Junior Talia Stein Trujillo has made Kodiak history as a National Girls Hockey League competitor. Stein Trujillo was a former Publications staff writer and is currently studying remotely to pursue her hockey dream. Her story, told in her own words, is one of empowerment and teamwork.
On August 12th, 2022, I ventured across the country to New York to play club hockey in Newark, New Jersey, pursuing my dreams of playing college hockey. Now I play for a tier 1 AAA club hockey organization called Ironbound Elite, whose mission is to “develop female ice hockey players who aspire to compete at the highest level reaching their true potential to advance to NCAA hockey.”
Ironbound competes nationally in the NGHL ( National Girls Hockey League) with weekly games up and down the Eastern seaboard. The season started on August 20th with three away games against the Connecticut Eagles, we came away with all three wins and a great start to the season. In the last three months my team has been to Connecticut and Boston three times and to New Hampshire once. We have also been to Minnesota and Detroit, Rochester, Pittsburg, and Providence. The team has games coming up in Washington DC and Florida.
As a “full time athlete” I start my day at 9 am with breakfast and some stretching, from 10-1 pm I work on school exclusively and then head to the Prudential Center for on ice skills at 2:30-3:30 pm, gym from 4:00-5:30 pm, rest and recovery from 5:30-8:00 pm and to end the day practice, at 8:45 pm - 10 pm. That is a normal Monday-Thursday. At the ice rink we have a room set up to work on our schoolwork and recover, we have normatecs, massage guns, protein powder and enough creatine to survive a world apocalypse. Most weekends we have games and when we don’t, we have practice in the morning and have team bonding sessions in the afternoon followed by a second practice in the evening.
There are five international girls in the program, who live with other families on the team. There are two girls from Austria, one girl from Denmark, one girl from Sweden, and one girl from Italy. There are also three other girls from the Continental United States, one from Buffalo, one from Philadelphia, and one from Utah. Having the influence of the international girls or the “euros” as we call them has been really fun and unique. I have been getting some language lessons and hearing how different society and life is in Europe is affording me the opportunity to learn from and grow from my international teammates. As a team, we have a great bond, we get along really well and support each other both on and off the ice.
When I was offered the position and contract on Ironbound, I was given only 12 hours to sign the contract or the spot would be offered to someone else. My first thought was that a break from my family sounded nice. I could not have been more wrong. I work hard all day, I love my team, I have amazing adventures, but by October the homesickness kicked in. Missing my friends, my family and the mountains, has made playing for Ironbound bittersweet.
College pursuit is important to the team, players and coaches. As a player, I have to consider not only the academic program I want to study, but also the team and team philosophy of the school I am going to. Playing for a nationals-bound team, we play in college showcases often, seeing the same recruiters week after week. There are strict regulations, in regards to college recruiters and players speaking. Due to NCAA regulations there are two different rules for player recruitment. Division 1 coaches can't have two way communication with athletes until June 15th of their sophomore year of high school. Up until that time, players are allowed to email coaches to introduce themselves and send them game film, share their playing schedule and provide their coaches contact information. D3 coaches are allowed to reach out but you aren't allowed to commit until that June 15th date. In both cases, it is unusual for a player to get a commitment so early in the game. There are still two years of high school left to develop and taking that time to work on both your sport and your academics is important.
Hockey has pretty much been my whole life since 3rd grade and for most of that time I have been homeschooled. My freshman year, I came back to school and CHS, making some great friends who are helping me through this and supporting me more than I could have ever asked for.
When the decision came to choose a new chapter, I was excited, but also reluctant to leave my life here in Leavenworth. I decided - why not live in both places for a while? The choice was made easy by our staff at CHS, who worked to get me in an on-line program which is keeping me a part of CHS. My hockey season ends in April, and I will be coming back here and finishing up my online classes and playing on the softball team. As a bi-coastal athlete, I could not have asked for better support.
Having the support of my family, my friends, my teachers, administrators and our small town has given me the courage to experience life and adventure, knowing that I always have our tiny German hamlet to return to.
Comments