The Charlotte Labre Story
Not everyone you meet has a grandfather who played in the NHL… or a grandfather whose number is hanging in the rafters at an NHL stadium. But for Charlotte Labre, she does.
Yvon Labre is Charlotte Labre’s grandfather and NHL legend. Charlotte played four years for the Neumann University Knights. In her time at Neumann, she had 14 goals and 20 assists, for a total of 34 points in 89 career games.
Charlotte didn’t start her hockey career off shooting pucks into a dryer like NHL legend Sidney Crosby. But, Labre’s career started in the same way many young players’ careers start with their parents signing them up for youth leagues and they go from there.
“I was four years old. My dad put skates on me and I looked like a bobble head… I was more so learning to skate than playing hockey.” said Labre
Labre played all through grade school and all through middle school then a dream started to develop. That dream was to play in college.
Labre was asked about when she started to seriously think about college hockey and she answered with “I had thought I was going to play in the NHL like my grandfather did and as every other young player dreams, but as far as college that dream started when I was about 14 or 15 years old.”
Flash forward three years and Charlotte is a college Ice Hockey player. But how did Labre, a girl from Bel Air, Maryland, find Neumann University, a small school in Aston, Pennsylvania? “Well it was simple” Labre said.
“I played for Little Flyers and Neumann kind of just fell into my lap and I fell in love with the University.”
Labre’s career at Neumann was special but it wasn’t always so easy for her. Labre had to work hard for a consistent spot in the line up. During her freshman year campaign Labre had only suited up for 15 games and was scratched from all the others. Labre wasn’t happy about that but she used it as a learning piece.
Labre explained this about her freshman year. “An experience I’ll never forget. My freshman year was a massive learning curve and I was constantly getting scratched. After my freshman year was over I put my head down and worked my tail off and made sure I was never scratched again.” So she was never scratched again. Playing in all 25 games sophomore year, 24 her junior year and 25 her senior year.
Labre then remarked this about her career “My sophomore year I was a consistent third line player, sometimes bumping up to the second line but never getting scratched. Then junior and senior year I was a first line player. Then senior year I was named (co) captain of my team”
Labre worked hard all four years to make her grandfather proud; her grandfather Yvon was at almost every game supporting her and her teammates.
But at the end of her career Labre was chosen for a project with a class in the Neumann Sports Management major. The purpose is to build her social media following and who better to ask than Labre, a top athlete at the University.
Labre expanded on what the project has been like for her saying “It has been fun and entertaining to create this content with these students.” The project started in the last stretch of Labres season and was centered around hockey content. But now Labre’s career is sadly over so the project has taken a new form. The project is taking a step away from hockey content and is more on her life post hockey. “Now with no more hockey content the focus is more so my day to day and my life with my dog rookie” Labre mentioned.
Through all the ups and downs of her career at Neumann it is safe to say Charlotte Labre lived up the expectation she had made for herself in trying to make her grandfather Yvon proud.
She was chosen to represent Neumann Women’s Ice Hockey and build the team’s social media along with her own. While at Neumann she was no longer referred to as Yvon Labre’s granddaughter by announcers, opposing teams, teammates and coaches but as Charlotte Labre.
