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Vermilion County Bobcats - Logo

Welcome to Bobcat Country

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About the Owner

About the owner... Ellen Tully

Ellen J. Tully is the Owner and CEO of the Vermilion County Bobcats Hockey of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

 

The Danville, Illinois native has been involved with all levels of hockey for over 20 years. Her hockey experience has taken her across the United States and around the world with moves to South Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Florida, and Georgia; and travels to Montreal and Toronto, Canada; Malmo, Sweden; and Espoo, Finland. For the last seven years, she has been photographing USHL, NCAA, AHL, ECHL, SPHL, and Team USA Hockey, including two Team USA World Junior Championships.

 

Ellen has been inspired by working with some of hockey’s greatest coaches and players. She cites the Granato family’s importance to her leadership approach: Tony Granato, her first NHL coach in Colorado; his sister Cammie, the first female hockey player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame; and brother Donnie, Head Coach for the Buffalo Sabres. She also credits lessons learned from her father, Lou Mervis, and coaches she’s met along the way with shaping her approach for the VC Bobcats.


Ellen: “My dad’s values and guidance, along with my coaches’ experiences and knowledge of the game, paved the way for me to develop my philosophy and expectations for our organization.”

 

Ellen has two sets of goals for the VC Bobcats organization – one for players and coaches and the other for the community. For players and coaches, her focus is development. “I want to develop players and coaches so they can advance their careers to the next level,” she says. “We will take advantage of the SPHL’s tuition reimbursement program to encourage players to gain skills to prepare them for life after hockey. In addition, we are developing a mental health care program for our players. We want them to not only be professionally prepared to advance on or off the ice and but be mentally strong as well.”

 

For Vermilion County and beyond, her goal is equally inspirational. “My dad instilled in me the importance of giving back to your community. The time was right in my life where I could make a difference in my hometown and the surrounding areas. Off the ice, I hope we will be a unifying team for the area,” she says. “A team that everyone from Georgetown to Hoopeston, Champaign to Veedersburg and everywhere in between can get behind and be proud of. We want to be active in the schools, library, hospital, youth hockey, etc. We want and need to be good role models for kids in the area."

 

With many friends still playing hockey, she doesn’t have a favorite player but says she enjoys cheering for them all. She does count herself a fan of the NHL’s Florida Panthers and the University of Denver Pioneers ice hockey teams. 

 

Ellen is an active volunteer with Specialty Purebred Cat Rescue, an animal rescue organization based in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She supports small non-profit rescues including Rock Cats Rescue, Jersey Kitty Nonprofit, Friends for Life Rescue Network, and Orphan Kitten Club. She helps with medical costs for special “handi-cats” around the world. Most recently she assisted R.AW.R.(Rustic Acres Wildcat Rescue), in Rhode Island, in their completion of a second enclosure for two new Bobcats.


Her advocacy extends to many other deserving causes, including Domestic Violence Awareness (as a survivor herself), Autism Awareness and the fight against ALS.

 

Confident, driven, and fearless, Ellen lives by a principle her father taught her: “Always remember, your word is your bond. If you say you’re going to do something, you do it. If you say you’re going to help someone, you help them. But always make sure that people know your word is good.” She is committed to keeping her word to Vermilion County and the surrounding areas, knowing that together we can do so much. Margaret J. Wheatley described it best when she said, “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.


The Bobcats can say, with an open heart: Vermilion County, we care about you and we are ready to help make changes for good.

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