School: Council Rock North
Field Hockey, Lacrosse
Favorite Athlete: Jayson Werth
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Singing and dancing on the field after we clinched the league championship last year
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: At a lacrosse practice last year, we were practicing 8-meter shots, and my one of my teammates took the ball out of my stick that was resting on my shoulder without me realizing it. When it was my turn, I took my hardest shot, but unfortunately, I only shot the air. I was so confused – until I found all my teammates laughing behind me.
Music on iPod: Any country, but mostly Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and Brad Paisley
Future plans: Math or physics teacher
Words to live by: “Hard work and perseverance pays off.”
One goal before turning 30: Have a teaching job and a family
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to sing in my school and church choirs
It might be a bit of an exaggeration to say that Becky Ely was born with a hockey stick in her hand.
But it wouldn’t be much of one.
The Council Rock North senior, whose mother and grandmother both excelled at the sport, grew up around field hockey.
“I always remember going to the camps that my mom coached with Pat Toner,” Ely said. “I remember going when I was even too young to be at the camps. I just loved being around the girls, and I grew to really love it.”
Ely’s mother – Lynn (Cribbs) Ely – was a former standout at Council Rock and later Rider University who went on to coach at both the high school and collegiate levels, but don’t think for a minute that her mother coerced Ely into playing hockey.
“It was definitely not something my mom forced me to do,” she said. “I have always loved the sport, and I just want to keep playing.”
Mention Ely’s name to coach Heather Whalin, and it doesn’t take long to recognize the immense value the Indians’ senior captain has on a squad that owns the top spot in the SOL National Conference with the season coming down the home stretch.
“She’s definitely the person people look to, and she’s definitely the one that grounds everyone and keeps everyone calm,” Whalin said. “She’s very quiet, and she leads by example.
“She works hard every single day and never lets down. She never gives up.”
Ely takes that same work ethic into the classroom where she is a member of the National Honor Society, the Science Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society. She also works with CR North’s adaptive aquatics program which helps special needs children.
A gifted vocalist, Ely –who played the flute in elementary and middle school - is a member of her school’s Symphonic Choir as well as her church choir.
“My family has a musical background,” she said. “My dad is really into musical things.
“The out-of-school practices for choir are usually after (sports) practices, and they’re pretty flexible with athletics, so luckily it works out because I have always loved music, and I love being able to do both.”
Whalin marvels when she considers Ely’s resume.
“She’s very active in school, she’s very active in her church,” the Indians’ coach said. “She’s the All-American kid. She literally does everything.”
Ely – who also competes for Mystx on the hockey club circuit – admits that her schedule keeps her busy.
“A lot of times I have meetings after school, and then I’ll go to practice or games,” she said. “I’ll come home, and I try to fit in dinner and hang out with my family, and then I work hard on my homework.
“It’s pretty busy, but it keeps me really disciplined because I know I don’t have that much time.”
Ely is the youngest of three siblings, and sports have – by her own admission – always been a ‘big deal’ in her family.
“My parents both were really active in sports during their high school and college years,” she said. “I grew up playing tons of sports.”
Her resume includes hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, basketball and tennis, but when it came time to narrow her focus, Ely didn’t have to think long and hard. Hockey and lacrosse were the easy winners.
“I love both sports, and it worked out season-wise since they don’t overlap,” she said.
Ely admits she was influenced by her older brothers, Brett and Kurt, both of whom were athletes.
“It was a lot of fun growing up with them,” she said. “I think they really toughened me up for sports, and I like it in the end because I like being aggressive and going hard for the ball.
“They’re really a great encouragement, and I’m glad they toughened me up because I wouldn’t want to be a prissy girl.”
Ely burst onto the scene as a sophomore and earning the starting nod at left wing. As a junior, Whalin moved her to center forward, and she contributed 12 goals and 12 assists in a superb season.
“She has the ability to keep the ball on her stick and bulldoze through people,” Whalin said. “She’s not fancy with her stick skills. She just does what we ask her to do, and she does it properly.
“She is one of the best players I have seen on the pads. She just knows how to read the ball off the goalie’s pads and finish, and she also has a really nice aerial shot.”
This year, Ely has found herself playing midfield after putting in some time in the defensive backfield as she leads the Indians at both ends of the field.
“This year we have put her into a more pressure role,” Whalin said. “She had the luxury of having Elly (Plappert) behind her last year, and now she’s that person.
“At the beginning of the year, I think she was trying to find her footing. She was like, ‘Okay, now I have to play defense,’ and she was playing very defensively. She’s one of the best defenders on our team, and I think she didn’t understand that she could go on attack.
“We’ve been pushing her up more and more during practice, and you can see that it clicked. She’s in the circle, she’s finishing balls. She is just starting to control the field.”
Ely admits that it was an adjustment moving first to center back and more recently to midfield.
“It was really different because last year and the year before I really focused on being a forward,” she said. “I have always had this love for getting in the circle and doing everything I can to score a goal. I love the scrappy goals, and I guess that has to do with my brothers toughening me up.
“Playing defense was definitely a different perspective, but I was starting to get used to that accepting not scoring as much, and it turned out to be fun stopping other people.”
Although she still sometimes finds herself in the defensive backfield, Ely has found a home in the midfield.
“It’s a lot of fun because I get both aspects of the game now,” she said.
Ely plans to continue her hockey career at the collegiate level and has her sights set on one day becoming either a math of physics teacher.
“I don’t know where I’m going yet, but I’m working on applications, visiting schools and talking to coaches,” she said.
In the meantime, Ely has the not-so-little responsibility of leading an Indian squad that hopes to defend the title it owns, and she points to last year’s win over neighboring Council Rock South – which clinched a co-championship with Pennsbury – as one of her best high school memories.
“We had a picnic that night, and while it was pitch black, we were just singing on the field,” she said. “That was so much fun, and it felt so good to have all of our hard work pay off in the end to know we were league champs.
“It was such a huge deal, and it’s great that we’re in the running again this year, and hopefully, we will have the same experience because it was so much fun.”
