Necks craned. Heads turned. Mouths opened.
Sammy Taber can be shy.
But she wasn’t that fall 2019 day when she donned a penguin costume and walked around the Cushing Academy campus — home of Penguins athletics — in Ashburnham, Mass.
“I was trying to get laughs. I like to be a goof sometimes,” she said. “I like to have fun. I think everyone started smiling and people moved with their mouths open. People were like, ‘I can’t believe that’ because I was a freshman. ”
A practical joker off the ice, the 16-year-old forward is all business when she laces up the skates.
The 5-foot-5 junior is one of the top prep school talents in New England and a major reason Cushing got off to an 11-4-1 start.
Taber netted 13 goals and 29 points in her first 14 games, putting her third among New England skaters as of Feb. 1 despite missing three games. By averaging more than two points per game, she has a chance to reach 100 career points over her first two full seasons at Cushing (COVID-19 wiped out the 2020-21 campaign).
“She’s playing so, so well. She’s such an enjoyable kid to coach. Her skating is off the charts,” Cushing head coach Valerie Bono said. “Her skating stands out. Her ability to get separation from defenders in three strides is remarkable. It’s a thing of beauty. Then her vision … she has the ability to make plays that don’t exist.”
Taber skates on a line with seniors Mia Langlois (Windham, N.H.) and Lily Brazis (Saugus, Mass.). Bono calls it the best line in prep school hockey.
Langlois and Brazis are the fourth and fifth top-scoring prep players in New England.
“I’ve started pretty well,” said Taber, a native of Tewksbury, Mass. “But I’ve got to continue that obviously. My linemates make it easy. We still have to prove ourselves. We just seem to click. The other lines are clicking, too. We’re all playing as a team. We’re just grinding and getting better every day. Grit and leadership.”
Bono said Taber becomes a different person about 15 minutes before games or practices.
“She’s like Jekyll and Hyde. In the dorm, in the classroom, and on the field, she’s so funny, so lighthearted. Bringing a little levity to a situation I think is a talent,” Bono said.
“But put her in a uniform and she’s another person.”
Cushing began fielding a girls hockey program in 1995, two years before Bono arrived as a recruit. U.S. Olympians Erika Lawler (2005) and Meghan Duggan (2006) developed their skills at Cushing.
Bono went on to star at Providence College. She’s in her sixth season as Cushing’s head coach and led the Penguins to the 2019-20 NEPSAC Small School championship. The Penguins, seeded sixth, upended the top three seeds en route to the title.
“Sammy was a huge part of that,” Cushing’s coach said of a season when Taber had 25 goals and 44 points in 34 games.
"Devastated" by losing last season to COVID, Bono’s team was limited to three scrimmages. Instead of sulking, Taber worked intensely on her skills. She also hit the gym five days a week.
“I knew I had to get stronger. I found joy in working out and I’m stronger for it. It’s easier to win puck battles. I’m stronger on the puck,” she said.
Bono likes the makeup of her current team and points to a 1-0 loss to Noble & Greenough School — a team the Penguins lost 9-1 to two seasons ago — as a measuring stick.
“They are not going to be denied. We are playing some of the best hockey Cushing has ever played,” Bono said. “I love this team.”
Taber, Cushing’s assistant captain, is a big piece of the puzzle.
“Good kid. Great player. I’m so lucky to have her. She’s easy to talk about,” Bono said. “Sometimes the other team will shadow Sammy. It can be frustrating, but she has more assists than goals. She’s drawing people to her. She knows when to pass the puck and when not to.”
Taber first put on a pair of skates at age 5. It wasn’t long before she was begging her parents, Kevin and Diane, to sign her up for hockey.
She played with and against boys in the Eastern Hockey Federation.
“I think it was a very good experience for me. I think it helped me become mentally and physically tough,” Taber said.
When she was 12, she played for a girls club team, the North Shore Vipers, out of the Breakaway Ice Center in Tewksbury.
She spent seventh and eighth grade at Austin Prep in Reading, Mass., turning heads and netting goals at a dizzying rate.
During her eighth-grade year, she received a scholarship offer from Boston College. She accepted it quicker than she flies around the ice.
“I know BC is excited," Bono said. "They come to a lot of our games and I can see in their eyes they’re excited to get a hold of her.”
Bono knew she was getting a special player when Taber came to Cushing. She quickly learned she was getting a special person.
“She is a huge part of why we are successful,” she said. “She has exceeded expectations.”
Taber grew up in a hockey family. Her older sister, Eryn, plays defense for Southern Maine University.
Diane Taber was watching a recent Cushing game and yelling for her daughter. Another spectator, standing with her 12-year-old daughter, got her attention.
“Are you Sammy’s mother?” a woman asked her. “She’s my daughter’s idol.”
Taber was shaking her head over the experience.
“It’s so nice. That’s the thing I’m so proud of,” Diane Taber said. “She’s so humble. She hates attention. She shies away from all of that.”
Speaking of shyness, she says her daughter can be quiet.
“If you don’t know her she comes across as very shy and quiet,” Diane Taber said. “But if you know her she’s a complete jokester and comedian.”
Said Sammy, “I do like to joke, but when it’s game time I like to keep to myself. I love to have fun before practice. I always try to make people smile. If they’re having a bad day, I just want them to feel better.
Taber said she was inspired to play hockey by her uncle, Patrick Aufiero, who skated at Boston University from 1998-2002 and was a third-round pick of the New York Rangers in 1999.
Taber, who doesn’t turn 17 until June, is driven to improve. She wants to represent the U.S. at a future Olympics.
She can be a comedian. She can crack up her teammates prior to practice. She can even walk around campus in a penguin costume.
But when it comes to hockey, when the puck is about to be dropped, Sammy Taber is all business.
No joke.
