Gilmour Girls

Thanks to a tip from Penn State alumnus Philip Edwards, TYT has learned that two of women's verbal Celine Whitlinger's Gilmour Academy teammates have also committed to play for Josh Brandwene. The trio will sign their National Letters of Intent at the school next Wednesday, November 9th.

Micayla Catanzariti

Forward
Gilmour Academy (Prep)
5'6"
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
DOB 5/22/1994

Gilmour Academy girls hockey page

Katie Zinn

Forward
Gilmour Academy (Prep)
5'7"
Coquitlam, BC
DOB 1993

Gilmour Academy girls hockey page

Season   Team                   Lge    GP    G    A  Pts  PIM
-------------------------------------------------------------
2010-11  Pacific Steelers       JWHL   25   10   13   23   10

Catanzariti, like Whitlinger, is a SoCal native who ended up at prep school in Ohio for a year before moving on to PSU. The two were, in fact, long-time teammates with the Anaheim Lady Ducks organization and both were part of the Ducks' appearances at nationals in 2009 (14U), 2010 and 2011 (Tier 1 16U). Both also attended the USA Hockey Select 17 national development camp over the summer, along with Jill Holdcroft, one of Penn State's previous verbals.

So why Gilmour?

It's a situation where Cantanzariti and Whitinger played for the Anaheim Lady Ducks AAA team, but they are going to be 17, and there really isn't a team for them to play for at that same level after the 16U team, [GA coach Rick] Filighera said.

"They needed to have an opportunity to play hockey going into their senior year, because it's going to be their recruiting year, and they wouldn't have had that opportunity," he said. "At the same time, they want to match it with great academics."

Cantanzariti and Whitinger became interested in Gilmour, because they played in showcase tournaments with previous Lady Lancers, Filighera said.

"Knowing of good players who had a good experience at Gilmour has helped get these other players to Gilmour," he said. "It goes hand in hand. It's recruiting. They recruit their friends, and then all these kids have the opportunity to play."

One of those friends now is undoubtedly Zinn, who also hails from the west coast - of Canada. She arrived at Gilmour from a Pacific Steelers organization that had a pretty rough go of things in JWHL play last year with a record of 5-20-2. Nevertheless, Zinn was the leading scorer on the team in JWHL games - her 23 points were seven clear of her closest teammate and more than double all but two Steelers. When the team did win, it was largely because of Zinn. She had a hat trick against the Boston Shamrocks on December 4th of last year, and burned the Shamrocks for five points on February 12th in two of the aforementioned five wins.

So far this season, Gilmour is 7-6-1 with all three PSU commits playing key roles. The Lancers are competing at the Bauer Invite in Rochester, NY through Sunday.