The Elmira District Secondary School girls’ hockey team got a visit earlier this month from a former player who helped start their 41-game winning streak.

Kaitlin Doering, who now plays as the first-line center for Cornell University, helped out at a practice during her visit home, showing the girls some drills and answering questions about playing at a higher level.

“It dates back to when Kaitlin was there,” said coach Steve Karn of the record. “She was there when it ended the first time and when it started the second time. It was nice to have her out. She was pretty excited. She didn’t realize we were at that point, at that many games. It’s exciting for the girls. At some point it has to end, but it’s just nice to see their hard work and effort has paid off.”

The Elmira team is at the top of the Waterloo County Secondary Schools Athletics Association with a 6-0 record so far this season, and are hoping to take the provincial championship this year.

Playing for Cornell, Doering played with Brianne Jenner last year, a member of Team Canada.

“There are some pretty big players that she’s playing with and she’s on the first line, she’s the first-line center. It’s pretty amazing. She likes to give back. She was a leader when she was at our school in pretty much everything she did and she still has that great quality,” Karn said.

He says most of the girls on her team are borderline national level and her coach is part of the national team as well. Karn says she’s close to being on that team, but whether she’ll ever get the chance or not, who knows.

“She was one of our best players ever to come out of this school, out of Waterloo Region. You always keep in contact with them. She’s done really well. She said that she was going to be home and come to our game, so when she came to our game she said do you have any other games, and we said we had a practice and she said she’d love to come out and help,” said Karn.

Doering ran the players through some drills, which he says is good for the girls to see, since it’s coming from the elite level. They even got some one-on-one coaching with her helping them practice their face-offs.

And the team certainly enjoyed the experience, he says. The girls commented on how good the drills were, how they’d never worked on face-offs like that before, and how they were going to use things they’d learned in that one practice in their next league games.

“She’s a very good kid and a very good athlete, so it’s nice when they come and give back,” Karn said.

Following the Christmas break, the lady Lancers take on Waterloo-Oxford at the Woolwich Memorial Centre on Jan. 6 at 3 p.m.