This chapter we look at Jill Wilkin (nee Mitchell). Jill joined the team in the first full season having started at Napier around that time. Jill wasn’t exactly an impact player on the ice, but she was an invaluable asset to the team off-the-ice: driving and do what she could to help out. Again, I asked Jill what she thought of her time looking back:
"Bit of background, now live in Dundee with husband and newborn son and I'm a microbiologist.
I started playing ice hockey in 1999, starting up the Paisley Scorpions, a short lived all-female team based in the Lagoon in Paisley. My friends and I were regulars at the ice discos, which was straight before the Pirates, the pro-team at the time trained, watching that amazed us so we started watching their games and it went from there. I remember putting on borrowed kit that was too big, and had grand plans of taking on the world. Our first ever game was against the Piranhas, a team made up of OAP's, they won by a substantial amount!!
Fast forward to 2004, when I started my masters at Napier University and found the Eagles had a stall at the Freshers Fayre. The team was very much in it's infancy, with a small but fiercely loyal roster and anti-social training slot. I was never the best skater, but I like to think I was an asset to the team even if it was just in driving the team minibus! Being a member of the Beagles was amazing, it gave the rookie skaters a place of their own, and our own shirts too, I've always got a soft spot for our first season baby blue shirts, though some preferred the much cooler dark blue version we had the next year! My best memories of my time with the Eagles and Beagles are of the road trips. From long weekends away for champs, the Celtic plate and cup weekends, but even the late night trips to such exotic locations such as Whitley bay, Nottingham and Sheffield.
The night's out we're also legendary and I made friends that I'm still in touch with now, even though I've long since stopped playing. I wore 76, which I still wear to this day, but on roller instead of ice skates!!!"
Towards the end of her time with the Eagles/Beagles, Jill discovered roller derby and switched her ice skates for quad skates. Now a mother, she spends her time away from parenthood and work by bashing people on the roller rinks. Thank you Jill for all the work you put in over the years with the team and we wish you and your family all the best for the future.