University of Minnesota Athletics
Seattle's Best: Junior Forward Kelly Stephens
3/10/2004 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
Actually, Stephens is pretty much a hockey pioneer in the Pacific Northwest. She is the only active Division I player from the entire region. Other than a modest group of players from California, women's hockey is essentially non-existent on the entire West Coast. If a girl wants to lace up the skates in the Pacific Northwest, its going to be with the boys. Just getting involved with the sport takes some effort. "It was really random to be honest," Stephens said of picking up hockey. "No one in my family played. I don't think my parents had ever watched a hockey game."
Although Stephens began skating around the age of eight, she started her athletic career in more individual, artistic sports like gymnastics, ballet and swimming. But her competitive nature drew her to hockey. "I've always been a pretty competitive person. I really got along with the kids who played hockey," Stephens explained. "I grew up playing with guys and we had a lot of fun together. I was a tomboy. It was kind of odd for me to be in ballet and gymnastics in the first place. I was really competitive in most things that I did and in swimming I was at the point where in practice, all we did was laps and I was kind of bored. I liked the change. The thing I liked about hockey is that there is so much to the sport. There's skating and shooting and tons of dynamics to the sport."
Watching Kelly Stephens on the ice for just a few moments, it's very apparent that she is a tough player. She is an aggressive, speedy player that's never afraid to use her body. When you look at her hockey roots, you can't blame her.
When she picked up hockey at the age of eight, only a few girls were toying with the sport. "My first year when I was learning how to skate, there were like three or four other girls and my first team had a few girls. When it came to competitive hockey, like pee wees, it was just me."
Competitive hockey presented numerous challenges from the beginning, mostly trying to keep up with the physical play of the guys. "You accelerate right there basically because you're a girl. You grow up in an atmosphere where you are always proving yourself. You're always trying to fit in and be a part of the team and be considered one of the guys. I was always known as the workhorse because I would just work my butt off. My first two years in hockey I didn't even play. I basically was just a practice player my first couple of years."
She wasn't about to show a weakness or a slight sign of intimidation. Any glimpse might prove to the boys that she didn't deserve inclusion. "Hockey is obviously a physical sport and I was tested every single day. Growing up in guys' hockey, if I ever got hurt, it was always a knock on me. They would say, `oh, see, she can't play. She shouldn't be out here.' So mentality wise, growing up, it was always, I'm not going to get hurt, I'm not going to fall. Those are things that have stuck with me. "
The next stage of Stephens' hockey career was the boys' pee wee and bantam levels in Seattle, where she quickly developed into a strong player. Eventually, she took her skills to Calgary to play for the Olympic Oval team for a semester when she was 14 years old. It gave her a chance to get more ice time and develop her game. "It was a private school team that was basically composed of Junior A and Junior B guy players," Stephens said of her Canadian teammates. " It was the equivalent of Division III college teams here. We played probably 10 games a season but we had ice time two hours a day."
The schedule might appear a bit light in comparison to junior hockey in Minnesota, but to Stephens, it was a huge change. "In Seattle, there's only practices two days a week. That's the biggest difference between there and Minnesota. The ice here is unbelievable, you can get it whenever you want. There, you can spend $150 to get an hour on the ice. Growing up, I had practice two days a week and had games two days a week. That's the most you ever got on the ice. It's unlimited here. You can go outside and play. I never had a net in my backyard or anything because it rained all the time."
To work individually on her game, she was forced to head to the local ice rink, which there were few of in the Seattle area, and workout during an open skate. "To get ice time, I went to open skate to practice skating, you know, where everyone is holding hands and stuff. I would go out and work on stuff and try to avoid them."
Looking at her hockey upbringing, it's easy to see why Stephens is a self-described "aggressive and feisty" player. While racking up an impressive 58 goals and 76 assists in her three-year Golden Gopher career, she also led the team in penalty minutes each of her first two seasons. However, it's difficult for a player that grew up checking in boys' games and anticipating the big hit to completely forgot that mode when suiting up for a collegiate women's game, where checking is technically not allowed in the rule book.
In fact, Stephens feels that her game has changed to fit the collegiate women's style, but when she goes back home and plays pick-up hockey with her childhood friends, they are never afraid to point out that she has softened a bit with age. "I don't feel I'm that aggressive at all. Compared to the people I'm around, I stand out. But, in guys' hockey, I go home in the summertime and the guys make fun of me saying, `you're such a softy now Kell.'
Furthermore, her feisty style of play and occasional propensity for penalties has even enraged some of the local Minnesota hockey cronies that might not be as accustomed to Stephens' rugged fashion. "Here, fans and message boards are criticizing me for the way I play and saying `who is this girl...she's dirty," Stephens discussed. "So. I'm kind of caught in the middle. One place I'm terrible and the other place I'm not good enough either."
However, Stephens insists that she isn't even close to a dirty player and that many times, she may appear more physical than she really is because of her boys' hockey background and awareness of her surroundings on the ice. "A lot of the collisions that happen in open ice, someone's coming to hit me and they think I've got my head down. But I know they're coming so I brace myself and so they hit me and they fall. So, it looks like this huge thing like I laid someone out but it's just me bracing myself."
Stephens now finds herself more suited to the Olympic and collegiate finesse fashion of play and has seen her game evolve. "Playing now, I don't like to be laid out. I don't want to be all over the ice. I want to stand up and carry myself."
Despite the adaptation to the somewhat finesse play, her physical mentality hasn't left her and in some senses, gives her an edge. "I guess it's a kind of skill. I grew up being very aware of going to the boards, catching a pass and being aware of whose going to hit me," the 2002 All-WCHA player said. "Being somewhat of a smaller player out there, I think it helps being sturdy on my feet. It helps me in the corners and having puck possession and things like that. It's a skill I'd definitely rather have than not."
Back to the rainy and mild Pacific Northwest. After her semester in Calgary and time in private school boys' hockey in Seattle throughout high school, Stephens made another difficult hockey decision when she was invited to play for the Vancouver Griffins, a brand new women's hockey team in the start-up National Women's Hockey League prior to her senior year at Shorewood High School. Despite the invitation, there were several hurdles to clear. The team was located 150 miles north (two and a half hour drive) in British Columbia. Already having spent a year away from her family to attend school and play hockey in Calgary earlier, Stephens decided to make the commute to Vancouver at least three to four days a week. " We had practice three days a week. My mom came with me on the weekends for games. I basically got up went to school....got back from school...ate...drove up and practiced and got home by one in the morning."
Despite the arduous trips and hours wasted at the border patrol coming back into Washington on a daily basis, Stephens maintains that it was her decision. "I moved away from home when I was 14 and I decided, I had made this Griffins team and I had the option because I had family in Vancouver that I could live with. I just knew this was that last time that I could live at home and didn't want to have any regrets so I chose to live at home and do the drive. It wasn't forced upon me. It was a haul but it was my choice."
Looking down the road, Stephens hopes to continue playing with U.S. National Select Team during the collegiate offseason. After competing for the U.S. in the Four Nations Cup in Sweden this past November, she had a taste of international competition and hopes for a shot to play in the Olympics. Playing with 2002 Olympian linemates Krissy Wendell and Natalie Darwitz, Stephens might appear to be the forgotten forward on the Gophers' top unit but her numbers speak for themselves. Her exploits this season include career-bests in assists (40) and points (56) and she has firmed up her position as one of best American forwards in the country. In the next two years, there are several world tournaments and training camps that could put Stephens' in a position for the U.S. Olympic team in 2006. "It's something to strive for. Obviously, I'd be honored. I'm going to try and see how it goes," she explained. "It would be an awesome experience but its not an do-all end-all situation. I'm not a hockey freak that my entire life revolves around the rink. There's more to life and if I get the opportunity, I will be pumped. It will be the time of my life. Obviously its something I would love to be a part of."
All this from a girl who just wanted to play with the boys back in hockey-dormant Seattle. Stephens has proven that she can not only compete but has established herself as one of the nation's premier women's collegiate players.
Written by Director of Publications, Jeff Keiser. He welcomes comments at gophers@umn.edu. The State of Minnesota is known across the country for its residents' passion for hockey. Children grow up with the sport at their fingertips. The State of Washington, on the other hand, is far from a hockey hotbed. The region is renowned for its coastline, beautiful mountain peaks and scenery but backyard rinks and pond skating simply aren't options. Becoming a top icer, let alone a national-level one, in this region takes a little extra work and dedication. This makes Shoreline, Washington native Kelly Stephens an impressive story.
Actually, Stephens is pretty much a hockey pioneer in the Pacific Northwest. She is the only active Division I player from the entire region. Other than a modest group of players from California, women's hockey is essentially non-existent on the entire West Coast. If a girl wants to lace up the skates in the Pacific Northwest, its going to be with the boys. Just getting involved with the sport takes some effort. "It was really random to be honest," Stephens said of picking up hockey. "No one in my family played. I don't think my parents had ever watched a hockey game."
Although Stephens began skating around the age of eight, she started her athletic career in more individual, artistic sports like gymnastics, ballet and swimming. But her competitive nature drew her to hockey. "I've always been a pretty competitive person. I really got along with the kids who played hockey," Stephens explained. "I grew up playing with guys and we had a lot of fun together. I was a tomboy. It was kind of odd for me to be in ballet and gymnastics in the first place. I was really competitive in most things that I did and in swimming I was at the point where in practice, all we did was laps and I was kind of bored. I liked the change. The thing I liked about hockey is that there is so much to the sport. There's skating and shooting and tons of dynamics to the sport."
Watching Kelly Stephens on the ice for just a few moments, it's very apparent that she is a tough player. She is an aggressive, speedy player that's never afraid to use her body. When you look at her hockey roots, you can't blame her.
When she picked up hockey at the age of eight, only a few girls were toying with the sport. "My first year when I was learning how to skate, there were like three or four other girls and my first team had a few girls. When it came to competitive hockey, like pee wees, it was just me."
Competitive hockey presented numerous challenges from the beginning, mostly trying to keep up with the physical play of the guys. "You accelerate right there basically because you're a girl. You grow up in an atmosphere where you are always proving yourself. You're always trying to fit in and be a part of the team and be considered one of the guys. I was always known as the workhorse because I would just work my butt off. My first two years in hockey I didn't even play. I basically was just a practice player my first couple of years."
She wasn't about to show a weakness or a slight sign of intimidation. Any glimpse might prove to the boys that she didn't deserve inclusion. "Hockey is obviously a physical sport and I was tested every single day. Growing up in guys' hockey, if I ever got hurt, it was always a knock on me. They would say, `oh, see, she can't play. She shouldn't be out here.' So mentality wise, growing up, it was always, I'm not going to get hurt, I'm not going to fall. Those are things that have stuck with me. "
The next stage of Stephens' hockey career was the boys' pee wee and bantam levels in Seattle, where she quickly developed into a strong player. Eventually, she took her skills to Calgary to play for the Olympic Oval team for a semester when she was 14 years old. It gave her a chance to get more ice time and develop her game. "It was a private school team that was basically composed of Junior A and Junior B guy players," Stephens said of her Canadian teammates. " It was the equivalent of Division III college teams here. We played probably 10 games a season but we had ice time two hours a day."
The schedule might appear a bit light in comparison to junior hockey in Minnesota, but to Stephens, it was a huge change. "In Seattle, there's only practices two days a week. That's the biggest difference between there and Minnesota. The ice here is unbelievable, you can get it whenever you want. There, you can spend $150 to get an hour on the ice. Growing up, I had practice two days a week and had games two days a week. That's the most you ever got on the ice. It's unlimited here. You can go outside and play. I never had a net in my backyard or anything because it rained all the time."
To work individually on her game, she was forced to head to the local ice rink, which there were few of in the Seattle area, and workout during an open skate. "To get ice time, I went to open skate to practice skating, you know, where everyone is holding hands and stuff. I would go out and work on stuff and try to avoid them."
Looking at her hockey upbringing, it's easy to see why Stephens is a self-described "aggressive and feisty" player. While racking up an impressive 58 goals and 76 assists in her three-year Golden Gopher career, she also led the team in penalty minutes each of her first two seasons. However, it's difficult for a player that grew up checking in boys' games and anticipating the big hit to completely forgot that mode when suiting up for a collegiate women's game, where checking is technically not allowed in the rule book.
In fact, Stephens feels that her game has changed to fit the collegiate women's style, but when she goes back home and plays pick-up hockey with her childhood friends, they are never afraid to point out that she has softened a bit with age. "I don't feel I'm that aggressive at all. Compared to the people I'm around, I stand out. But, in guys' hockey, I go home in the summertime and the guys make fun of me saying, `you're such a softy now Kell.'
Furthermore, her feisty style of play and occasional propensity for penalties has even enraged some of the local Minnesota hockey cronies that might not be as accustomed to Stephens' rugged fashion. "Here, fans and message boards are criticizing me for the way I play and saying `who is this girl...she's dirty," Stephens discussed. "So. I'm kind of caught in the middle. One place I'm terrible and the other place I'm not good enough either."
However, Stephens insists that she isn't even close to a dirty player and that many times, she may appear more physical than she really is because of her boys' hockey background and awareness of her surroundings on the ice. "A lot of the collisions that happen in open ice, someone's coming to hit me and they think I've got my head down. But I know they're coming so I brace myself and so they hit me and they fall. So, it looks like this huge thing like I laid someone out but it's just me bracing myself."
Stephens now finds herself more suited to the Olympic and collegiate finesse fashion of play and has seen her game evolve. "Playing now, I don't like to be laid out. I don't want to be all over the ice. I want to stand up and carry myself."
Despite the adaptation to the somewhat finesse play, her physical mentality hasn't left her and in some senses, gives her an edge. "I guess it's a kind of skill. I grew up being very aware of going to the boards, catching a pass and being aware of whose going to hit me," the 2002 All-WCHA player said. "Being somewhat of a smaller player out there, I think it helps being sturdy on my feet. It helps me in the corners and having puck possession and things like that. It's a skill I'd definitely rather have than not."
Back to the rainy and mild Pacific Northwest. After her semester in Calgary and time in private school boys' hockey in Seattle throughout high school, Stephens made another difficult hockey decision when she was invited to play for the Vancouver Griffins, a brand new women's hockey team in the start-up National Women's Hockey League prior to her senior year at Shorewood High School. Despite the invitation, there were several hurdles to clear. The team was located 150 miles north (two and a half hour drive) in British Columbia. Already having spent a year away from her family to attend school and play hockey in Calgary earlier, Stephens decided to make the commute to Vancouver at least three to four days a week. " We had practice three days a week. My mom came with me on the weekends for games. I basically got up went to school....got back from school...ate...drove up and practiced and got home by one in the morning."
Despite the arduous trips and hours wasted at the border patrol coming back into Washington on a daily basis, Stephens maintains that it was her decision. "I moved away from home when I was 14 and I decided, I had made this Griffins team and I had the option because I had family in Vancouver that I could live with. I just knew this was that last time that I could live at home and didn't want to have any regrets so I chose to live at home and do the drive. It wasn't forced upon me. It was a haul but it was my choice."
Looking down the road, Stephens hopes to continue playing with U.S. National Select Team during the collegiate offseason. After competing for the U.S. in the Four Nations Cup in Sweden this past November, she had a taste of international competition and hopes for a shot to play in the Olympics. Playing with 2002 Olympian linemates Krissy Wendell and Natalie Darwitz, Stephens might appear to be the forgotten forward on the Gophers' top unit but her numbers speak for themselves. Her exploits this season include career-bests in assists (40) and points (56) and she has firmed up her position as one of best American forwards in the country. In the next two years, there are several world tournaments and training camps that could put Stephens' in a position for the U.S. Olympic team in 2006. "It's something to strive for. Obviously, I'd be honored. I'm going to try and see how it goes," she explained. "It would be an awesome experience but its not an do-all end-all situation. I'm not a hockey freak that my entire life revolves around the rink. There's more to life and if I get the opportunity, I will be pumped. It will be the time of my life. Obviously its something I would love to be a part of."
All this from a girl who just wanted to play with the boys back in hockey-dormant Seattle. Stephens has proven that she can not only compete but has established herself as one of the nation's premier women's collegiate players.
Written by Director of Publications, Jeff Keiser. He welcomes comments at gophers@umn.edu.
