PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Jillian Flynn made it official April 28, 2016 — she will be attending the University of Maine at Orono this fall to play for the Black Bears women’s ice hockey team.
With her father looking on at a table set up on the stage of the Presque Isle High School auditorium, Flynn signed a letter of commitment to play at UMaine during a press conference that afternoon. Many of Flynn’s high school coaches, teammates and friends attended the event.
Flynn had verbally committed to UMaine last fall. She will be attending on an academic scholarship.
Flynn is the first Wildcat set to compete for a Div. I women’s athletic team since cross country standout Melissa (Blackstone) Gogain did so at Liberty University in the early-2000s.
The 18-year-old Caribou resident is the daughter of Dr. Carl Flynn and Clarann Floyd and has been playing on boys’ hockey teams since the age of 5.
Flynn was a four-year starter for the Wildcat varsity squad and led PI into the Eastern Maine Class B championship game her sophomore year. She was voted to the All-Eastern Maine Class B second team as a junior and was a third-team selection this past winter.
She made the league’s all-academic team all four years and was honored with the high school Hobey Baker Award at PIHS this past winter. Flynn holds virtually all the goaltending records at PIHS.
She attends mini-camps a couple times a year where she receives instruction from Jim Fleming, goalie coach for the St. John Sea Dogs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Flynn was also a standout starting goalkeeper for three seasons with the Wildcat soccer team and was named an All-Eastern Maine Class B goalkeeper last season. She is now in the midst of her fourth season with the PI softball team, where she plays first base and catches.
During the press conference, speakers included SAD 1 Athletic Administrator Mark White, PIHS Principal Ben Greenlaw, Wildcat softball coach Terry Cummings and her father/coach Carl Flynn. White also passed along well wishes from PI soccer coach Ralph Michaud, who was unable to attend.
Jillian Flynn took the podium last and expressed thanks to White and the SAD 1 athletic program for providing outstanding athletic programs, to her friends for all their support, the SAD 1 coaching staff and the Presque Isle youth hockey coaches, her Wildcat hockey teammates and her parents and brothers, Adam and D.J., for their important roles.
She highlighted the significance Adam, her elder by three years and who was in attendance, played in her hockey career.
“I always wanted to be just like Adam when I was little so I started playing hockey to be just like Adam,” she said. “He spent countless hours on our home rink with drills that he would suggest that were never intended to make him a better player but rather me a better goaltender. He always wanted me to the best and if it weren’t for him I wouldn’t even be a hockey player.”
Flynn said becoming playing hockey at UMaine fulfills a lifelong dream and she said it is even sweeter due to the fact many of her friends, both in Presque Isle and Caribou, also plan to attend the university and will continue to support her down there.
“I’m honored and humbled by all this — it means a lot to me,” Flynn said. “I have dreamed about being a Black Bear since I was little and it’s crazy to me that it’s all happening.”
