Craig Churchill didn’t know the name of the player. He had no idea she was the daughter of a Hobey Baker Award winner who went on to play in more than 500 National Hockey League games.
This is what he did know: The girl — he learned it was Julia Pellerin — was flying all over the ice and making plays every time she jumped over the boards.
“I had no idea who she was at the time,” said Churchill, the head girls coach at New Hampton School in New Hampton, N.H. “I think she was wearing a yellow jersey with no name on the back.”
It was a prep showcase in Massachusetts and Churchill wanted to know who the girl was.
An onlooker pointed to the girl’s dad. Churchill walked up, extended his right hand, and greeted Scott Pellerin, the 1992 Hobey Baker winner as the best men’s college player in the nation.
Churchill, a native of Durham, N.H., was well aware who Pellerin was. He had watched Pellerin and the Maine Black Bears take on the University of New Hampshire in some epic battles at Snively Arena, not far from his home.
Fast forward four years.
