When the British author C.S. Lewis wrote, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream,” he must have had Park City resident Nancy Garbett in mind.
Nancy, who turns 68 in March, is one of the founding members of the Park City Predators women’s hockey team. She was 63 years old when she picked up a hockey stick and hit the ice for the first time.
But Nancy doesn’t think there’s anything particularly noteworthy about learning a new and very physically demanding sport six-plus decades into life. She says: “For me, age doesn’t mean anything. As long as I have the attitude and desire, why not give it a try?”
And though she is now widely considered a force to be reckoned with on the ice, her hockey hobby began rather humbly.
“At the grand opening of the ice arena, I had to hold on to two people just to get around the rink,” she recalls. “I was determined to play hockey but hadn’t skated since I was 10.”
But Nancy, a lifetime athlete, wasn’t deterred by her slow start. “I played three sports in college and seven varsity sports in high school. I still telemark ski, golf, play tennis, hike, camp, and bike. I knew I would catch on quickly if I kept trying.”
And she was right. As teammate Shelly Vetterli says, “Nancy is known throughout the league for her puck-handling skills. She passes and shoots like she’s been playing her whole life.”
In the nearly five years she’s been playing, Nancy has created quite a legacy, and she finds the comments and reactions to her age amusing. “A few years ago I overheard a girl on the team we were playing against say to one of her teammates, ‘One of those girls looks really, really old! She must be at least 40!’ I thought, I’ll take that as a compliment!”
And while most women her age are more inclined to go for a face-lift than a face-off, Nancy says she’s hooked on hockey because it meets all her criteria:
Learning something new
Playing with people she enjoys
Getting to go fast
Making visible progress
“Of all the sports I have played, I love hockey the most. I love how I become a part of everything on the ice. It is less about thinking than being. You get in a zone and just play. There’s nothing intellectual about it.” (Having dated a number of hockey players in the past, I can personally attest to the idea that intellect is not exactly a prerequisite to being a good hockey player. Having spirit and determination, however, is.)
“Everyone loves playing with Nancy, and other teams even love playing against her. She’s just an awesome woman to be around and she’s a natural leader. Everyone listens to her and respects her,” Shelly says.
Nancy has even earned a league-wide nickname: The Godmother.
“One time before a game, Nancy brought a bottle of schnapps into the locker room and offered everyone a shot. We all took it, even those who don’t drink, because everyone knows, you do what The Godmother tells you to do,” Shelly said.
While Nancy is known for her shots on and off the ice, it’s her attitude that won her celebrity status.
“Age is just a number. For me it doesn’t matter how many times I have been around the sun. What is important to me is to experience as many new things as possible in life, and to surround myself with people of all ages and perspectives. Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks didn’t know what he was talking about.”
And he certainly never picked up a puck.
Amy Roberts is a freelance writer, public-relations guru and globe-trotting thrill seeker. In a former life she worked in TV news, both as a reporter and sports anchor. She has bagged peaks on six continents, kayaked the Zambezi and Nile rivers, swam with great white sharks in South Africa and tracked mountain gorillas in Rwanda. She was once very nearly sold for 2,000 camels while traveling through Morocco.