(Photo: Reagan Smith/WCSN)
It appeared that the end of practice Wednesday morning would be like any other. The women had just finished their conditioning drills and skated to the benches to meet with the coaches for one final piece of coaching and to get caught up on all of the news and happenings for the day.
Wednesday’s practice came with major news: the announcement of captains.
For the first six games of the Sun Devils 2019-20 campaign, Arizona State played with no captains. Now, the wait to see who would don the coveted letters was over.
In the post-practice meeting on the ice, Arizona State head coach Lindsey Ellis announced to the team that sophomore forward Kat Jones would become the fourth captain in program history and the first solo captain since KC McGinley — who was subsequently the first recruit in program history.
“It feels amazing,” Jones said. “It doesn’t really matter to me if I have a letter or not, that’s not what’s important. It’s the faith and the trust that my teammates have in me, and how loved they make me feel. That’s what lifts me up. It’s not the letter.”
Last season, Jones led the way in scoring for the Sun Devils, scoring 22 points with a team-leading 13 goals and nine assists.
Ellis praised Jones’s work ethic over the offseason and last season stating:
“As a freshman, we relied on [Jones] a lot. She was an alternate last year as a freshman, and that doesn’t happen quite often. She played a big, big role, especially over the summer leading into this year as far as hard work… She came in, communicated with myself, the rest of the staff and all of our players. And the freshman right away saw her as a leader. So, it was pretty easy to name her captain.”
In support of Jones for the season, seniors Jordan Nash-Boulden and Molly Potter reprise their roles as alternate captains, and sophomore forward Danielle Dupont takes the final “A” patch for the team this season.
Dupont split time last season as a co-captain for the Sun Devils as a freshman with then-senior McGinley.
“It was a really tough decision because we have so many leaders on this team,” Ellis said about selecting captains. “Danielle, Jordan and Molly, they’re just the epitome of what we want all our players to be. We’re excited.”
For Potter, the announcement of receiving the “A” again is a chance for her to expand on her own leadership capabilities.
“I really need to work on vocalizing everything,” Potter said. “I think that [the coaches] recognize that I work really hard, and I can be an example of hard work, but I definitely need to work on vocalizing a little bit more.”
Similarly, Potter gives a lot of credit to McGinley for making her strive to become the best player that she could be. Now, Potter hopes to become that player that the nine freshmen on the team can look up to.
“Honestly, I think that I just want to be someone to look at and say, ‘Oh wow she works really hard, I want to work as hard as her,’” Potter said. “Last year, KC was that for me… I just wanted to get to her level. I’m hoping that some of the freshmen see that and want to aspire to get to my level of hard work.”
The four captains will debut their letters next weekend in Missouri for a three-game weekend set. For now, though, it’s one step forward every day for the young Sun Devil team.
