While in previous training camps the veteran players would have an advantage on making the cut, that was clearly not the case this week.
The break in the women’s college hockey schedule allowed for the younger talent rising up through the U.S. program an opportunity to flash their skills to head coach Bob Corkum and company.
Million said the rapid growth of the sport has made an impact on players moving up the ranks. They are exposed to hockey at younger ages, and with the popularity of the sport over the last 20 years, to better coaching and training as well.
“We are seeing some real good competition this week and people upping their game,” Million said. “People can’t just assume they are on the team because there is so much young talent.”
The depth of talent ranged in age from freshman year of college to early 30s. Barnes is used to being on the lowest end of that range, having been the youngest player on the 2018 Olympic team roster at 19.
“Honestly, every young player, NCAA player on our roster this week obviously they are being tracked and every one of them has a chance,” Million said. “Young hockey for women and girls is just getting so much better that we are getting more to choose from.”
Harvard freshman Dominique Petrie was one of those young stars looking to make a mark.
Petrie has already shined on the Under-18 Women’s National Team and worked out with the senior national team prior to the 2018 Four Nations Cup as a high schooler.
“This is the first official one that’s like a tryout,” Petrie said. “It’s been an unbelievable experience and it’s not every day you get to train and compete with the best players in the world, so I have been really fortunate just learning from them and picking their brains.”
Following Team USA’s gold medal victory at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, the first-ever Olympic tournament for women’s hockey, the sport saw a boom of interest, not only at the collegiate level but all the way down to the youth groups. And the current generation of veterans that reclaimed the gold in PyeongChang is part of another wave that they hope will push girls’ and women’s hockey to even greater heights.
Kendall Coyne Schofield, 27, who has been part of the last two U.S. Olympic teams, said the sport’s growth has transferred over to the rink where the talent level keeps getting better.
“I think the biggest difference is the change we have seen in the culture,” she said. “You refer to them as younger girls, but they don’t play like they’re young.
“These players who come in for the first time, second time, or even third time are equally as important as those that have been around longer,” she added. “They come in with confidence and tell it in the way they play and what they bring to the table.
“It’s awesome for players to come in and have confidence, and it gives the players who have been around maybe a little longer more confidence. … It’s awesome to be around.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
