Hockey is young athlete’s first love, but lacrosse comes in second

Though she is still a couple of years away before she begins high school, Phoenix Taylor is aspiring to be a two-sport athlete once she gets to university.

Phoenix, a member of Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario, toiled for the Markham Majors’ Under-12 squad in the Greater Toronto Hockey League this past season. The 11-year-old was one of two females on the squad.

Phoenix, however, will be making the switch to girls’ hockey for the 2024-25 campaign. She’s agreed to join the Clarington Flames’ Under-13 AA club. And she’ll be an affiliate player for the Flames’ Under-15 AA side. She’s also expected to play some games as an affiliate for the North Shore Whitecaps boys’ Under-13 AAA club.

The Whitecaps are a first-year organization, created by the amalgamation of the Oshawa Generals and Clarington Toros minor hockey associations.

Though hockey is her favourite sport, Phoenix is also good at lacrosse. Earlier this year, she cracked the roster of the Ontario girls’ under-13 field lacrosse team. The club participated in a tournament in Delaware this past week.

Though a large number of young people are choosing to focus on one sport year-round, Phoenix is getting quite a kick out of playing lacrosse as well.

“It helps me with my eye-hand coordination,” she said. “(It also helps my) running and stamina. And it keeps me in shape.”

Phoenix is hoping that the day will not have to come when she has to drop one sport in order to concentrate on the other.

She wants to garner an athletic scholarship from an American university to play hockey and lacrosse at the collegiate level.

“If there’s an opportunity to do that, I would do it,” she said.

Phoenix’s Ontario lacrosse team didn’t have much success at its Delaware tourney last week.

Her father Bear Taylor said that due to varying eligibility criteria in American lacrosse associations, those on the Ontario side were facing players that were a year older for the most part.

The Ontario side lost all four of its matches at the tournament. And it only managed to score seven goals in those four contests.

Phoenix, who played a midfield position, scored two of her team’s goals. Her midfield linemates scored four of the other Ontario goals.

The Ontario squad was the lone Canadian entry in the tournament, which featured 25 teams in the girls’ Under-13 category.

“The girls they were facing were bigger, stronger and faster,” said Bear. “It was a learning experience for them.”

Phoenix, who scored one of her goals in the team’s third match, was selected as Ontario’s player of the game. She also scored in the club’s final contest.

Phoenix is expected to participate in two other tournaments this year with her Ontario teammates.

For starters, the club is entered in the Top Threat Southern Lacrosse Showdown, which will be held in October in the North Carolina town of Bermuda Run.

The squad will then compete in the Leader’s Cup in November in Richmond, a city located in the state of Virginia.

Phoenix is also playing field lacrosse this summer with her club team in the Kawartha Women’s Field Lacrosse Association in Ontario.

Phoenix, who will begin her Grade 7 studies at Lakefield District Public School in September, is also a proficient runner. She represented her school in both track and field and cross-country running this past year. Last fall she won a board-wide cross-country race.

In order to play hockey at the collegiate level for a women’s team, athletes need to have previously toiled in girls’ hockey.

Phoenix’s father explained it was an ideal time for his daughter to switch to girls’ hockey this season. 

“They offered her a spot a while ago,” he said of the Flames’ organization.

The Taylors are hoping Phoenix can start making a name for herself in girls’ hockey. That way she can get noticed and start attended Ontario Women’s Hockey Association high performance camps when she is eligible in a couple of years.

Phoenix is not quite sure how she will fare with her Clarington-based hockey team this coming season.

“I’m not sure to be honest,” she said. “I haven’t played girls’ hockey before.”

Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.