Everyone knows about the star quarterback of their high school football team or the captain of the basketball team, but how often does hockey get noticed, let alone how common is it that a female hockey player gets acknowledged?
Freshman Hallie Wilhelm plays for the Naperville Sabres, an all girls hockey team. Playing for four years now, Wilhelm doesn’t know where she’d be without the game of hockey and everything that comes with it.
“I play six hours a week and I find myself playing hockey more than anything else,” Wilhelm said.
She loved hockey to begin with, but the Blackhawks are what gave her that extra push to start playing on an actual team.
“My brother and I just like playing hockey, and when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, it just made us want to play even more,” Wilhelm said.
Every winter the Wilhelm family makes a hockey rink in their backyard, where they ice skate and invite friends over to mess around on the ice.
“This year might be the first year we don’t make the hockey rink so that’s kind of a bummer,” Wilhelm said.
From the very beginning when her love for hockey first stemmed, Hallie has always had her main supporters to guide her through each season and game.
“My parents are my biggest supporters. They take me everywhere and always support me whether we win or lose and always try to give some kind of feedback,” Wilhelm said.
Along with her family being with her every step of the way, Hallie’s good friend Sam Kowalcyzk supports her as well.
“She definitely plays a lot. Even though hockey takes up a lot of quality time that we spend together, it’s really good for her and her future” Kowalcyzk said.
From Sam’s eyes, she notices that the Sabres work well together as a team and they’re all close friends.
“Hallie and all her teammates are great players and best friends” Kowalcyzk said.
Hallie said without her coach though, she wouldn’t be as great of a player as she is.
“Coach Tim is hard on us, but in a good way,” Wilhelm said, “he influences us to be better players by pointing out the negatives, but then helps us by pointing out what we’re doing right.”