The puck stops with Ariella

By Randy Russon
February 14, 2016
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To teammates and coaches, Ariella Merlino is just another developing player on the Soo Greyhounds pee wee minor AAA rep hockey club.

And the fact that the 11-year old goalie is the only girl on an otherwise all-boys team is no big deal to Merlino, either.

“My coaches and teammates treat me the same as everyone else on the team,” said the effervescent Merlino, a talented puck-stopper who shares goal-tending duties with Noah Metevier on the Greyhound pee wee minors. “I hang out with the boys on my team. I feel really comfortable with them. I love my teammates and my coaches.”

Merlino, who has been playing competitive hockey since she was five-years old, is in her fourth season as a full-time goalie.

“I have always liked hockey but I really love being a goalie,” added Merlino, who credits her long-time goalie coach, Sav Beltrano, for helping her out with the technical and positioning part of the game.

“We’re lucky to have him as a goalie coach,” Merlino said of Beltrano. “Not a lot of kids have a full-time goalie coach like him.”

A few years back, at the atom level, Merlino had the fortune of having former Ontario Hockey League and National Hockey League goaltender Kevin Hodson as a goalie instructor. Hodson, who won a Memorial Cup with the Soo Greyhounds and was on Stanley Cup winning teams with the Detroit Red Wings, served as a mentor to the aforementioned Beltrano and in turn, gave instruction to Merlino.

A friendly, polite youngster who sounds and acts rather mature for an 11-year old, Merlino has her own goalies who she likes to watch and study — Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens and Brandon Halverson of the OHL Greyhounds.

“They are my two favourites,” she said evenly.

Being a parent to a goalie can be nerve-wracking at times but Ariella’s dad and mom, Vince and Jessica, say it’s been a case of “so far so good.

“She makes it easy because she loves playing hockey and she is her own motivator,” said Vince. “The only thing my wife and I ask of her is to try her best. We tell her that the one thing she can control is her effort. She understands and she gives it her best.”

Vince added that their daughter being the only girl on an all-boys team is not an issue to him or his wife.

“She has always played with the boys,” said Vince. “She has always wanted to play at the highest level she can. The boys treat her like any other teammate and the coaches make it very easy. There are no issues at all.”

Dave Doucette, who is the head coach of the Greyhound pee wee minors, has coached Ariella for four years now and says “she is something special. Right from the first time I saw her, her strengths were obvious. She battles in the crease and is strong down low.”

Doucette, who played a full OHL season with the Greyhounds as a defenseman back in the late 1980s, said Ariella has the respect of her teammates and the coaching staff.

“She has been in big situations for us and not only kept the team in games but she has helped us win championships,” said Doucette. “She has gained the respect of her teammates and her coaches, there is absolutely no doubt about that.”

The Greyhound pee wee minors play a lengthy season with out-of-town tournaments and home-and-away series against teams from all over Ontario and into the United States. Thus far this season, they have a record of 38-13-4.

PHOTO: Ariella Merlino shows her textbook form during a recent Soo Greyhounds pee wee minor AAA rep hockey game at John Rhodes Community Centre. (Photo by Ali Pearson.)