Long journey sees Shelton, Thompson re-unite on Canadian women's hockey team
CBC
Ella Shelton was preparing to learn whether she'd made the Olympic team, and her computer wouldn't open the fateful video call. Naturally, she began to panic.
The 24-year-old eventually connected from her phone, and caught the only thing she needed to hear.
"The first word that came out of [head coach Troy Ryan]'s mouth was congratulations," she told CBC Sports. "And I kind of just broke down into tears there."
Though Shelton is among the youngest players on Team Canada, the moment had been a long time coming. Shelton's mom tells a story of young Ella pointing out the women's team on television during the Games in Salt Lake City, when she first saw high-level hockey as a possibility for herself.
"I just went, 'I'm going to play on that one day!'" Shelton relayed. "And then I walked away."
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Young Ella may have been prescient, but it's her work ethic and willingness to learn that's gotten Shelton to this point.
The 5-foot-8 defender grew up on a farm, and credits that with fostering her team-first mentality. She sees plenty of parallels between hockey and farm work, where even the unglamourous jobs need doing and bring value to the whole.
Matt Desrosiers, who coached her at Clarkson University, describes Shelton as a "very modest person," and says getting her to realise just how good she is was a consistent point of emphasis.
Once she gained confidence, she became a reliable all-situations player ― a "Swiss Army knife of defence," as Desrosiers put it.
Teammate Claire Thompson, who spent most of her minor hockey days playing centre, has never hesitated to jump into the rush. She made the permanent switch to defence ahead of her grade 11 year, after her dad saw potential in her skill-set.
Princeton coach Cara Morey had recruited Thompson as a forward, and has a simple answer as to what it took for the 23-year-old to become a world class defender.
"She had to work on defending," Morey said with a laugh. "She had to work on stick placement, one-on-one play, her forward-to-backwards pivot."
Shelton and Thompson played for rival clubs as teenagers, but wound up as a defensive pairing with the provincial squad. The two even scored their first points for Team Ontario on the same play, given assists on a wacky goal that came courtesy of a strange bounce off the glass. Shelton recalls the duo celebrating the milestone accordingly.
