University of Minnesota Athletics
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Hockey
Meet the Newcomers: Addie Burton
7/2/2020 2:42:00 PM | Women's Hockey
Addie Burton joins the Golden Gophers as a freshman forward from Orono, Minn.
MINNEAPOLIS – The Golden Gopher women's hockey team welcomes eight newcomers to the team for the 2020-21 season, including Addie Burton, a left-handed freshman forward from Orono, Minn. Burton shares how she got into hockey, how she chose the University of Minnesota, what she plans to study, and more.
Gopher Sports: How did you first get into hockey?
Addie Burton: When I was growing up, I played both hockey and soccer. I swam a little bit for my country club team. We were big horseback riders, too. To start getting into hockey, I remember I was in second grade. Being in Minnesota we were around hockey so much and we were such athletic kids, that my mom asked if my sister and I wanted to start hockey. I remember sitting in the kitchen, and I looked at her and said, 'No, absolutely not. Don't sign me up for that. I'm not doing it.' Of course, she did sign me up, but it was okay because my sister had to test the waters first. My sister went and did it, and then I tried it and there was no going back. I just loved it. But, I think I pretended to be a little colder to it than I actually was because I have a problem not being right about things.
GS: What's your earliest hockey memory?
AB: I remember skating outside with one of my old coaches. We have pictures of it, which is probably why I remember it, but I'm wearing short sleeves and there's a gap where you can see my skin, and then my elbow pad that's way too small for my body, and then my glove. I'm also wearing hot pink Hollister sweatpants with knee pads over the sweatpants, and my helmet but my hair is all in my face -- but I have the biggest smile on my face. We're outside and it's clearly the middle of winter. I remember doing those outdoor skates.
GS: What was your high school hockey experience like?
AB: I played for Blake, my high school team, for six years. I started in seventh grade and went all the way through grade 12. It was amazing. I could not have asked for better groups of teammates to be a part of. I was fortunate to have the same coach throughout all those years. It was the best experience I could have asked for, especially in my younger years. In seventh grade, I went back and forth between varsity and JV. Then in eighth grade, two of my really good friends also joined the team, and we got to work with really good leaders and learn from them, and we got to feel that family bond, and then we were fortunate enough to win state that year at the Class A level. Those were just some of the most impactful things for hockey that have ever happened to me.
GS: Do you have a hockey role model?
AB: I have a few different ones. One of my friends, Sarah Chute, took me under her wing. She's my friend, and she really mentored me. She would drive me everywhere. She's also just brilliant, so I could look up to her not only academic-wise at Blake but also has a person. She's one of the best people you'll ever meet and a great hockey player. We also both did a singing group together, and she was the leader of that. I wanted to be just like her. Another big role model for me, more specific to hockey, would have to be Winny Brodt. Through Os and all she's done for hockey in general, she's one of the most selfless people you'll ever meet. She's another person that I really look up to.
GS: When did you realize that playing at the Division I level was a realistic possibility for you?
AB: I committed to the University of Minnesota in ninth grade, so probably two years before that, in seventh grade, I started thinking about it. Hockey is one of the sports where when you want to commit yourself, you really have to do that from a young age. The process was going so much earlier back then. It wasn't just me though, it was our whole group of 2001 birth years who grew up playing together. College coaches would coach at USA Hockey camps, so you would kind-of get introduced to them for the first time and start working through the process. Most of my friends were in eighth grade at that point, but I was in seventh grade because of my birthday. By then, I kind-of knew, but in eighth grade, it took almost a whole year of weighing options and getting a sense of what was important to me. It's crazy to talk about all of this because I got to see everyone else go through it this year.
GS: Were you a Gopher fan when you were growing up?
AB: Yes. I grew up coming to all of the games, but I wouldn't necessarily say that I was a diehard Gopher fan like some of the girls coming to the team were. I actually think I came to more games in middle school and high school than I did when I was little.
GS: How did you choose the University of Minnesota?
AB: I'm so thankful that I've become more and more excited to come to the University of Minnesota after committing so long ago. The biggest part of that for me, and the reason I chose the Gophers, is that I've always wanted to be a good person. Everything else comes second to me. You treat others with respect and be genuine and care for others. Those are the pillars that I try to strive for every day. When I came to campus, I was met by all of the coaches, and they all took the time to take me everywhere. They were so considerate. Even if one of them had to leave for a brief moment, they would say where they were going. It was very well thought out, and they were very considerate. Then second of all, we walked down into the locker room and they had the core values written on the wall and those specific words and the way they described them felt right and really resonated with me. All day, going around campus, everything felt right. When I started thinking about it from a second person point of view, and looking at what is important to me, the academic opportunities are outstanding and the hockey program is amazing. Everything fell into place. I am really a homebody, so it just worked out really, really well. That's how I ended up choosing the Gophers.
GS: What's your relationship with your family like?
AB: We're a really close family. We're not only close between the five of us, but we're really close with my mom's side of the family, all of her siblings and my cousins and my grandpa. If you can picture a consistent group of like 13 people who will get together and make fun of each other, mess around with each other, and laugh, that's kind of what it's like. We have some chefs in the family, and I benefit a lot from that. Our family functions are always based around food and talking with one another. My family at home is my mom and dad and my two sisters. My dad played hockey a little bit growing up, but he kind-of put sports to the side so he could work growing up. My mom was a Division I swimmer at Texas, so she is probably where I got the athletic gene. She is super capable and outgoing, so again, a lot of my personality traits I get from both of them -- but hockey, we don't know which one of them that came from. My sister Lucy goes to Yale and plays hockey there. She will be a senior this year as I'm a freshman. My other sister Ellie is not as athletic. She's the oldest, and we didn't quite get into that with her. She just graduated from Colgate and is going to work on taking her MCAT.
GS: Do you know what you want to major in or what career path you hope to pursue?
AB: I plan to major in Biomedical Engineering. I'm in the College of Science and Engineering. I'm taking classes right now, and they're all going super well. I love them already. I'm really interested in biomedical engineering because I love sciences and the human body, but I don't necessarily want to focus on cellular development or becoming a doctor. Once I took my first physics course in my junior year, I just knew I really liked it. I really like the side of physics that isn't conceptual. I like diving into the numbers, so things like making pacemakers or insulin pumps, or how insulin pumps could correspond to data on their phone for diabetic patients, stuff like that. I just love doing that and the idea of being able to make a device that could save someone's life or help them have a better quality of life. Throughout the next four years, I'll learn more and more about it and learn about more paths I could take. That feels right to me.
GS: What's one part of your game that you're confident in and one part you want to work on more?
AB: I would say one part of my game that I'm really confident in is being a play-maker. I think I make all of my teammates better when I play with them. I see the ice really well, and I think I can make the right decision a lot of the time. I can thread passes through little lanes and be shifty with getting the puck to other people. Also, being a really positive voice on the ice and encouraging teammates is something I pride myself on. Areas to work on, there are plenty, but I would have to say getting faster -- all of the time, but especially as I transition from high school hockey to Division I, the WCHA, and the Gophers. Physically being able to move faster up and down the ice, faster turns, again, awareness and comprehension and vision of the game, even though I do see that as one of my strong suits now, absolutely that's going to need to improve because everyone is faster to get on you. All of your time and space goes away. That's probably the biggest area that I'm always focusing on improving.
GS: What has your USA Hockey experience been like? How has it shaped you as a player?
AB: My USA Hockey experience has been kind of a long journey. The only experience I've had is trying out for the U-18 Team with the 2001 birth year. Last year, I was not eligible as a senior, but freshman, sophomore, and junior year, all summer has been focused on trying to make the U-18 Team. The process is pretty long, especially in Minnesota. I was fortunate enough to make it to Maine, the 66 camp, my sophomore and junior year with the 2001 group. My junior year, I was fortunate enough to make it to Lake Placid and make the team that went and played in Calgary. It couldn't have been a better experience. It was absolutely amazing and the best hockey I've played in my whole life. It was really, really special to put on the jersey and be a part of that. I didn't have the opportunity to go to Japan when them that year, but even just being able to play with them once was really, really cool and special. I learned so much, even from that one experience. You see why everyone at that level and all of the higher levels are there. They're the best leaders, they work hard all of the time, and they're competitive. You can see that firsthand. It was really motivating and cool to be a part of.
GS: What was it like being a senior this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
AB: Being a senior this year was definitely something that nobody expected, but I still got a lot out of my experience, thankfully, thanks to the Blake community. The school really does have the best sense of community and support. Once it transitioned to online school, everyone went out of their way to make sure that not only the seniors but everyone at the school was safe and comfortable and doing well. The teachers were really respectful in that they didn't barge into the students' lives. It was a weird time. No one really know what anyone was going through, if their parents were working or people were watching younger siblings, but they were just really respectful and understanding. Our teachers put in so much work to transfer all of their curriculum online. I could not have been more thankful for all of that. In all of my classes, I still got so much out of them. Even already, at the U, we've been doing very similar things that build on it. If we didn't have such committed faculty, it may not have been the same. And then, with all of the senior traditions, it was pretty tough -- not as much for me personally, but was tough for me was seeing everyone else go through it. I'm not a super emotional person, and I wasn't as attached to some of those traditions as other people were. I was more attached to getting to spend time with the people in my class. That was more difficult for me, and seeing all of my friends and everyone in our class so disappointed by missing those traditions. Our class really did do a great job of picking each other up and saying it's all the more reason for us to come together in the future at alumni events and reunions. I was thinking about it the other way. High school is kind-of over now, and everyone is at peace with it. That's just how everything went, but everyone around us did everything and more that they could for us. They drove our diplomas to our houses and did a drive-through graduation for us. They gave us all of the opportunities in the world to see them via FaceTime or Zoom. They gave us Class of 2020 graduation present boxes. They did lots of stuff that showed how much they care and how much we mean to them, which meant so much to us. I still thought it was a great end of the year. It was obviously different, but it turned into our graduation month instead of one day.
###
Gopher Sports: How did you first get into hockey?
Addie Burton: When I was growing up, I played both hockey and soccer. I swam a little bit for my country club team. We were big horseback riders, too. To start getting into hockey, I remember I was in second grade. Being in Minnesota we were around hockey so much and we were such athletic kids, that my mom asked if my sister and I wanted to start hockey. I remember sitting in the kitchen, and I looked at her and said, 'No, absolutely not. Don't sign me up for that. I'm not doing it.' Of course, she did sign me up, but it was okay because my sister had to test the waters first. My sister went and did it, and then I tried it and there was no going back. I just loved it. But, I think I pretended to be a little colder to it than I actually was because I have a problem not being right about things.
GS: What's your earliest hockey memory?
AB: I remember skating outside with one of my old coaches. We have pictures of it, which is probably why I remember it, but I'm wearing short sleeves and there's a gap where you can see my skin, and then my elbow pad that's way too small for my body, and then my glove. I'm also wearing hot pink Hollister sweatpants with knee pads over the sweatpants, and my helmet but my hair is all in my face -- but I have the biggest smile on my face. We're outside and it's clearly the middle of winter. I remember doing those outdoor skates.
GS: What was your high school hockey experience like?
AB: I played for Blake, my high school team, for six years. I started in seventh grade and went all the way through grade 12. It was amazing. I could not have asked for better groups of teammates to be a part of. I was fortunate to have the same coach throughout all those years. It was the best experience I could have asked for, especially in my younger years. In seventh grade, I went back and forth between varsity and JV. Then in eighth grade, two of my really good friends also joined the team, and we got to work with really good leaders and learn from them, and we got to feel that family bond, and then we were fortunate enough to win state that year at the Class A level. Those were just some of the most impactful things for hockey that have ever happened to me.
GS: Do you have a hockey role model?
AB: I have a few different ones. One of my friends, Sarah Chute, took me under her wing. She's my friend, and she really mentored me. She would drive me everywhere. She's also just brilliant, so I could look up to her not only academic-wise at Blake but also has a person. She's one of the best people you'll ever meet and a great hockey player. We also both did a singing group together, and she was the leader of that. I wanted to be just like her. Another big role model for me, more specific to hockey, would have to be Winny Brodt. Through Os and all she's done for hockey in general, she's one of the most selfless people you'll ever meet. She's another person that I really look up to.
GS: When did you realize that playing at the Division I level was a realistic possibility for you?
AB: I committed to the University of Minnesota in ninth grade, so probably two years before that, in seventh grade, I started thinking about it. Hockey is one of the sports where when you want to commit yourself, you really have to do that from a young age. The process was going so much earlier back then. It wasn't just me though, it was our whole group of 2001 birth years who grew up playing together. College coaches would coach at USA Hockey camps, so you would kind-of get introduced to them for the first time and start working through the process. Most of my friends were in eighth grade at that point, but I was in seventh grade because of my birthday. By then, I kind-of knew, but in eighth grade, it took almost a whole year of weighing options and getting a sense of what was important to me. It's crazy to talk about all of this because I got to see everyone else go through it this year.
GS: Were you a Gopher fan when you were growing up?
AB: Yes. I grew up coming to all of the games, but I wouldn't necessarily say that I was a diehard Gopher fan like some of the girls coming to the team were. I actually think I came to more games in middle school and high school than I did when I was little.
GS: How did you choose the University of Minnesota?
AB: I'm so thankful that I've become more and more excited to come to the University of Minnesota after committing so long ago. The biggest part of that for me, and the reason I chose the Gophers, is that I've always wanted to be a good person. Everything else comes second to me. You treat others with respect and be genuine and care for others. Those are the pillars that I try to strive for every day. When I came to campus, I was met by all of the coaches, and they all took the time to take me everywhere. They were so considerate. Even if one of them had to leave for a brief moment, they would say where they were going. It was very well thought out, and they were very considerate. Then second of all, we walked down into the locker room and they had the core values written on the wall and those specific words and the way they described them felt right and really resonated with me. All day, going around campus, everything felt right. When I started thinking about it from a second person point of view, and looking at what is important to me, the academic opportunities are outstanding and the hockey program is amazing. Everything fell into place. I am really a homebody, so it just worked out really, really well. That's how I ended up choosing the Gophers.
GS: What's your relationship with your family like?
AB: We're a really close family. We're not only close between the five of us, but we're really close with my mom's side of the family, all of her siblings and my cousins and my grandpa. If you can picture a consistent group of like 13 people who will get together and make fun of each other, mess around with each other, and laugh, that's kind of what it's like. We have some chefs in the family, and I benefit a lot from that. Our family functions are always based around food and talking with one another. My family at home is my mom and dad and my two sisters. My dad played hockey a little bit growing up, but he kind-of put sports to the side so he could work growing up. My mom was a Division I swimmer at Texas, so she is probably where I got the athletic gene. She is super capable and outgoing, so again, a lot of my personality traits I get from both of them -- but hockey, we don't know which one of them that came from. My sister Lucy goes to Yale and plays hockey there. She will be a senior this year as I'm a freshman. My other sister Ellie is not as athletic. She's the oldest, and we didn't quite get into that with her. She just graduated from Colgate and is going to work on taking her MCAT.
GS: Do you know what you want to major in or what career path you hope to pursue?
AB: I plan to major in Biomedical Engineering. I'm in the College of Science and Engineering. I'm taking classes right now, and they're all going super well. I love them already. I'm really interested in biomedical engineering because I love sciences and the human body, but I don't necessarily want to focus on cellular development or becoming a doctor. Once I took my first physics course in my junior year, I just knew I really liked it. I really like the side of physics that isn't conceptual. I like diving into the numbers, so things like making pacemakers or insulin pumps, or how insulin pumps could correspond to data on their phone for diabetic patients, stuff like that. I just love doing that and the idea of being able to make a device that could save someone's life or help them have a better quality of life. Throughout the next four years, I'll learn more and more about it and learn about more paths I could take. That feels right to me.
GS: What's one part of your game that you're confident in and one part you want to work on more?
AB: I would say one part of my game that I'm really confident in is being a play-maker. I think I make all of my teammates better when I play with them. I see the ice really well, and I think I can make the right decision a lot of the time. I can thread passes through little lanes and be shifty with getting the puck to other people. Also, being a really positive voice on the ice and encouraging teammates is something I pride myself on. Areas to work on, there are plenty, but I would have to say getting faster -- all of the time, but especially as I transition from high school hockey to Division I, the WCHA, and the Gophers. Physically being able to move faster up and down the ice, faster turns, again, awareness and comprehension and vision of the game, even though I do see that as one of my strong suits now, absolutely that's going to need to improve because everyone is faster to get on you. All of your time and space goes away. That's probably the biggest area that I'm always focusing on improving.
GS: What has your USA Hockey experience been like? How has it shaped you as a player?
AB: My USA Hockey experience has been kind of a long journey. The only experience I've had is trying out for the U-18 Team with the 2001 birth year. Last year, I was not eligible as a senior, but freshman, sophomore, and junior year, all summer has been focused on trying to make the U-18 Team. The process is pretty long, especially in Minnesota. I was fortunate enough to make it to Maine, the 66 camp, my sophomore and junior year with the 2001 group. My junior year, I was fortunate enough to make it to Lake Placid and make the team that went and played in Calgary. It couldn't have been a better experience. It was absolutely amazing and the best hockey I've played in my whole life. It was really, really special to put on the jersey and be a part of that. I didn't have the opportunity to go to Japan when them that year, but even just being able to play with them once was really, really cool and special. I learned so much, even from that one experience. You see why everyone at that level and all of the higher levels are there. They're the best leaders, they work hard all of the time, and they're competitive. You can see that firsthand. It was really motivating and cool to be a part of.
GS: What was it like being a senior this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
AB: Being a senior this year was definitely something that nobody expected, but I still got a lot out of my experience, thankfully, thanks to the Blake community. The school really does have the best sense of community and support. Once it transitioned to online school, everyone went out of their way to make sure that not only the seniors but everyone at the school was safe and comfortable and doing well. The teachers were really respectful in that they didn't barge into the students' lives. It was a weird time. No one really know what anyone was going through, if their parents were working or people were watching younger siblings, but they were just really respectful and understanding. Our teachers put in so much work to transfer all of their curriculum online. I could not have been more thankful for all of that. In all of my classes, I still got so much out of them. Even already, at the U, we've been doing very similar things that build on it. If we didn't have such committed faculty, it may not have been the same. And then, with all of the senior traditions, it was pretty tough -- not as much for me personally, but was tough for me was seeing everyone else go through it. I'm not a super emotional person, and I wasn't as attached to some of those traditions as other people were. I was more attached to getting to spend time with the people in my class. That was more difficult for me, and seeing all of my friends and everyone in our class so disappointed by missing those traditions. Our class really did do a great job of picking each other up and saying it's all the more reason for us to come together in the future at alumni events and reunions. I was thinking about it the other way. High school is kind-of over now, and everyone is at peace with it. That's just how everything went, but everyone around us did everything and more that they could for us. They drove our diplomas to our houses and did a drive-through graduation for us. They gave us all of the opportunities in the world to see them via FaceTime or Zoom. They gave us Class of 2020 graduation present boxes. They did lots of stuff that showed how much they care and how much we mean to them, which meant so much to us. I still thought it was a great end of the year. It was obviously different, but it turned into our graduation month instead of one day.
###
Follow Women's Hockey
Women's Hockey Tickets
Experience the excitement and tradition connecting generations of Gopher fans! Create memories for a lifetime with your friends and family while you root for your Golden Gophers. Get Tickets
Support Women's Hockey
Support the University of Minnesota Women's Hockey program. Your support helps our student-athletes succeed athletically, academically, and socially. It takes just seconds to make a monthly or one-time donation. Thank you for your support! Give Now
Highlights: Gophers 2, Wisconsin 7
Saturday, November 01
Highlights: Gophers 5, Wisconsin 1
Friday, October 31
Highlights: Gophers 3, UMD 2
Saturday, October 25
Highlights: Gophers 4, UMD 0
Friday, October 24