Hockey is not an easy sport to play, especially playing as a girl in a male dominant sport.
For Arizona State women’s hockey freshman forward Catherine Jones, the beginning of the season was difficult and she had thoughts of wanting to quit the sport.
“The beginning of the season, I was thinking of stopping hockey but then I thought ‘why should I?’ Then the girls really helped me to come back on the team and keep going,” Jones said.
Arizona State was not at the top of the list of colleges Jones wanted to attend, it was more of a “last resort” in her mind after things did not go through with North Dakota.
Being a native of Arizona, her parents wanted her to stay in state for college and hockey.
“It was pretty smooth (Jones’s transition) but she was a little quiet at first but I guess that is how it always is, then she broke out of her shell,” captain Amber Galles said.
Before playing on the hockey team for Arizona State, Jones was usually the only girl on her team, at times experiencing sexism. But she would her teammates were also supportive.
“It was hard at times,” she admitted. “But boys helped me all the time,” Jones said..”
Jones scored her first collegiate goal early this season on Oct. 13 against Colorado State, a game that the Sun Devils won, a big accomplishment for the freshman and the team as a whole.
“It was needed because I made a goal in the beginning of the year to score every game but that kind of didn’t happen,” she said “But when I scored I was like ‘finally, thank god.”
Galles got the assist on the goal and she was very excited for Jones.
“It was very exciting because I got the assist on that so I got to see the look on her face and she looked really excited so I knew she worked really hard for that,” Galles said.
From a coach’s perspective, it is always very exciting to see one of your players do something huge like that.
“That was cool. It is always very cool to see anyone’s first collegiate goal. Just the way it happened made it all very special,” head coach Lindsey Ellis said.
After this big moment in her hockey career, Jones said she is going to take more chances and taking advantage of the chances she is given.
According the Ellis, Jones has grown as a player ever since the first day of practice and she always brings a good presence on the ice and offensively.
The forward is majoring in business sports media, where she hopes to land a job in Los Angeles as a talent agent. She is also ambidextrous and can use both hands when writing. Additionally, she used to play golf.
“I played golf until my senior year. After state, I just decided to stop because I could have gone and played golf in college, but I got bored of how long you are out there,” Jones said.
With ten games to go in the season, Jones has plenty of time to keep scoring goals and to make her first collegiate hockey season one to remember.
