom to her first year of bantam.
Adam left home for Grades 9 and 10 at Selects Academy in New York. She then moved to Ontario to play for the Dolphins while also studying and playing at Appleby College.
“I know Wolfville and the Valley are very, very supportive and people are always cheering me on. I feel like I have a community behind me, which is really special,” she said. “I have definitely grown to appreciate home a lot more in these past four years that I’ve been away.”
NEXT YEAR
Adam, who graduates in June, will be attending Cornell University, a Division 1 school in Ithaca, N.Y., in the fall.
“The girls on the team are amazing and the campus is beautiful,” she said. “I know I am going to be supported there.”
Adam did her official visit of the campus at the beginning of May and looks forward to the next chapter of her hockey career.
“I’m really, really excited to play D1 hockey,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a really big challenge, but I think I am definitely ready for that next step.”