Bemidji State has itself a winner

In many ways, Morgan Smith is a typical Canadian kid.

Smart, resourceful and tougher than she looks, it’s Smith’s journey that is far from commonplace.

In the middle of a pandemic onslaught in May of 2020, life suddenly became more complicated for the 14-year-old Winnipegger.

Her dad, Marino (Ted) Smith, who had been in the prime of life, succumbed to a fatal blood clot. He died one day short of his 54th birthday.

COVID-19 would erase all but three games of the 2020-21 hockey season at her new school, Balmoral Hall, but this was the cruelest blow of all.

She had lost a mentor and one of her biggest supporters.

“It was hard,” remembers Morgan. “At the start, it just didn’t feel real. It’s like you’re just waiting for him to come back home or you think he’s gone on a trip. But when it set in, I’d say a few months later, that was when it was the hardest.

“It’s also hard when you’re mourning his loss and people are coming to see you. You want them to come, obviously, but it’s just a lot with people in and out of the house all day.”

Morgan’s mom, Shannon, and older sister, Madisyn, were also coming to grips with their grief. And Shannon, who had just completed her first year at a new job as principal at Calvin Christian Collegiate in Transcona, had to be mindful of some logistics.

The family acreage was too much to manage.

“We moved in with my grandma for a while because we put our house up for sale and it sold right away,” says Morgan. “And then we looked for a house, bought a new house. So my first year I was moving in, moving out. We’re settled and everything’s good now with my house and but it was hard because I’m trying to take care of my mom. My sister was a big help with me for that.”

Morgan, who was first scouting by Balmoral Hall while playing against boys in Grade 7, quickly established herself as a potential NCAA recruit in Grade 10.

A high-level skater with uncanny vision and a superb shot, college recruiters were on alert. Morgan was at home on the ice and in the locker room.

“Hockey really, I would say, saved my kids,” says Shannon Smith. “The community was fantastic — hockey, friends, family and church — but hockey really kept my kids in something that was normal, if that makes any sense. It was part of their life.”

Morgan, who once defied convention as the second-leading scorer on the elite Winnipeg Junior Jets 10-year-old team while playing with four future major-junior players at the Brick Invitational, had become a dominant player for Balmoral Hall as a 17-year-old in the prestigious eastern-based Junior Women’s Hockey League.

Morgan’s laser focus and resilience amazed the staff at Balmoral Hall.

“Hockey really, I would say, saved my kids… hockey really kept my kids in something that was normal, if that makes any sense. It was part of their life.”– Shannon Smith

“You never know in those types of circumstances what’s going to happen and it’s just an absolute testament to Morgan’s spirit and her endlessly optimistic outlook on life that was truly what got her through an incredibly difficult time,” says Sarah Zacharias, the school’s director of hockey and head coach.

“Most of us have no idea. It’s unfathomable the type of pain that she went through and she just showed up every single day, ready to work with a smile on her face. It was with the mindset of, ‘I’m just going to keep putting one foot in front of the other.’”

Morgan also put in the work and seemed to thrive on it.

In Grade 10, playing on a star-studded lineup with as Sara Manness and Avery Pickering, she scored 39 goals and 69 points in 44 games. That production jumped to 50 goals and 113 points in 52 games in Grade 11 and she registered another 48 goals and 96 points in 59 games while earning JWHL MVP honours in Grade 12.

“She’s a student of the game,” says Shannon, a former national team rugby player who was inducted into the Rugby Manitoba Hall of Fame in 2019. “She’s always watching clips and the instant she finishes her own game, she’s looking at her shifts: ‘OK, where could I do this better?’ Or, ‘In this situation. I did that, but this would be better next time.’ She has a passion for hockey.”

Occasionally, Morgan just needs a break from being absorbed in school and hockey life.

“Sometimes it’s not even about talking, it’s just being in the same room and share in the silence together and being OK, not trying to fix things,” says Zacharias. “Something that we’re aware of as well as coaches is if a kid is really hurting, they don’t need me to try to pull them out of that pain. They just need me to be OK sitting with them in that and sharing that space.”

“She’s a student of the game. She’s always watching clips and the instant she finishes her own game… She has a passion for hockey.”– Shannon Smith

When college programs came calling in 2023, Morgan narrowed her list of schools to Yale, Quinnipiac, Queen’s and Bemidji State.

Her trip to Bemidji, Minn., stood out.

“When I went on my visit, I was in the (locker) room for a game,” says Morgan. “I saw them blow a lead and I saw how the coaches responded to that,” says Morgan, now 18. “And I really liked the way they did that. It’s kind of funny that I say that because they won one and lost one when I was there but I learned more about them from one they lost and blew that lead.”

She appreciated the coaches’ measured approach in a time of crisis.

“It was kinda calm – it was like, ‘Let’s go, we’re better than this. We can do this,’” she says. “And the players responded well. They didn’t end up getting the win, but they had a way better third period.”

Amber Fryklund, recently promoted from associate head coach to head coach at BSU following the retirement of Jim Scanlan, says Morgan should thrive on their Minnesota campus.

The Beavers, who play in the ultra-competitive Western Collegiate Hockey Association, are losing six players to graduation.

“She’s a player that’s proven herself at the level she’s playing at right now and she’s one of those players that’s going to have an impact here right away,” says Fryklund. “She’s just a really incredible kid. She’s very mature, has a really great perspective and she’s very driven.”

Morgan will also be inspired by the memory of her dad.

“I feel support when I’m alone from him because I believe in heaven and I believe that he’s watching over me and so I definitely feel his support,” says Morgan. “That helps me in my times where I’m facing issues or just by myself and just need a moment.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca