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Meet the Newcomers: Audrey Wethington
7/17/2020 3:52:00 PM | Women's Hockey
Audrey Wethington joins the Gophers as a freshman forward from Edina, Minn., and the Blake School.
MINNEAPOLIS – The Golden Gopher women's hockey team welcomes eight newcomers to the team for the 2020-21 season, including Audrey Wethington, a right-handed freshman forward from Edina, Minn., and the Blake School. Wethington shares what it was like growing up in a hockey family, how she chose the University of Minnesota, why she hopes to pursue a career in the medical field, and more.
Gopher Sports: How did you first get into hockey?
Audrey Wethington: I first got into hockey because my older sister Madeline played. I always wanted to play with her. I grew up playing all different sports with her actually, so it was just kind of a thing that I did. Also, watching my two aunts play at the University of Minnesota was super inspiring and made me want to get to that level. My family is a big hockey family, so that kind of helped me and pushed me into the hockey world.
GS: What is your earliest hockey memory?
AW: During my youth hockey years, my aunts would sometimes come to my games, and whenever they came it was always so special. I would always tell my teammates that they played for the Gophers, or I'd always try to show how cool they were to my friends. Having them come to my games and me going to their games was super special.
GS: Do you have a hockey role model or someone you looked up to or tried to model your game off?
AW: I would obviously say my aunt Winny (Brodt) has played a large role. She's been a trailblazer for women's hockey in Minnesota. She's always been there for me and has taught me a lot of great things about hockey, but also just about life lessons. And then I would also say Lee Stecklein and Dani Cameranesi would be also two other people I've looked up to. They're great hockey players. Obviously they've both played in the Olympics, so that's been cool for me to watch them grow up playing – especially Dani Cameranesi, I watched her play at Blake, and watched her play for the Gophers, and then watched her on the world stage, which has been really cool.
GS: What has your USA Hockey experience been like?
AW: It's always a great experience being able to play on a national level, especially winning gold this year was definitely one of my biggest highlights of my hockey career, and getting to play with Abbey Murphy and Maggie Nicholson, two of my future Gopher teammates. That was so much fun.
GS: When did you realize that playing at the Division I level was like a realistic possibility?
AW: I would definitely say I've always wanted to play Division I. Seeing all these people, I knew I had to work for it 100%, so I was always pushing to get to the highest level I possibly could. I don't know when I would say it became a reality, but probably when I started talking about college coaches. That's probably when it really sunk in that I could actually go Division I. I think it's always been in the back of my mind, knowing I had to train for it and I couldn't just sit around and be a regular person in some sense – I couldn't just hang out with my friends on the weekends, I had to go play hockey, that kind of stuff. What separated me from being a lower-ranked athlete, I would say that had to sink in pretty early.
GS: How to Choose the University of Minnesota?
AW: It's always obviously been my dream school. It's a very competitive program to be a part of, so I always wanted to be a part of it. I knew I had to work really hard because watching all these girls, I knew I had to keep improving. They're great skaters, passers, shooters, they had all the skills. That's always been a dream of mine. Watching my aunts and seeing the tradition of excellence at the university was always something that I wanted to be a part of. Once I started talking to coaches, I knew I wanted to go to the University of Minnesota. To be a part of the program and a part of the university was going to be something super special and something I wanted to be a part of.
GS: What's your family like?
AW: My family, I would say busy is probably the biggest word. There's always something going on from my parents driving my little sister to her U12 hockey practices to Jackie, who is high school, and then Madeline going to her college games. My parents have kids from the developmental stage to the collegiate stage, so they see it all. My grandparents have always been super supportive of me. They went to all of Maddie's home games last year, which was super special, and all my high school games as well, so they've always been there for me, and my parents as much as they could get there too, obviously they sometimes had possibly three games in one night, so you have to do whatever works. But yeah, definitely we all push each other and we're all super supportive of each other. Madeline went to some of Adeline's U12 games whenever she could, which is super cool and I know that Adeline really loved that. We try support each other as much as we can and push each other. We all train together, shooting pucks at our house or our cabin, working out together, doing all that kind of stuff. I think that's been super helpful in our training, just being able to push each other to the next level.
GS: How would you describe your relationship with your sisters?
AW: We're all super competitive with each other in all the things. Whenever we're playing a family game together, we know someone will end up being upset at the end of it. So I think that that's what I characterize, competitive but then also loving, because we all want to see the best from each other. I think that's where the competitive side comes up for all of us. We all love each other. We want to see the best out of everyone, so I think we all have a really cool relationship with our sisters. I mean, the age difference from a sixth grader to going to be a sophomore in college for Maddie, it's a big age gap but we try our best to connect with one another.
GS: What other sports did you play growing up, and what was it about hockey that made you want to focus on it the most?
AW: Yeah, so I played soccer. I was actually pretty good at soccer, especially when I was little. I never really did traveling soccer, but I've got a funny story about it. My Grandma Brodt would always come to my soccer games. I was probably in second grade, and she would give me $1 for every goal I scored. I would score a goal, and then I'd run past her with one finger up. Then I'd score three goals and I'd run past her and make sure she was counting my goals. I've always had that competitive nature in me in whatever sport I played. I played high school soccer up until ninth grade, but then it just got too busy with hockey. I realized I kind of wanted to make a bigger step in hockey, so I had to quit soccer. Definitely, if I could have, I would have stuck with it. I stuck with golf, which I'm super happy I did. I've been playing golf ever since I started in hockey. That's been really fun. I've been able to play with my mom, she played college golf at St. Cloud State, so she's really enjoyed watching Madeline and I and our others sisters grow in the sport. I enjoy being able to play golf with my grandma and grandpa and my aunts, too. You can't really play hockey or soccer with your grandparents although my grandparents do play hockey. I think actually have played hockey with my grandma, last year in one of her rec leagues. But, being able to play golf with all of them is super cool. Madeline and I also played a little bit of lacrosse, but we quit that pretty quickly because I would lead the team in penalties. We realized that wasn't going to be our sport. We juggled. We've done a lot of different things. My family has always been an active family. We're not going to be sitting around doing nothing. We're always doing anything we can to stay active.
GS: How would you describe your high school hockey experience?
AW: My high school hockey experience, I loved it. I grew a lot as a player, and I got to play with a lot of the best players in the state, so that was super cool. Our coaching was great, too. There was a lot of discipline, and it taught me that I had to work hard to achieve things. I think I already knew that already, but just kind-of reinforced it always. I think it's pretty easy to just sit back and, especially at the high school level, just to sit back and expect things, but there was always the expectation that you had to earn things. Winning state my freshman year was a great experience. We had a really cool team. I think that year we had around nine or 10 college commits between Division I and Division III, which was pretty special. We all had that same goal that was unique from other high school teams. We all had the same goal of getting better and also trying to win a state championship, so that was pretty cool, that dynamic. Also having younger players play with older players – a lot of high schools usually take older players, but at Blake, they seem to usually include eighth graders and some seventh graders. Madeline made the team as a seventh grader. I think that dynamic was also really special. I would definitely not take anything back from those years.
GS: Do you know what you want to major in or what career path you want to pursue?
AW: My grandpa was a doctor and my two cousins are becoming doctors. One is in residency and one is in medical school, so I think that's the path I want to take. I'm going to be in the School of Biological Sciences, and I am going to major in Biology as of now. Then possibly, hopefully, go to med school and do something in the medical field.
GS: What is it about medicine that drew you into that field?
AW: What draws me in is that you're always having perform. It's performance-based. So, for example, you're having pressure to not mess up during surgery. That kind of performance draws me to this that kind of field, just like hockey, you're always trying to perform your best. It's hands-on, which I like. I don't want to sit at a computer. My lifestyle has always been super active, so that's something that's super compelling about this field. My grandpa has always been preaching about medicine. He said that he never regret going into the field.
GS: What's one part of your game that you're really confident in and one part of your game that you're looking forward to working on this year?
AW: One part of my game that I think I'm confident in is just my defensive abilities. I'm defensive-minded, so my hockey IQ has to be there. I'm super aggressive, especially in the corners in battles and stuff. That ties in with competitiveness – I'm super competitive. I work hard, I think that helps – in order to be competitive, you have to work hard. Then something I need to work on, probably I would say my speed and my shot, with accuracy and quickness. I know that as you get to the higher levels, you're not going to have as much time to shoot whereas in high school, you kind of have that liberty to take your time and pick your corner. But I think that something I'm going to need to work on is just being able to react faster. As you get to the higher level, the game gets a lot faster.
GS: What was it like for you being a senior this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
AW: Yeah, so obviously there were a lot of cancelations, which was really sad. I think the biggest disappointment for me was not having my senior golf season because I was really looking forward to that. It was really tough to deal with because in order to go to state in golf last year, I had to do an overtime around with another girl because we ended up with the same exact score over the two days. We had to go into overtime, and I ended up losing after three holes. That was tough. That really drove me going into my senior season because I really wanted to get to State. Not being able to have it was super disappointing. Obviously, I can still golf and it's not always going to happen your way, but that's been tough to deal with. I think that there have been a lot of good things to come out of it all though. Being able to be with Maddie and my younger sisters and my family more has been super nice. Being able to look forward to college has been nice, too. Doing online school your last semester of high school, you're not really very motivated. Obviously, I did it, but you just want to get going. I think it's been weird for a lot of seniors. It's a lot of uncertainty, but I think I've been rolling with it because I can't do anything about it. You just have to move on and do other things to distract yourself because there's not much to do when you're in quarantine. Looking forward to college has been super nice.
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Gopher Sports: How did you first get into hockey?
Audrey Wethington: I first got into hockey because my older sister Madeline played. I always wanted to play with her. I grew up playing all different sports with her actually, so it was just kind of a thing that I did. Also, watching my two aunts play at the University of Minnesota was super inspiring and made me want to get to that level. My family is a big hockey family, so that kind of helped me and pushed me into the hockey world.
GS: What is your earliest hockey memory?
AW: During my youth hockey years, my aunts would sometimes come to my games, and whenever they came it was always so special. I would always tell my teammates that they played for the Gophers, or I'd always try to show how cool they were to my friends. Having them come to my games and me going to their games was super special.
GS: Do you have a hockey role model or someone you looked up to or tried to model your game off?
AW: I would obviously say my aunt Winny (Brodt) has played a large role. She's been a trailblazer for women's hockey in Minnesota. She's always been there for me and has taught me a lot of great things about hockey, but also just about life lessons. And then I would also say Lee Stecklein and Dani Cameranesi would be also two other people I've looked up to. They're great hockey players. Obviously they've both played in the Olympics, so that's been cool for me to watch them grow up playing – especially Dani Cameranesi, I watched her play at Blake, and watched her play for the Gophers, and then watched her on the world stage, which has been really cool.
GS: What has your USA Hockey experience been like?
AW: It's always a great experience being able to play on a national level, especially winning gold this year was definitely one of my biggest highlights of my hockey career, and getting to play with Abbey Murphy and Maggie Nicholson, two of my future Gopher teammates. That was so much fun.
GS: When did you realize that playing at the Division I level was like a realistic possibility?
AW: I would definitely say I've always wanted to play Division I. Seeing all these people, I knew I had to work for it 100%, so I was always pushing to get to the highest level I possibly could. I don't know when I would say it became a reality, but probably when I started talking about college coaches. That's probably when it really sunk in that I could actually go Division I. I think it's always been in the back of my mind, knowing I had to train for it and I couldn't just sit around and be a regular person in some sense – I couldn't just hang out with my friends on the weekends, I had to go play hockey, that kind of stuff. What separated me from being a lower-ranked athlete, I would say that had to sink in pretty early.
GS: How to Choose the University of Minnesota?
AW: It's always obviously been my dream school. It's a very competitive program to be a part of, so I always wanted to be a part of it. I knew I had to work really hard because watching all these girls, I knew I had to keep improving. They're great skaters, passers, shooters, they had all the skills. That's always been a dream of mine. Watching my aunts and seeing the tradition of excellence at the university was always something that I wanted to be a part of. Once I started talking to coaches, I knew I wanted to go to the University of Minnesota. To be a part of the program and a part of the university was going to be something super special and something I wanted to be a part of.
GS: What's your family like?
AW: My family, I would say busy is probably the biggest word. There's always something going on from my parents driving my little sister to her U12 hockey practices to Jackie, who is high school, and then Madeline going to her college games. My parents have kids from the developmental stage to the collegiate stage, so they see it all. My grandparents have always been super supportive of me. They went to all of Maddie's home games last year, which was super special, and all my high school games as well, so they've always been there for me, and my parents as much as they could get there too, obviously they sometimes had possibly three games in one night, so you have to do whatever works. But yeah, definitely we all push each other and we're all super supportive of each other. Madeline went to some of Adeline's U12 games whenever she could, which is super cool and I know that Adeline really loved that. We try support each other as much as we can and push each other. We all train together, shooting pucks at our house or our cabin, working out together, doing all that kind of stuff. I think that's been super helpful in our training, just being able to push each other to the next level.
GS: How would you describe your relationship with your sisters?
AW: We're all super competitive with each other in all the things. Whenever we're playing a family game together, we know someone will end up being upset at the end of it. So I think that that's what I characterize, competitive but then also loving, because we all want to see the best from each other. I think that's where the competitive side comes up for all of us. We all love each other. We want to see the best out of everyone, so I think we all have a really cool relationship with our sisters. I mean, the age difference from a sixth grader to going to be a sophomore in college for Maddie, it's a big age gap but we try our best to connect with one another.
GS: What other sports did you play growing up, and what was it about hockey that made you want to focus on it the most?
AW: Yeah, so I played soccer. I was actually pretty good at soccer, especially when I was little. I never really did traveling soccer, but I've got a funny story about it. My Grandma Brodt would always come to my soccer games. I was probably in second grade, and she would give me $1 for every goal I scored. I would score a goal, and then I'd run past her with one finger up. Then I'd score three goals and I'd run past her and make sure she was counting my goals. I've always had that competitive nature in me in whatever sport I played. I played high school soccer up until ninth grade, but then it just got too busy with hockey. I realized I kind of wanted to make a bigger step in hockey, so I had to quit soccer. Definitely, if I could have, I would have stuck with it. I stuck with golf, which I'm super happy I did. I've been playing golf ever since I started in hockey. That's been really fun. I've been able to play with my mom, she played college golf at St. Cloud State, so she's really enjoyed watching Madeline and I and our others sisters grow in the sport. I enjoy being able to play golf with my grandma and grandpa and my aunts, too. You can't really play hockey or soccer with your grandparents although my grandparents do play hockey. I think actually have played hockey with my grandma, last year in one of her rec leagues. But, being able to play golf with all of them is super cool. Madeline and I also played a little bit of lacrosse, but we quit that pretty quickly because I would lead the team in penalties. We realized that wasn't going to be our sport. We juggled. We've done a lot of different things. My family has always been an active family. We're not going to be sitting around doing nothing. We're always doing anything we can to stay active.
GS: How would you describe your high school hockey experience?
AW: My high school hockey experience, I loved it. I grew a lot as a player, and I got to play with a lot of the best players in the state, so that was super cool. Our coaching was great, too. There was a lot of discipline, and it taught me that I had to work hard to achieve things. I think I already knew that already, but just kind-of reinforced it always. I think it's pretty easy to just sit back and, especially at the high school level, just to sit back and expect things, but there was always the expectation that you had to earn things. Winning state my freshman year was a great experience. We had a really cool team. I think that year we had around nine or 10 college commits between Division I and Division III, which was pretty special. We all had that same goal that was unique from other high school teams. We all had the same goal of getting better and also trying to win a state championship, so that was pretty cool, that dynamic. Also having younger players play with older players – a lot of high schools usually take older players, but at Blake, they seem to usually include eighth graders and some seventh graders. Madeline made the team as a seventh grader. I think that dynamic was also really special. I would definitely not take anything back from those years.
GS: Do you know what you want to major in or what career path you want to pursue?
AW: My grandpa was a doctor and my two cousins are becoming doctors. One is in residency and one is in medical school, so I think that's the path I want to take. I'm going to be in the School of Biological Sciences, and I am going to major in Biology as of now. Then possibly, hopefully, go to med school and do something in the medical field.
GS: What is it about medicine that drew you into that field?
AW: What draws me in is that you're always having perform. It's performance-based. So, for example, you're having pressure to not mess up during surgery. That kind of performance draws me to this that kind of field, just like hockey, you're always trying to perform your best. It's hands-on, which I like. I don't want to sit at a computer. My lifestyle has always been super active, so that's something that's super compelling about this field. My grandpa has always been preaching about medicine. He said that he never regret going into the field.
GS: What's one part of your game that you're really confident in and one part of your game that you're looking forward to working on this year?
AW: One part of my game that I think I'm confident in is just my defensive abilities. I'm defensive-minded, so my hockey IQ has to be there. I'm super aggressive, especially in the corners in battles and stuff. That ties in with competitiveness – I'm super competitive. I work hard, I think that helps – in order to be competitive, you have to work hard. Then something I need to work on, probably I would say my speed and my shot, with accuracy and quickness. I know that as you get to the higher levels, you're not going to have as much time to shoot whereas in high school, you kind of have that liberty to take your time and pick your corner. But I think that something I'm going to need to work on is just being able to react faster. As you get to the higher level, the game gets a lot faster.
GS: What was it like for you being a senior this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
AW: Yeah, so obviously there were a lot of cancelations, which was really sad. I think the biggest disappointment for me was not having my senior golf season because I was really looking forward to that. It was really tough to deal with because in order to go to state in golf last year, I had to do an overtime around with another girl because we ended up with the same exact score over the two days. We had to go into overtime, and I ended up losing after three holes. That was tough. That really drove me going into my senior season because I really wanted to get to State. Not being able to have it was super disappointing. Obviously, I can still golf and it's not always going to happen your way, but that's been tough to deal with. I think that there have been a lot of good things to come out of it all though. Being able to be with Maddie and my younger sisters and my family more has been super nice. Being able to look forward to college has been nice, too. Doing online school your last semester of high school, you're not really very motivated. Obviously, I did it, but you just want to get going. I think it's been weird for a lot of seniors. It's a lot of uncertainty, but I think I've been rolling with it because I can't do anything about it. You just have to move on and do other things to distract yourself because there's not much to do when you're in quarantine. Looking forward to college has been super nice.
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