In the beginning, Kalley Armstrong just wanted to be like her grandfather.

Long before she captained Harvard to championship glory, before she did the same in her junior days in Toronto, Armstrong was just a kid falling in love with the mesmerizing feeling of her skates carving ice. But given her hopes of following in her grandpa’s footsteps, her introduction to the ice didn’t feel quite right.

“Growing up in a hockey family, I guess I fell into skates easily. But I started in figure skating,” Armstrong says. “I wasn't enjoying it too much, it didn't really suit my personality. I wanted to be on a team. I wanted to play hockey — like my grandpa, and my dad, and my aunt.”

The sport’s roots run deep in the Armstrong family. Aunt Betty-Ann was honoured in 2018 for being part of one of the first girls’ hockey teams in Ontario. Father Fred’s career took him to Sweden after a run in college hockey. But it was Grandpa George who brought the love of the game to the family. The big-league icon’s Hall of Fame career was so hallowed, it remains woven into the very fabric of the sport’s history: one of the first Indigenous players to ever take the ice in the NHL, Armstrong’s career spanned 21 seasons in a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater, 12 of them with the ‘C’ stitched to his chest, four ending with the Stanley Cup raised above his head.

But it wasn’t that legendary career that won his granddaughter’s admiration. It wasn’t just who he was on the ice. It was everything else.

“You know, I had somewhat of an understanding of my grandfather's place in the game. Not to the extent I do now, but when I was younger, I always knew that he was a famous hockey player,” she remembers. “But for me, he was more than that, obviously. He was the best grandpa a kid could ask for. I wanted to be just like him.”

So, the younger Armstrong ditched the figure skates and joined up with the Leaside Girls Hockey Association, staying at her grandpa’s house in the Toronto neighbourhood on game nights. “It was a pretty cool way to start,” she says.

By the time she was a hockey-obsessed teenager, Armstrong was playing junior for the local Toronto Aeros, building up her game, her confidence, and eventually earning a ‘C’ of her own in 2009. And then, Harvard came calling.

“It’s not like today where you think about going to play college hockey early on — I had no idea that could be an opportunity for me,” she says. “When Harvard contacted me, I was over the moon. … We were all shocked, to be honest. There's no way I would have gotten in if it weren't for hockey, obviously. As soon as that opportunity presented itself, I knew I had to go.

“I went on an official visit to Harvard. I went to a few other schools as well, but there was something about Harvard that really resonated with me. … There's just something about being there that makes you want to be the best version of yourself.”

So she went, and she aimed high. And before long, she had a ‘C’ stitched to that sweater too, her goal of following in her grandfather’s footsteps beginning to feel real.

“I was really lucky to be seen by my teammates as a captain,” the unceasingly humble Armstrong says. Everything she’d learned from those days back in Leaside played a role, too. “I picked up some things I learned from my grandfather. I think just being with him and spending so much time with him, he just, I guess, instilled some things in me that I didn't realize. And those were just carried out in ways that felt natural.”

If you paused Armstrong’s story here, midway through that run in Cambridge, Mass., you’d find her on cloud nine, caught up in a dream. But just as her time in crimson seemed to be reaching its apex, it all went off the rails. At the end of her junior year, a devastating concussion took her off the ice, and plunged her future into uncertainty.

“The concussions were really tough,” she says. “I felt I was kind of hitting my peak as a hockey player. I was supposed to return to Harvard the following year as captain, and when I'd gone back that fall and saw our team doctor, we just realized it was not a good decision for my health to play that year. So, I had to take the whole year off.

“It was challenging. I mean, any sort of injury, it's very isolating. You have to leave school, leave your teammates, go home. You know, it was tough.”

After sitting out the entire 2013-14 campaign, Armstrong finally took her place on the bench the following season — her last at Harvard. Even then, though, the rollercoaster of emotions continued.

“It was challenging when I first returned — I still wasn't confident being back on the ice, I wasn't confident that I was feeling 100 per cent. So actually, the first half of my senior season, I dressed, and I sat on the bench, but I didn't play,” she says. “I essentially was just a cheerleader, just doing whatever I could to support my teammates and hopefully keep them going.”

Kalley-Armstrong-Harvard — Armstrong in her days on the ice, and wearing the 'C', for Harvard. (Photo courtesy Harvard Athletics)

It was in January, four months into the season, that Armstrong finally returned full-time, that she started to feel the game come back to her. “It felt really good. I knew that I had gotten over that really tough physical and mental hurdle,” she remembers. “That fear of getting hurt again.”

She picked up an assist in a 6-0 drubbing of Brown University to cap off that January return. It seemed like the stars were aligning for something unforgettable. For starters, Armstrong wasn’t the only key piece returning to the fold — the year her concussion had taken her out of the lineup, her head coach and three of her teammates had left town too, to compete for Team USA at the 2014 Olympics.

“The following year, we all returned,” Armstrong says. “And that last year at Harvard, 2015, was special. We won the Beanpot, we won the ECAC championship, we made it all the way to the Frozen Four. We played in the national championship — that's what you spend your four years at school striving towards, that goal. And we got there.

“I think my greatest memory will be playing in that national championship, even though it wasn't the result we wanted. I mean, what an incredible experience to play in that game.”

After the magic of that sterling campaign, Armstrong found herself facing another tough test — how to move on from life as a hockey player, the only one she’d ever known since those days in Leaside with her grandfather.

“That last game, we sat in our equipment in the change room for as long as possible, our senior class. Because we knew it would be the last time we were taking off the jersey. And that's a hard reality to face, you know?” she says. “But you have to face it. You've got to move on to the next thing. … It's a really difficult transition. You start to think, ‘What is my new purpose?’ Because you're just so used to being a hockey player. It was a challenge for me to get over that, to try to figure out, ‘Okay, what am I going to do now? What's going to bring me purpose in life?’

“I definitely felt a little lost.”

Just as she did when her time on the ice began, when it came time to first navigate life off of it, she turned once more to the trail blazed by her grandfather.

After deciding to try her hand at coaching, and winding up in London, Ont., working with Western University’s women’s hockey team, a friend and former teammate reached out to Armstrong with an offer to help run a hockey clinic on Manitoulin Island, for Wiikwemkoong First Nation’s on-ice hopefuls.

“It definitely really impacted me,” Armstrong remembers. “When I came back to London, I was really lucky to become close with some Indigenous families in the area, and I went to coach their girls in the Little NHL that March. After that I was like, ‘You know, I think it would be fun to see if I can run an Indigenous camp here in London.’ So, I started Armstrong Hockey.”

Kalley-Armstrong-Lac-Seul-Camp — Armstrong, far right, with coaches and athletes at Armstrong Hockey's Lac Seul First Nation camp. (Photo courtesy Kalley Armstrong)

When the program first launched in 2019, there was no grand vision, no sprawling 10-year plan to scale the project — just a deeply-rooted desire to build community.

“When I ran that first camp, my grandpa was still alive. And I felt really proud, going back to him and showing him what I had done. I know that he was very proud of me,” she says. “That definitely was one thing that was great — he was able to see me start Armstrong Hockey.”

George Armstrong passed away in January 2021, at 90 years old, an icon. A few years prior, Kalley and her grandfather spent time together reflecting on the journey that led him there, to his place as one of the most important figures in his sport and in her life, their conversations serving as the basis for her Masters thesis.

“I was able to just sit down with my grandfather and talk about things that we hadn't really dug into that deep before,” she remembers. “You know, I asked him questions about his identity, and growing up as a kid, and what things were like for his mom, and his grandparents, and for him. I just dug deeper with him, and some of the things I pulled out of that, I've definitely infused into my camps.

“Seeing what he went through as a kid, he always talked about encountering amazing people that helped him along the way. And if I can do that for Indigenous kids, help them with whatever they're going through, be that support for them, that makes me extremely happy. You know, just being that resource for any kid that needs it — because my grandfather had that.”

It’s more than just trying to be the type of support her grandfather had in his own younger days, she says. It’s about emulating his approach to hockey, to community, to life as an Indigenous person in this country.

“He had so many great stories and passed down so many amazing things to me. My grandpa, he obviously faced some challenges growing up as a Native kid. But you know, he always took those on with a positive approach. And I think that's what we try to do at Armstrong Hockey,” she says. “We try to foster positivity, and a sense of pride. Indigenous people, we've been through a lot. The camps are meant to be a positive and safe space for the kids. That's what I try to do, just keep the spaces positive and instil that sense of pride in who we are as First Nations people. And celebrate that.

“Hockey is so big in the Indigenous community — it's more than just a game, you know? It creates a sense of community. It's a place where Indigenous people are proud.”

Half a decade into running the program, it seems she’s found her calling: working to foster that sense of pride among Indigenous youth across Ontario, and working to honour and celebrate her grandfather’s immense legacy. So far, it’s given her just as much as it’s given those who take part, she says.

“I've had so many amazing experiences, and met so many incredible kids,” Armstrong says. “Earlier this year, I went up to Lac Seul First Nation to run a camp for the girls there. And that was life-changing for me. Just meeting the kids, seeing the smiles on their faces when we were on the ice, getting to know them off the ice — it was just extremely impactful. It's not hard to keep doing it, because it's so much fun.

“It's just amazing to really get to know the kids and the families that I work with. And to learn about the culture, too — you know, for me, with my grandfather passing away, that was a huge disconnect. Now, I get to meet families and kids from different First Nations and talk to them. Culturally, that really helps me a lot.”

As for where it all goes next, just like when it all began, there’s no far-flung plan, no trajectory meticulously plotted. For Armstrong, it’s not about that. It’s about something simpler, something purer, and closer to home.

“Each year, it's growing, I'm connecting with more people. I guess my vision is just to be able to keep it going,” she says. “To travel to different communities across Ontario, and meet the people, and learn about the culture, and learn about the history. I've learned so much from all of my trips.

“If I can just keep on doing that, and hopefully continue impacting the youth on and off the ice, that would be a dream.”

How Armstrong's work with Indigenous youth honours her legendary grandfather

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