US slapshot for local student
by Rodney Magazinovic
A
last minute decision to apply for a student exchange program to New York
has led human movement student Lucy Parrington to become the first
Australian to play top-flight ice hockey in the United States.
Parrington, who started playing hockey at age 14 against the wishes of her parents (who believed she already played too many sports), said that it was partly luck that led her to Clarkson University in New York and a place on the Clarkson Golden Knights Women’s Ice Hockey team.
“I filled out the application for the exchange program on the day of the deadline – I went on a whim,” she said.
That whim led to her playing in the team that finished fifth in division one of the 28-team National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) league.
University or college sport in the US has a high public profile due to the quality of its participants – it’s not unusual for major games to find a place on prime time broadcasts or attendances to be in the thousands. Parrington said the NCAA series acts as a feeder for the professional women’s ice hockey leagues.
“Most of the players in division one will be picked up by teams from the National Women’s Hockey League,” Parrington said. “Some players also decide to play in the pro leagues in Europe.”
Apart from being the only Australian in the league, Parrington says it is also unusual to be playing top level hockey as a “walk-on” or non-scholarship athlete.
“All the other players in the league are there because their talent was been spotted in high school,” she said. “All recruited division one players are on full or partial scholarships.”
While Parrington finds the balance between study and the intense physical training challenging, she says that the hard work is definitely worthwhile.
“We practise on the ice five times a week and in the gym twice a week,” she said. “Practices are early morning from 6.30am to 8.30am. Mondays are the hardest working and longest training days. I’ve thrown up on two separate Monday mornings due to the intensity.
“Nevertheless, being an athlete, the professors give us a little help with things like assignment extensions because they understand how much harder it is to play competitive sport and study.”
While ice hockey is by no means a major sport in Australia, with only 3200 registered players, the Australian women’s team is ranked number 23 in the world. Parrington has been a part of the national squad for the past four years. She will return to Australia in June to complete her studies at UniSA and hopes to be accepted for postgraduate study in the US during 2007.