Team USA Women’s Sled Hockey Wraps Up Tryouts
For U.S. national women’s sled hockey team coach Rose Misiewicz, the biggest story of this year’s tryout wasn’t any one player. It was the gap that’s disappeared between them.
“What’s really exciting and impressive this year is the skill level that we have out here,” she said Saturday during the third and final day of tryouts at Verona Ice Arena in Verona, Wis.
In the past, Misiewicz said, there was more of a disparity between skill levels. But that gap isn’t there anymore.
“You can put anyone out with anyone, and that’s really fun,” Misiewicz says.
She would know. Misiewicz has coached the program in some capacity since around 2010, back when the team struggled just to field 12 skaters and a goalie for an event in Milwaukee. Sixteen years later, watching more than 30 athletes fight for a handful of roster spots in Verona, the growth speaks for itself.
A Program Growing Up
This year’s field was a much larger one than in past tryouts. Misiewicz sees it as a sign of where the sport is headed.
“It’s really exciting to see the amounts and the talent at the youth level for the women’s sports,” she said, pointing to the strong turnout the program already sees at its summer camps, which include players as young as 10 years old.
Growing that pipeline now, she said, pays off later at the international level.
“It’s going to be hard, hard decisions here that we have to make tonight or in the next couple of days, which is really exciting for the league,” Misiewicz said. “That’s what the program needs.”
With a field this competitive, Misiewicz said the final roster won’t come down to skill alone.
“It’s skill, it’s chemistry, it’s attitude, it’s work ethic,” she said. “Each player that we end up selecting for the team will have a role on that team. It’s not just one thing.”
She added that the growth wasn’t limited to a handful of standouts. Looking at the non-returning players specifically, she said “the difference from Thursday to today: every single one of them got to a different level here in the past three days.”
Method Behind the Shuffle
The jersey and position changes between Thursday and Friday’s games, it turns out, were by design. Misiewicz said the first scrimmage didn’t play out as competitively as the staff had hoped, prompting some of the reshuffling. But the bigger reason was evaluation.
“This is an opportunity to try that chemistry between different players and different lines,” Misiewicz said.
Moving players around let the staff test potential roster fits directly.
“Maybe this will be a better position, or a different line, some other teammates to play with,” she said. “We’ve seen some stuff on the ice during practices — it’s like, this person really excels here.”
With one more team camp and two days of practice remaining before the team heads to the Nov. 24-29 Women’s Para Ice Hockey World Championship in Australia, Misiewicz said this week doubled as an early trial run for those same kinds of lineup decisions.
What Comes Next
Misiewicz said the team expects to notify players and announce the roster by Wednesday of next week, likely through USA Hockey.
For those who don’t make the cut, she made it clear that Verona isn’t the end of the road. She said the program hopes to offer camps, invitations and tryouts more frequently going forward, and she encouraged players to keep progressing with their club teams in the meantime. USA Hockey’s summer camps, staffed by national team players and coaches from both the men’s and women’s programs, remain one of the best on-ramps, she said.
Misiewicz also pointed to what players can do away from the rink.
“There’s a lot that you can do off the ice to educate yourself on the game of hockey and positionally,” she said. “Watching it and understanding it can really help, too.”
A Final Test on the Ice
With rosters shuffled once again for the tryout’s closing game, Team White carried its scoring surge into a third straight day with a 10-3 victory. Kelsey DiClaudio picked up right where she left off, scoring three more goals to close out the tryout for Team White, while Madeline Gallagher added two of her own, including a breakaway goal in the first period. Laighton Philbrick also found the net, capping a strong three-day showing. Catherine Faherty and Ailin Zheng scored for Team Red.