Kathryn Noreen is bundled up in a dark red uniform.<\/p>\n
The familiar colors are covering various pads and gear as she tries to stay warm on a frozen sheet of ice while crashing opponents into the boards and firing pucks at masked net minders.<\/p>\n
This time, however, the swatches are not Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears\u2019 red and black but are the red, dark blue and white of the Daniel Webster College Eagles.<\/p>\n
\u201cCollege hockey is the greatest thing,\u201d Noreen, 19, said. \u201cI am living the dream, playing the sport I love at a higher level that I have never even imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday Noreen and the Eagles played the first-ever women\u2019s hockey game for NCAA Division III Daniel Webster.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing hearing my name for the starting line up,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cA big crowd, tons of kids from school showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The score was not in favor of the Eagles who fell 12-1 to the deeper NCAA Division II Franklin Pierce Ravens (1-0), a team coming off a 20-win season a year ago.<\/p>\n
Noreen stole the puck in the neutral zone and passed to teammate Brittany Tierney for the Eagles\u2019 historic first goal, meaning Noreen had the team\u2019s historic first assist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt very awesome,\u201d Noreen said.<\/p>\n
The goal tied the score at 1-1 at the 10:56 mark of the first period.<\/p>\n
The Ravens took the action the rest of the game for the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was good for our first game,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cWe were a little tired running three defenders, but now we know what college hockey is. It is fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
T<\/strong>he <\/strong>ice road<\/strong><\/p>\n Noreen is now in her 10th season of playing hockey.<\/p>\n She began with four years in the Juneau Douglas Ice Association\u2019s house league, played as a freshman for JDHS, played as a sophomore in Fairbanks for the Alaska Ice Breakers girl\u2019s comp team, and returned to the Crimson Bears to earn ice time as a junior and major shift time as a senior. <\/p>\n Noreen graduated from JDHS in 2014 along with Crimson Bears\u2019 ice mates Ethan Seid, Logan Coleman, Zach Easton, Neal Chapman, Liam McDermott and Anchorage transfer Josh Lahnum.<\/p>\n The Boston Jr. Blades Hockey team, a 19U women\u2019s program affiliated with the Boston Blades professional women\u2019s team, had contacted Noreen her senior year but she wanted to graduate in Juneau.<\/p>\n After graduation Noreen spent the summer running her dad\u2019s gillnetter, the F.V. Ritz, then joined the Jr. Blades and played from August through December 2014. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was awesome because I was playing on a women\u2019s team instead of men\u2019s like I had my whole life,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cWe went to a lot of different showcase tournaments and it was cool looking into the stands and seeing scouts, which we don\u2019t get a lot of in Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n The team played in various tournaments including Harvard and New York. They home-iced at Cranston, Rhode Island and the University of Massachusetts in Boston. <\/p>\n \u201cThe women\u2019s game, in my opinion, is a lot more systematic,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just come in and hit them and take the puck, you have to play off what they do. There is a lot more learning and paying attention to who is going where. It was less intense. I am not standing at the blue line and as soon as I let go of the puck I am getting hit. It was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n Checking is not allowed as Noreen discovered.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a tournament in Canada,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cA girl was about twice my size and I didn\u2019t really go to hit her but I stopped right in front of her as she entered our zone and got the penalty because I fell and stood her up. You are not allowed to use your body like that. You can do rub outs in the corner but you can\u2019t full on check people into the boards and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Noreen continues to make her mark as a defensive standout.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not a goal scorer, I am a play maker,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cI think I had two goals that were mine last year, but I played defense for the sixth year in a role. There is not really much women\u2019s hockey on the West Coast so this got me exposure and allowed schools to see me.\u201d<\/p>\n C<\/strong>ollege<\/strong><\/p>\n During the Jr. Blades season coach Digit Murphy, a former D1 coach and top-five-all-time leader in career wins at Brown University, was contacted by DWC coach David \u201cDJ\u201d Fimiani. After several discussions with Noreen they suggested early enrollment at DWC and she began school there January 10, 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time the girls we had in, including Kathryn, were playing with our men\u2019s club team as the Eagles were out recruiting for the women\u2019s first season this year,\u201d Fimiani said. \u201cKathryn came in and demonstrated right away her willingness and commitment to become a better player and once this school year started, she became a leader with our off-ice conditioning and workouts. She was taking the lead on some projects and handling recruits when we have them on campus, working the Alaska connection with perspective student-athletes from Alaska playing out East. Kathryn is going to be a staple on our blue line for the next four years.\u201d<\/p>\n DWC has had a men\u2019s team for three seasons. Now the women have joined the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Women\u2019s Ice Hockey League.<\/p>\n The ECAC North Atlantic is comprised of eight institutions: DWC, Becker College, Endicott College, Johnson & Wales University, Morrisville State College, Salem State University, Stevenson University and SUNY Canton.<\/p>\n The ECAC East has 14 members: Saint Michael\u2019s College, University of Southern Maine, Franklin Pierce University, University of Massachusetts Boston, Manhattanville College, Norwich University, Nichols College, Saint Anselm College, Castleton State College, College of the Holy Cross, University of New England, New England College, Plymouth State University and Salve Regina University.<\/p>\n The ECAC West has 10 members: Plattsburgh St., Chatham, Potsdam St., William Smith, Oswego St., Cortland St., Neumann, Elmira, Utica and Buffalo St.<\/p>\n T<\/strong>he Eagles<\/strong><\/p>\n The DWC hockey team practices daily at 6 a.m., something Noreen was familiar with while at JDHS.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not a bad transition,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cExcept I don\u2019t live right up the hill from Treadwell Arena any more.\u201d <\/p>\n Noreen stays on campus. The women\u2019s team all live on the same dorm floor and the rink is a 15-minute drive. She has scheduled her classrooms for Monday, Wednesday and Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cI set it up so I could have Tuesday and Thursday off for staying on the ice longer,\u201d Noreen said.<\/p>\n She also stays longer on the ice to help other teammates on their hockey skills.<\/p>\n On Wednesday of last week Noreen was voted Daniel Webster College Women\u2019s Ice Hockey\u2019s first ever team captain by her teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cKathryn has developed into a leader of this team through her example on and off the ice that goes hand in hand with her work ethic,\u201d Fimiani said. \u201cShe will have the honor and privilege of wearing the C along with her assistant captains Kerrigan Toth (Maryland) and Jennifer Johnson (Gillette, Wyoming). We have come a long way from where we were a year ago and it is going to take a lot of work, especially from Kathryn, and she knows it and wants to take it all on head first.\u201d<\/p>\n Fimiani said the team stood and applauded when the announcement was made.<\/p>\n \u201cI was extremely excited,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cThis is a new team and I kind of took charge right off the bat, ran the workouts and such. I was really working hard for it. I was super nervous when we were voting and when the coach announced it I felt great. I feel like I earned it. It was cool when they cheered. I feel like I am approachable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe game is a lot more serious in college,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cIn Juniors, you are kind of playing for yourself because you are trying to be seen by colleges. Whereas in college you are playing for your team and you depend on them to help out. You are playing your best for both obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n Junior\u2019s hockey was more of a show up and skate. College hockey has warm-ups, zamboni appearances before the puck drop and between periods, the national anthem and lineup announcements.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is really official,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cI am super excited.\u201d<\/p>\n N<\/strong>ext goal<\/strong><\/p>\n Noreen returned to fish the Ritz between her stint with the Blades and joining DWC. She will do that every summer and is planning to make her commercial fishing life a part of her college business management major.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to end up doing something with marketing and owning a business where I buy fish and travel around the world and sell it,\u201d Noreen said. \u201cMarket it around the world so I can go to places like Hawaii.\u201d<\/p>\n Noreen said skates, pads and a stick will go along.<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah, I don\u2019t ever want to quit playing hockey,\u201d Noreen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kathryn Noreen is bundled up in a dark red uniform. The familiar colors are covering various pads and gear as she tries to stay warm on a frozen sheet of ice while crashing opponents into the boards and firing pucks at masked net minders. This time, however, the swatches are not Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears\u2019 red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":31915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31914"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}