HAGERSVILLE—Becky Kellar started life as a ‘first,’ and the trend would continue on down the years.
The first edition of the Haldimand Press, which came out on January 16, 1975, featured a photo of Shirley Kellar holding her second child – and first of the year to be born at West Haldimand General Hospital in Hagersville – Rebecca ‘Becky’ Kellar.
“Anytime you’re born on January 1st, it’s the first question you get from people, ‘Were you the first? Were you the New Year’s baby?’” Kellar said with a laugh, adding that her mom saved a clipping of the photo and write up.
“I think it’s still somewhere around my house,” she told The Press.
It wouldn’t be the last time she was featured in the news; as a four-time Olympic medalist in women’s ice hockey, Kellar is one of Haldimand’s hometown sports heroes.
Growing up, Kellar said she started out playing ringette.
“In Hagersville, there was no girls’ hockey at the time,” so she ended up travelling to Glanbrook where it was available, and ended up playing both sports that way.
She would also play pickup games of hockey with her brother, and “back in high school, we used to have a student/teacher game of shinney that we’d play every once in a while.”
Still, “there was no women’s hockey in the Olympics when I was growing up.”
Kellar said the first time the idea of playing hockey at a higher level really came onto her radar was at the age of 15, the first time there was a Women’s World Championship.
“It really wasn’t until that first World’s in 1990 that it became something that you could even really dream about; it just didn’t exist before that,” she said.
A few years later – right around the time Kellar earned her spot on Team Ontario’s roster – it was announced that women’s ice hockey would be coming to the Olympics in 1998. Kellar said she’d wondered at the time if getting a spot on the provincial team would prove to be a first step to making it on Team Canada.
Sure enough, it was.
Kellar and her teammates travelled to Nagano, Japan and became part of the international sorority of first-ever women’s ice hockey Olympic competitors. In the end, they brought back silver.
Three more times – in 2002 (Salt Lake City, USA), 2006 (Torino, Italy) and 2010 (Vancouver, Canada) – Kellar hit the ice, representing Canada, where she and her teammates earned consecutive gold medals.
Following her Olympic career, Kellar has remained a part of the hockey world.
“I’ve coached for a long time now, whether it be doing development, or I’m an assistant coach with the junior hockey team here in Burlington,” where she now lives with her family.
“You learn so much along the way, it’s nice to be able to give back with some of the experience that you have,” she said.
Kellar said it’s gratifying to see the new generation of players coming up through the ranks, and that she’s enjoyed doing what she can to help them develop their skills and “take their strides towards their next step.”
That might be National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), or even Team Canada, “and then hopefully for a few of them, it might be the PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) at some point.”
Kellar isn’t on the ice as much these days, but she is having her own PWHL experience, working in the broadcasting side of things.
“I do the colour commentary for mostly the Canadian teams,” she said. “I didn’t get to play and be a part of that pro league, so it’s nice to be able to be a part of it in some capacity, and the games are great; it’s a lot of fun.”
Over the years, Kellar has witnessed the expansion of women’s hockey, and she noted that one of the most interesting aspects of that growth has been “the leaps and bounds that the game has taken in terms of the skill and the number of players playing. You’re starting to see it maybe follow the same trajectory that the men’s game did.”
It’s not just on the international stage, but also back home.
“It’s nice to see that they’ve got a pretty thriving organization in Haldimand now,” for women’s hockey, Kellar said.
Her connection to Haldimand remains strong.
“My parents have been there forever. My grandma was there for a long time; aunts and uncles. It’s always going to be home.”