Locke'd in
BY CHRIS BARRIERE
ITHACA, NY – Locke Jillson doesn’t look like a hockey player. At 5 feet, 9 inches tall, weighing 155 pounds, he is the smallest player on the Cornell men’s hockey team. His slight southern drawl, developed while growing up in Dallas, Texas would suggest anything but a northern man’s game.
But in the rink, Jillson shows electric speed on skates and effortless ability to shift his weight, steering his small body faster than his opponent can follow. He elegantly moves the puck back and forth while his stick barely touches the ice. Jillson’s quick strides kick up chips of ice as he darts around the rink in a blur of red and white. It only takes a second look to realize why this undersized, clean-cut kid from Dallas plays hockey for the Cornell Big Red.
When Jillson was four years old, he convinced his parents to buy him his first hockey stick. While most kids his age were playing football and basketball, Jillson began experimenting with something foreign to most Texas natives.
“I played in front of no one growing up, at all times,” Jillson said. “No one even knew my high school had a hockey team.”
Preparing for a hockey career at the Division I collegiate level in the Lone Star State is practically unheard of. As most of Jillson’s current Cornell teammates were honing their skills in the Junior leagues or Prep Schools in the north, Jillson was practicing only once a week, and traveling with his father, Andy Jillson, as far as California and Arizona just to play competitive hockey. Jillson’s father believed that his son couldn’t find the same competition in his home state as he could elsewhere.
“The game wasn’t intuitive to kids growing up in the south.” Andy Jillson said. “Picking up nuances weren’t the easiest thing in the world.”
Jillson was always one of the smallest kids on his teams growing up. Some of his travel team coaches didn’t want him to play because they thought he was too small. When Jillson was playing for the Dallas Alliance Bulldogs, his former coach and mentor, Chris Kostopoulos said he always believed Jillson could overcome his size with his talent.
When Jillson was 16, he considered giving up hockey for good. He was too small, he thought. But Kostopoulos sat down with Jillson and his father and convinced the teenager that he had the ability to play at the Division I level if he got a little bigger and focused on his speed and skills. Jillson agreed to continue playing.
“It was all upwards for him from there,” Kostopoulos said.
Since Jillson’s decision to commit to hockey, he’s developed into one of the fastest skating, best stick handling players in ECAC Hockey but still lacks the size of a typical ice hockey player. While Jillson has physically developed since his Dallas days, his small figure still presents a challenge.
In a game against Harvard University on February 18, Alex Killorn a 6-foot-1, 198-pound opponent hit Jillson, causing his body to collide with the boards and fall awkwardly to the ice. Jillson laid motionless facedown until he was helped off the rink minutes later.
The next night against Dartmouth College, Jillson returned and scored the go-ahead goal. Taking the puck from the defensive blue line, Jillson sped through the neutral zone up the left wing. Dartmouth’s Joe Stejskal tried to contain him at the attacking blue line, but Jillson simply shifted the puck to his backhand, ducked and flew by Stejskal. The Texas native brought the puck into the crease where goaltender James Mello tried to halt the attack. As Mello pounced toward Jillson, the quick hands of the Cornell forward dragged the puck back to his forehand and stuffed it into the gapping net, sending the fans into an eruption of applause and leaving Mello face down on the ice. Jillson embraced the skills he showed against Dartmouth but said he cannot shy away from the physical play found in the Harvard game either.
“I still have to play physical in my own way, I can’t play 60 minutes without even running into anyone,” Jillson said. “It might not be the biggest hit it in the world [but] I hope that it is.”
His current teammate and best friend, Kier Ross, says Jillson’s skills make him a real pest to play against.
“When he cuts back in the corners it’s more abrupt than most guys I’ve ever played against, and he regains his speed almost instantly too.” Ross said.
“He also has ‘sick hands,” Ross added.
Next season will be Jillson’s senior season with the Big Red. While he doesn’t lead his team in scoring and certainly not in hitting, Cornell assistant coach Scott Garrow believes that the diminutive southerner has a shot at continuing his underdog story.
“It is a tough industry but with the rules the way they are in the pro game it would allow him to show his skill.” Garrow said.
