The Olympics 2010: Spotlight on Angela Ruggiero, Hockey Player
Angela Ruggiero Hockey Player Specialty: Defense. Defenders hinder the other team to ensure that its players don’t score. Sometimes, they are referred to as “blueliners” because of they often stand on the blue boundary of the offensive zone. Angela was the first female defender to participate in a professional North American hockey game. Birthday: January 3, 1980 Birthplace: Los Angeles, California Hometown: Harper Woods, Michigan Angela Ruggiero didn’t ask to play hockey. In fact, at her first practice, she didn’t even know how to skate. Her introduction to the sport was slightly coincidental: her father had played the game in his youth and decided to sign her brother up for a youth league. He was shocked to learn of the sport’s hefty price but found comfort in the family discount offered, so Angela and her sister were signed up as well. “When I first stepped out onto the ice, I started to cry,” she recalled in an interview. “But by the time I left [practice], I knew how to skate.” While learning the basics, Angela displayed an unnatural aptitude for hockey and quickly moved herself through the ranks. She earned the nickname “Terminator” for her fierce attitude and determination on the ice. By age thirteen, Angela was playing for an all-girls’ club team in Los Angeles. Chasing her hockey dreams, she decided to attend Choate Rosemary Hall, a private boarding school in Connecticut, for high school. During her freshman year, she was the youngest player chosen for the varsity team. At the same time, she was playing for the Connecticut Polar Bears, one of the top women’s club hockey teams in the country for girls aged thirteen to fifteen years old. Because of her position as one of the nation’s best female hockey players, Angela was courted by many prestigious colleges, including several Ivy League schools. She turned down Brown, Dartmouth, and the University of Minnesota in favor of Harvard, graduating cum laude with a degree in government in 2004. Angela’s list of awards and accolades from hockey is almost endless. From winning the 2004 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, which is given to the women’s intercollegiate varsity hockey player who “displays the highest standards of personal and team excellence during the season” and winning the 2004 Ivy League Player of the Year award to being named the Best Female Hockey Player in the World by The Hockey News and 2003 USA Hockey Player of the Year, she displays a level of excellence which is so rare to find in an athlete. Amazingly, the upcoming Olympics in Vancouver will be Angela’s fourth. After winning the gold in 1998 at Nagano, claiming the silver in 2002 at Salt Lake City and taking home the bronze in 2006 at Torino, she possesses an Olympic medal in every color, a rare feat for any athlete to accomplish. Because of the “male-dominance” associated with hockey, Angela’s story is one that is so inspiring. The fact that a female succeeded in a field where the odds are against her is encouraging and motivating to other athletes competing where they might not be the favored victor. Throughout her career, Angela played alongside the boys; she was the first woman to actively participate in a regular hockey season on a men’s team, the Tuscan Oilers. She played alongside her older brother, Ben, who is the very same brother that her dad signed up for the youth league way back when! The Ruggiero duo was the first brother-sister combination to play professionally at the same time. Angela’s accomplishments off the ice enhance her character even more. Not surprisingly, she is a volunteer for several organizations dedicated to creating gender equality in sports. The former director of the New York Islanders’ Project Hope and the New York Islanders’ Children’s Foundation, Angela now focuses on being a Right to Play athlete ambassador. Recently, she traveled to Afghanistan to help less fortunate children learn about sports and athleticism. Angela’s memoir about women’s hockey, Breaking the Ice: My Journey to Olympic Hockey, the Ivy League & Beyond, was published by Drummond Publishing Group in 2005. She also appeared on the sixth season of The Apprentice after being chosen from a group of twelve Olympians during the 2006 Winter Games in Torino. Despite the fact she was eliminated after the tenth episode, Donald Trump still offered her a job; however, she turned it down in order to train full time for the Olympics. This athlete’s journey is both interesting and inspiring. Chicks, let’s support a fellow female who’s paving the way for the rest of us by breaking athletic barriers. Here’s a message from all of us to Angela: Good luck in Vancouver! More about Angela Ruggiero and Hockey around the Web: Maxine is a New Jersey-based freelance writer and student. She is an Olympic fanatic who is completely awed every two years. While being completely pumped for this year, she is cursing herself for not having TiVo so she can watch the Games again, and again, and again…
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