Women's Hockey | 11/22/2016 1:35:00 PM
Moon Township, Pa. – Upon her her arrival in Seoul, South Korea, Jacki Gibson transformed into a fast-food junkie. Her restaurants of choice were McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
"I couldn't speak the language, and I really didn't know what to order anywhere else," said Gibson, who starred for the
Robert Morris University women's hockey team from 2006 to 2010.
"So, I just stuck with those places."
In time, Gibson got ambitious in her food selections.
Really ambitious.
On one occasion, she ordered live octopus. This Korean "delicacy" arrived at her table moving ... breathing ... living.
So what did Gibson do? She grabbed some chopsticks, lifted a twitching tentacle, and attempted to eat it.
Didn't happen.
"You could feel it moving around in your mouth," Gibson said. "It was suctioning to the side. I couldn't do it."
She tried again. She also couldn't do it. Again.
"It was weird," she said.
But true to her resiliency and willpower, traits that helped her earn team MVP honors her senior season at RMU, Gibson succeeded on her third try.
It was mind over mollusk.
"After I ate it, it made me feel more comfortable in my surroundings, more open-minded to try new things," said Gibson, a native of Burlington, Ontario. "I never would have done something like that had I lived in North America, but it was about experiencing new things."
For three and-a-half memorable years, that is precisely what Gibson did while teaching kindergarten and first grade in Seoul, a city with a population of 10 million. She not only connected with numerous Korean students (who spoke English as a second language), but saw her horizons broaden immeasurably.
A self-described homebody before attending RMU, Gibson traveled to the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Borneo, Vietnam and Japan during her stint in the Far East. She especially cherished her time in Borneo, where "jungle trekking" took on a whole new meaning.
From only meters way, she closely observed wildlife such as elephants, monkeys, sharks and crocodiles. And make no mistake, this was not a commercialized tour. This was the real thing.
Gibson has the photos to prove it.
"I wasn't nervous because you don't have time to be nervous," she said of those up-close-and-personal moments with nature. "You just go with it. It was really amazing to see so many things that I never thought I'd see."
Now a kindergarten teacher at St-Laurent Academy in Ottawa, Gibson got her hockey fix in Seoul, too.
She joined a ball hockey league, a variation of street hockey that featured 150 players.
The majority of the competitors were men who hailed from North America.
This led to Gibson being taken in the final round of the league's draft in her first season. However, after displaying the prowess that made her a top-tier defenseman at RMU, her standing improved greatly.
So much so that she was taken in Round 4 in her final season there.
"It was extremely competitive, but also fun to be a part of," said Gibson, who returned to Canada in July to be closer to family. "It also was an opportunity to connect and meet with a lot more people."
As a player at RMU, Gibson ranked fourth in assists in her junior and senior seasons. A skilled puck-mover with a high hockey I.Q., she finished her career with 10 goals and 33 assists in 138 games.
A seminal moment occurred in her junior season at third-ranked Minnesota. That's when Gibson scored the game-winning goal in a 3-2 victory. The Gophers were stunned.
"It was a great memory," she said.
It also underscored her competitive nature. Gibson would go on to earn team MVP, defensive MVP and the team's sportsmanship award a year later. Pretty good for a student-athlete who had no intention of crossing the border after high school.
"I had full intentions of going to college in Canada so I would be close to home," Gibson said. "But my dad (a former hockey player at Boston University) pushed me to branch out. He loved his experience with college hockey in the United States and he thought I should venture out. I'm so glad I did, because I wouldn't change anything about it."
Not only was Gibson impactful to the women's program, but she made her mark on coach
Derek Schooley's men's team, too. That's because her younger brother, Greg, followed her to Moon Township in 2012-13.
Greg Gibson would go on to author one of the great careers in RMU history. A nominee for the Hobey Baker Award, college hockey's version of the Heisman Trophy, he ranked third nationally in goals (29) and seventh in points (51) last season. He also was part of the winningest class in RMU annals.
Greg Gibson played for Florida of the East Coast Hockey League earlier this year and is currently playing professionally in Germany.
"I'm glad he's also getting to see more of the world," said Jacki, whose sister, Teri, was a gymnast at LSU. "I feel so fortunate to have experienced such amazing things at this point in my life. There was a time when I never would have thought to branch out like I did. But now, if I could advise anyone who has the opportunity, I'd say, 'Go for it.'"
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