Amid turnover and turbulence, there was a significant steadying force for the women’s hockey team at Oswego State, Emma Morisette. After more than half of the class of 2021 left the team and former head coach Diane Dillon retired in favor of Mark Digby, Morisette was one of the constants in the locker room and on the ice. 

Coming from the well-regarded Honey Baked Hockey Club, the Wyandotte, Michigan, native came out of the gate flying as a freshman. She played in every game of the 2017-18 season, tallying 10 points. Her five goals were  second among freshmen, and she led her class in assists. While the scoring took a back seat in her final two seasons as a Laker, scoring just eight points in 49 games, the leadership is what took off. 

“The biggest thing she brings to the team is her maturity,” Digby said. “You’re not talking to a college kid. You’re talking to an adult, somebody that understands the importance of playing hockey. Not so much to play hockey, but the lessons you’re getting out of it.”

That was the first impression Digby had of Morisette when he joined the team in the spring of 2019. Morisette anchored her line last season alongside Maura McKeown and fellow senior Aislinn McAleer. The trio was constantly praised by Digby game after game. While they did not score, they were a near perfect third line: tenacious, puck-hounding and excellent in their own zone. Morisette was almost the perfect image of that line. She worked hard in the corners, hemming the opposition in its defensive end, determined to set up her fellow lines with tired defenders and a great in-zone scoring chance when they could get a line change.

“Emma was kind of that person that if I was on the other team, I would be mad to play against because her stick was everywhere, getting the puck back,” McAleer said.

Digby felt the same way about his center. 

“You look at somebody who is one of the more difficult people to play against,” Digby said. “The way we want to play, you’ve got to have people like that, that are hard to play against.”

Beyond her play, Morisette was just as important on the bench, as an extension of the coaching staff. She was a calming force, someone who knew how to keep her teammates engaged and learning. While she did not wear a letter on her jersey, Morisette was someone who was heavily relied on to teach underclassmen the ropes of college hockey and how to improve.

“When you’re playing with [freshmen and]…you have a junior who has the maturity that she has, she is very level-headed,” Digby said. “I think it’s calming for a freshman to get back to the bench after a good shift or a bad shift and look over, you see someone who has the experience that she has, it’s [a nice] balance. She has the ability to communicate what was good on the shift, what was bad on the shift, what they can do better.”

While Morisette was awarded an additional year of eligibility, ultimately, she decided it was time to move on. It was Digby who described her as “an adult,” in terms of maturity.

“I really wanted to be with my class for one more year, I’ll really miss those girls,” Morisette said. “But eventually I got to the conclusion that I’ve got to be on my way.”

That next step for Morisette is still undecided, but the English major will be remembered as a culture setter, as will the entire remaining class of 2021. Morisette added that the senior class had some weird situations but worked together to get the team on “a good track.”

“We had people coming and going,” McAleer said. “But me, Emma and Phi [Teggart] have been here since the beginning, and then Amber [Thomas] joining last year, we just supported each other a lot last year and this year, especially with things going on. We…knew how to act to make the program better along the way.”

Besides getting on a good track, this year specifically was very odd. With COVID-19 shutting down the season and practices, the seniors foregoing their extra year of eligibility, like Morisette and Thomas, could have packed it in. They could have given up on the team since it did not benefit them. Instead, the two put in the extra effort to make the new players comfortable and reestablish the team’s culture and identity.

“This year, you’ve got a senior who is not coming back and we’ve been meeting a lot as a team, trying to make sure the culture of the team is moving in the right direction. Why would she show up, right? That doesn’t benefit her, but she’s been there every single week,” Digby said. “It’s pretty impressive to know that it means that much to her to leave that legacy. That’s the legacy that she is going to leave, that impact she is making right now on our freshmen who have never got to tie their skates at Oswego and they get to see the passion [of someone] who will never lace their skates up again at Oswego.”

The Oswegonian file photo from 2020