Patch Star Student Athlete: Ilya, Englewood Cliffs Upper School

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ — We all know student athletes who also bring their A-game to other parts of their lives.

Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize these heroes making a difference in their communities. We’re working to let all your neighbors know the individual stories behind the leaderboard.

The submission comes from Will Thomas, who nominated Ilya of Englewood Cliffs.

Star student athlete's name:

Ilya

Star student athlete's home state:

New Jersey

Star student athletes's Patch town:

Englewood-Englewood Cliffs

How do you know the star student athlete?

She is my daughter

What sport does the star student athlete play?

Ice hockey

Why do you believe the star student athlete should be recognized?

This information was written up and shared with the Mayor of Englewood Cliffs:

"Englewood Cliffs has an 8th grader at its Upper School named Ilya . She is my daughter. I think you should know more about her.

Ilya started skating in October of 2014 (she was 5). She learned initially on figure skates, but chose hockey skates over figure skates after about 6 months and migrated to a "learn to hockey" program at the Ice House in Hackensack. At the time we lived in Fairview NJ, not moving to Englewood Cliffs until 2016. After a year in "learn to hockey" a representative of one of the local hockey teams (New Jersey Ice Dogs) saw her and had me sign her up to play on their Mite level team (8U). This is where the story begins....

Ilya cut her teeth with the NJ Ice Dogs, a good, co-ed (almost all boys) introductory program that was family oriented and fun focused. They were less concerned with wins and losses and more about having fun while developing. She played there for 2 years and got better, but nothing that would really get anyone's attention.

I felt it was time for a change to get more ice time (only 1 practice per week with the NJ Ice Dogs) and hopefully better coaching (coaches at NJ Ice Dogs were parents, not paid hockey coaches). We moved her to the Secaucus Patriots boys 10U team for the 2019-20 season. This was where she began her ascension in her hockey abilities. Over the course of the season she worked her way up to becoming the 1st line Center as 1 of 2 girls on the team.

She planned on staying with the Patriots organization for the next season, but the HC for the 12U team wouldn't commit to having her (girl in a boys sport) on the A team (the B team was very much sub par) so we decided to go back to the NJ Ice Dogs.

We learned they had a new coach for their 12U team, who was not a parent coach, but a paid coach with strong playing experience. It was a good choice. Ilya easily made the 12U team and was also named Alternate Captain after beating all of the boys in an off-ice competition in the pre-season workouts.

12U (PeeWee) is called the GOLDEN AGE as kids take their biggest leaps forward in hockey ability.Ilya had always been a strong skater but struggled with her decision making and her stick handling skills, which kept her in-game confidence level low. This was exacerbated by the fact that she was the only girl and one of three 2009’s on a 2008/2009 team. With her unrelentingly competitive nature, she realized the need to accelerate her growth curve within the season and beyond, as she had only found the back of the net in three games in the early part of the season through January 2021. She wanted to lead the team, play 1st line Center, run the power play and penalty kill, and be the go to person when a goal was needed, but she lacked the confidence and hadn’t developed all the tools necessary to achieve her goals. Ilya decided more dedication to her craft was necessary, so she and her family did two things. After ringing in the 2021 New Year, she tried out for and got accepted to Cheema Hockey a high-level hockey skills training group out of Newark NJ, and she started working with NDO Sports Training, a Visual, Cognitive and Physio training provider, to improve her decision making, her reaction time and her hand-eye coordination. At the time her Ice Dogs team was 5-3-1, but they had been outscored 41-54 and she was frustrated that she wasn’t impacting the games more. She was not fulfilling her vision of success, so she put in the work. Her on-ice skills training worked in concert with her NDO training. The small area drills require quick, correct decision-making and NDO’s programming focuses on developing the visual and cognitive skills necessary to implement these decisions quickly and effectively. Ilya’s regiment of visual, cognitive, speed, strength and agility training along with her extra on-ice skills training work quickly reaped rewards as her team finished the season with an 18-11-3 record and she was the 3rd leading goal scorer (and highest scoring 2009) with 18 goals. The team’s goal differential turned around dramatically, from a -13 to a +24 by season’s end and it included a tournament championship in the one event they entered. Ilya was beginning to realize the benefits of her hard work and upped her training efforts over the “off season” of Spring/Summer 2021. During this time, Ilya enrolled in ongoing skills training at Cheema Hockey in Newark, a Spring Hockey league and played in six tournaments, across two girls AAA tournament teams, all in the Boston area. The dedication of her family and her willingness to put in the effort to be her best self were only beginning to show the rewards to come. Her boys Spring hockey team (that she was recruited to join) lost 1 game in a 16-game season and swept through the playoffs to win the Championship. She was the 2nd leading scorer. She played in four tournaments for the 2009 Wade Warriors Central girls’ team, leading the team in scoring (almost 50% of the goals scored) and won the championship of their 4th and final event in August. She also played two tournaments for the 12U Ironbound AAA girls team (Led by Sam Cheema of Cheema Hockey), where they won the NGHL Dawg Daze of Summer event in August going 4-0 and outscoring their opponents 22-0 resulting in their team to be rated a 99+ on www.myhockeyrankings.com. Having gone from a low point in early January 2021, to the pinnacle of 12U girls hockey by late August, 2021, Ilya was in the perfect state of mind to take on the boys again for the 2021-22 regular season. She maintained her on-ice and NDO training throughout the balance of the off-season training cycle* and into the tune-up cycle* for the regular season. She was determined to improve on the 2020-21 regular season, both individually and as a team. She also was recruited by her old coach to play on a second, independent coed team (as a taxi with the Secaucus Patriots) when she didn’t have a conflict, which gave her more access to ice time, game situations and additional coaching. This full slate of prescriptive, sport-specific training certainly paid off, as Ilya completed her season with all Winter teams in late March. Her main NJ Ice Dogs team was 24-13-4 and a +50 in goal differential with Ilya as the leading scorer (and captain) tallying 55G, 22A in the 33 games she played with her team. Her main taxi team was 25-8-4 and a +98-goal differential. Ilya was the leading scorer with 70G, 35A in the 26 games she played with them. On a 3rd team she taxied with for a tournament, she was 2nd leading scorer with 4G and 2A in 4 games. Her total scoring output for the season was 129G and 59A for 194pts.

Additionally, she was promoted to the Wade Warriors West AAA 2009 girls team for the 2022 Spring/Summer season 3 tournaments, Chicago, Toronto and Boston). She was also selected for the Wade Selects team to play at the Showdown at Shattuck St Mary’s in May 2022. After her performance at the AAHA District Futures Girls Camp Tryouts where she scored all 3 of her team's goals in a 3-3 tie (there were 50+ players), a couple of additional opportunities presented themselves. First, she was asked to play for the top tier Wade Warriors East 2009 team (has never lost in 4 years) for a big event in Montreal May 5-8. Finally, she was asked to play for the CJR Rose Series Team in the Low Country Classic in SC May 12-15 . The players who compose the Wade Warriors East and CJR Rose Series rosters are some of the highest level 2009 girls in the country. She also tried out for and made the 14U PeeWee Rangers girls tournament team (sponsored by the New York Rangers) for and event in Minnesota June 10-12. The culmination of this hard work and recent recognition is the fact that she was selected to play on a new 14UAAA girls team based out of Long Island called Team Long Island 14UAAA. They are currently ranked 26th in the country and will compete for the 14U NY State Championship and ultimately for the 14U Tier 1 National Championship for the 2022- 23 season.

Ilya is child #3 of 6, three of which play hockey currently. Ilya's growth and dedication to her craft (She is also a straight A+ student for the past 6 report cards) and the opportunities she has been afforded this past Spring/Summer have opened many doors for her, including being discovered by The Lawrenceville School where she is currently applying and hopeful to attend in the Fall of 2023 and play for HC Nicole Uliasz. Most high level 13 year old players have been getting high level coaching for many years. Ilya has been doing so for only the past 12 months, so she has much still to learn and we feel The Lawrenceville School may be the best opportunity for her both on and off the ice."

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the star student athlete?

Ilya is accomplished at crochet and drawing, which she does when she has downtime. She realized in sixth grade that a couple of her best friends were getting straight A+s, in contrast to her straight As. So, she decided she would do the same, as she is very competitive.

Keep up the great work, Ilya!

This content is brought to our community in partnership with T-Mobile.

Know an outstanding student athlete? Nominate them as a Patch Star Student Athlete.