Onanole’s Davis unexpectedly becomes a Bearcat

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/06/2019 (2409 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Juliana Davis dreamed of going to university and playing hockey when she was younger.

The 18-year-old right-winger for the Yellowhead Chiefs had essentially abandoned that dream when she received an unexpected phone call recently. Head coach Derek Pallardy of the McKendree University Bearcats, a private liberal arts university in Lebanon, Ill., was on the other end of the line.

“I had already decided that I wasn’t going to play hockey and I was going to Winnipeg and take a kinesiology degree,” Davis said. “And then one day, Derek Pallardy, who is the head coach, contacted me and said he had been watching me play all season and that he would really love to chat and get to know me and things like that.”

Davis and her mother Vicki visited the campus, which is located in a community of 4,400 people a short drive east of St. Louis, and were sold.

“It was beautiful,” Davis said. “It was nothing like I had ever seen before. It was green and the school is very small so class sizes are only about 30 to 40 kids. The town that it’s in is very small as well and it’s one of the oldest universities in Illinois. It’s very cultural and has a lot of beauty because it’s so old.”

The Onanole product is a five-foot-five, 130-pound right-winger who spent two seasons with the Manitoba Female Midget Hockey League’s Yellowhead Chiefs.

After scoring five goals and adding three assists in 31 games in her rookie season in 2017-18, she broke out for 12 goals and four assists in 37 games last season, playing the most on a line with Rylee Gluska and Jena Barscello.

“I think I just got a lot more confident being a top-age player, and it helped that my linemates were very good at setting the plays up,” Davis said. “We were really good at working together.”

She feels her speed needs work, she wants to process plays more quickly with the puck and she wants to get better at blocking shots. But she also has her strengths.

“I have quick feet in the corners and I can move fast and attack players,” Davis said. “Derek says I’m usually in the right spots for a pass or defensively. I have a quick and good shot.”

The Chiefs had a profound impact on Davis, both as a hockey player and a person.

“It taught me how to think differently,” said Davis, who recently turned 18,. “It taught me to break down the plays better so that I wasn’t panicking and it taught me to think offensively better and defensively better. Derek (Tibbatts) is a very, very good coach. He analyzes every little thing that we do and helps us to grow as a player and grow every little thing in the game. Every practice we work on something different, and we work on it until it’s 100 per cent.

“Besides the game, the atmosphere in the dressing room grows you as a player. I was very shy before and now I’m loud and outgoing and just love to be at the rink all the time.”

The Bearcats will certainly offer a new challenge.

The American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) program has been running for three seasons, and earned its first berth in the Division 1 national tournament in Texas last March. (The Assiniboine Community College Cougars won the ACHA’s Division 2 title.)

Last year’s Bearcats roster had five Canadians on it and went 16-10 overall.

“I’m just excited to be a part of a new program,” Davis said. “I’m the first Manitoban ever on this team already and the coach is very energetic about how our team is going to be. I’ve talked to a lot of the girls and they seem ready to go and seem a lot like me. It will be cool getting to know a bunch of new girls and building not only a team, but friendships and a new organization for other girls to go and enjoy.”

She will study biopsychology, a four-year degree, and plans to head down on Aug. 19.

Davis still has jitters every time somebody mentions her impending new adventure. But the shy girl who became outgoing in a hockey dressing room can’t wait.

“From the time I was a little kid, I always wanted to go far away for university,” Davis said. “I’m not sure why. And I’ve always wanted to play hockey in university so I jumped at the chance for this, even though it is far away. I know that my family and my friends are all supportive.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson