Rylee McLeod's Red Deer experience transformed hockey career

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Rylee McLeod took a deep breath and looked at her phone. The device vibrated at a call from an area code 780. For McLeod, an aspiring college hockey player, she knew 780 meant the northern and central regions of Alberta, where some of the country's premier hockey programs originate.

When McLeod responded, Brett Wold, head coach of the Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs U18 team, greeted her. Wold expressed his excitement about the opportunity to coach McLeod.

There was only one problem. McLeod lived in Grande Prairie, Alberta, about a six-hour drive from Red Deer. Just months after starting ninth grade, she would be forced to leave her family, friends, and high school.

But with her childhood goal in mind, McLeod decided this opportunity was too important to pass up.

Shortly after connecting with Wold and meeting Chiefs players via phone and video calls, McLeod headed to Red Deer. While there, she toured the rink, met her future teammates and participated in two practices. Little did she know, a short trip would prepare her for a very different high school experience than she expected. But it helped McLeod in her freshman season at Syracuse, where she had three goals and one assist in 19 games.

McLeod grew up in a hockey family, inspired by her father and grandfather, who both played the sport. When she was young, her father's goal was for all three of his daughters to play hockey.

At age six, McLeod traveled about an hour from Grande Prairie to Grovedale with her siblings, Kasey and Camryn. Grovedale is home to just 138 residents, and many of the athletes who play there, like McLeod, came from other parts of Alberta.

At Grovedale, McLeod started playing with the boys team, which brought a higher level of competition.

Rylee McLeod has registered four points and 19 games in her freshman season. Leonardo Eriman | Assistant. Video editor

After improving her mechanics, McLeod returned to Grande Prairie, where she played for three years and again played with the boys team. Although it was not a competitive team, it allowed her to further develop her skills.

When ice hockey started allowing hitting when McLeod was 15, she was forced to move up to the girl group. For two years she competed in the U15 Peace Country Storm, which gave her the opportunity to interact with women's players.

“I thought I would play with the boys team just to be at a higher level, more physical, which I think has really added to my game now,” McLeod said. Switching to girls wasn't that difficult. I obviously became closer to teammates, girls who know more about the girls' hockey lifestyle.

After making lifelong friendships in Grande Prairie, McLeod received the call from Wold. McLeod's decision to move to Red Deer turned her life upside down.

My mother, father and I went back and forth for hours trying to weigh the pros and cons, McLeod said. Having my teammates and a really good bat family (to stay with) made the whole transition a lot easier.

Wold had initially started scouting McLeod for two years before making the first call. When McLeod joined the Chiefs, she was just 15 and competing against athletes who were mostly two or three years older.

Yet Wold understood McLeod's abilities and used her almost immediately.

We knew we had to make a big splash and went after some of the top players from the province. Rylee was one of those players, Wold said. We finally just clicked and brought her here, and it completely changed the culture of our program.

During her time at Red Deer, McLeod realized how much work she had to put into hockey to achieve her goals, given the attention her teammates were receiving from college programs.

In McLeod's first season with the Chiefs, she had a prominent impact. McLeod played in 29 of Red Deers' 30 matches, scoring nine goals and four assists. She was also named the Alberta Female Hockey Leagues Rookie of the Year.

McLeod's career only grew from there. The following season she scored 16 goals for the team with nine assists. With a somewhat new team from the year before, McLeod gave the younger players the same confidence she had her first year.

She was super welcoming to the younger girls and never really treated you like you were anything less, said Presley Zinger, McLeod's teammate. I have always looked up to her as a great hockey player and person.

McLeod finished her senior year with the Chiefs in impressive fashion despite appearing in a team-low 21 games. She found the net nine more times and assisted another eight goals. McLeod also steered the Chiefs to the No. 1 rank in the province for all 31 weeks of the season, finishing as provincial champions.

She molded herself into a Power Four (player). She was a top player in our league, Wold said. Once again she just excelled and was great for us. Not only on the ice, but also off the ice, she has taken over our culture.

At the end of McLeod's Red Deer career, she still wanted to play at a high level before college. That's when Wold connected with McLeod about a new opportunity. This time it would represent Alberta at the Canadian Winter Games.

The summer she entered 11th grade, McLeod went to a camp with the top 68 kids in the county. She made the cut when it went down to 28. She then played a few matches in the next phase and proved she could play at the next level.

When the team was announced, it was a no-brainer for McLeod to be part of the roster, Wold said. Like Red Deer, she was one of the youngest athletes on the team. Still, McLeod showed up and made a significant impact.

McLeod and her teammates traveled to Prince Edward Island for the weeklong competition. With her support and technical skills, her team advanced to the National Championship.

McLeod has shown off the skills she developed at Red Deer and with Team Alberta in Syracuse. Through 19 games, the freshman has become a key player in SU's offense, leading the Orange to second place in the Atlantic Hockey America standings.

Still, she's not done yet. Through Wold's coaching experiences at Red Deer and at the Canada Winter Games, he has seen first-hand her impact on those around her and expects the same at Syracuse.

Rylee had that presence that made girls around her better and girls around her also worked harder and competed, Wold said. She lived and breathed our culture. She was our culture.