Lilli Armstrong '21 Recruiting Profile

My name is Lilli Armstrong.  I am 14 years old, my graduating year is 2021, and I am from Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  I have been playing hockey for only three years but I feel like I have come very far and accomplished many goals in hockey throughout the years.  Even though I am pursuing hockey as my sport in college, I still play soccer and do golf. 

Soccer was my very first sport that I played when I was younger and still love the sport. I have also come very far in soccer.  Golf has really challenged me with patience and truly learning that practice makes almost perfect, because there is always room for improvement.  Although I play two other amazing and challenging sports hockey comes out on the top for me. 

When I first stepped on the ice I knew that this sport was for me even though I was just starting and wasn't very good at it. For the first couple of practices I got down on myself and I made myself very angry,  because I knew that I wasn't at the level of all the other girls who have been playing for longer.  That just gave me the drive to push harder and practice on my alone time without my coaches to get better at skating, shooting, and stick handling.  The middle of the first year I really started to get the hang of the game and it paid off since I was starting on the first line.  By the second year I was starting to get really good but I wanted to challenge myself even more so I tried out for PeeWee's.  At the tryouts I proved that girls can make the boys A team and be one of the starting five.  I made the A team and I was one of the starting defense.  This last season I played for Steamboat Bantam A's,  Aspen U-14 AA's and occasionally playing for Steamboat U-14's.

Playing for Aspen was a whole new experience.  At the beginning of the year I was very nervous to play with them because I only knew 2 or 3 people, but once I started playing with the team I got more comfortable and got to know everyone a little bit better.  We started to win and I started to move up the lines too.   After playing a few games with them, I was chosen to be on the starting line, right wing.  Aspen made it to Regionals after we got second in our state championships. We went to District's and won.! I was very happy for the team but I was sad because I was going to be in Europe when National's were going to happen.  Right before Nationals my parents and my head coach Kieth Howie surprised me and got me a flight to Troy, Michigan for Nationals.  We didn't do that well but it was a once in a life time experience., and I am grateful to have that experience.  Overall playing for Aspen was a dream come true.

Steamboat Bantam A's was a little scary at first being one of two girls on the team and having checking part of the game. The other girl on my team was a year above me but we still new each other from girls team the year before.  We went to our first tournament in Park City, Utah and won the whole tournament.  I played center with this guy named Joe on our team.  We mostly switched off starting games but that made me better and fight to stay switching and maybe starting more than him on the games.  Everyone was supporting me and the parents were coming up to me and saying how good I was playing even if I knew it wasn't my best game.  My parents are huge supporters but if I do something my Dad tells me and the next time I go out on the ice I try to fix the mistake that I made so I was one step closer to reaching my goal.  For our Bantam's our season started off great but then went down hill from there but then we picked our heads up and started climbing the hill back to success.  We were so close to making playoffs but sadly we didn't make it but we where all happy on how we ended the season. 

My hockey career hasn't been all smooth sailing there has defiantly been up and downs but more ups then downs. I love the sport of hockey with a passion and that is why I want to play college hockey at a high level.  I am ready to take it on!