Rylie Wills is a senior goalie of the Castleton women’s ice hockey team. She also serves as a community advisor on campus and resides from Sioux Lookout, Ontario, Canada. She sat down to chat recently about life between the pipes and life in general. 

Q. How has the season been going thus far?

A. The season so far has been good. Having a new coach again means that we’ve had a new learning period in terms of systems and expectations, but we’re developing well and have been very competitive.

Q. What are your personal and team goals this season?

A. My personal goals are to continue to improve upon my personal game and help my team compete. I also hope to increase my consistency day to day. Our team goals are to avoid settling or having a “good enough” attitude, as well as to avoid complacency. We want to be defined as a team that works hard 100 percent of the time, and that consistently puts forth maximum effort playing our own game as opposed to adjusting to accommodate our opponent.

Q. When did you start playing hockey?

A. I started playing hockey at the age of 4, and started playing goalie at the age of 9.

Q. How do you balance being a student athlete and a community advisor?

A. I balance being a student, athlete, and CA by scheduling my time carefully and maximizing the time I have to spend on each aspect of my life.

Q. What’s the biggest difference between Canada and the United States?

A. It’s hard to define the difference between Canada and the USA with words. The overall feel between the two countries varies greatly, but not in a negative or positive way. There are definitely stereotypes about Canadians and Americans that are true, such as Canadians saying “eh” and “sorry” excessively. Although I haven’t met many mean people in Castleton, my overall American experience has proved that Canadians tend to be nicer. Some word pronunciations are crazy too, such as “badminton” or “composite.”

Q. What do you miss most from home?

A. What I miss most from home is my dogs and my mum’s cooking.

Q. Favorite type of music? Artist?

A. I listen to a lot of different types of music, but mostly throwbacks or rap/R&B. My favorite artist is G-Eazy.

Q. Biggest advice for aspiring women hockey players?

A. My biggest piece of advice for aspiring women’s hockey players is to network and put in the effort to get yourself out there. A lot of small programs can easily go unnoticed if they aren’t attending large scouting tournaments, especially when considering the smaller budgets of many women’s programs. Make a video, send an email, or make a call.

Q. Favorite food?

A. My favorite food is either Chicken Cordon Bleu, specifically how my mom makes it, or chicken Pad Thai.