Girl makes her own miracle on ice
Published: August 10, 2005
When the Walt Disney film empire released the movie “Miracle” last year, no one could have known what a profound effect it would have on one Yucca Valley teen-ager. “Miracle” is the story of the 1980 United States Olympic ice hockey team that defeated the unbeaten Russian Olympic team in the 1980 winter Olympic games. By defeating the Russian team and the subsequent come-from-behind win over Finland to win the gold medal, the 1980 team has often been called the Miracle on Ice.
Jamie Brislin, a senior at Yucca Valley High School, has been playing ice hockey for the last nine years for Southern California Amateur Hockey Association teams, notably the Palm Desert Knights, Desert Coyotes and now the Inland Valley Wild of Riverside. She has passed up opportunities to play on girls’ teams for the speed and physical contact of playing for boys’ teams.
Her tenacity has paid off with four playoff appearances, an SCAHA runner-up cup, two SCAHA championship cups and a California Amateur Hockey Association Championship over the last nine years.
The SCAHA Championship was played April 2 and 3 in El Segundo at the training center of the L.A. Kings, with Jamie’s team winning the Southern California Championship Cup. A week later her team played for the CAHA State Championship at the San Jose Logitech Center and finished third of four teams, winning two of their three games.
In March Jamie was accepted to North Country College of Essex and Franklin in Saranac Lake, N.Y., and was awarded an Adirondack Scholarship to matriculate there as well as play ice hockey.
Jamie plans to major in sports medicine and may coach after college.
Coach Todd Smith of the NCC Lady Saints is counting on Jamie to fit into his roster as a winger for the upcoming collegiate season.
Jamie had been looking at several other colleges in the East and Midwest, but when their coaches called trying to recruit her, she could only think of the words “hockey country,” which were the words Smith used to describe North Country College.
The Lady Saints of North Country College play many of their home games at the same ice rink that the Miracle on Ice occurred, the Lake Placid Olympic Arena. Each time she received a recruiting letter from another college, those words, “hockey country,” would play over and over in her head. She would remember the movie “Miracle” and the Lake Placid Olympic Center and she knew in her heart that “hockey country” was where she wanted to be.
This past season, North Country College had wins over the University of Massachusetts, Penn State, Boston University and the University of Buffalo, to name a few. The Lady Saints were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the American Collegiate Hockey Association tournament in Buffalo this year after losses to the University of Rhode Island and Robert Morris University, the eventual champion.
With several key players having graduated, Jaime plans on earning some quality playing time in her freshman season rather than sitting on the cold pine of the bench.
Jamie celebrated the good news last March with a goal midway through the first period of a 5-2 exhibition game win over the Aliso Viejo Eagles. A second goal was disallowed later for a crease violation later in that game.
In the past two seasons against male competition, she has scored 25 goals with 27 assists, spent 32 minutes in the penalty box and scored game-winning goals on seven occasions.
She was selected as the Most Valuable Player in the San Diego Gulls Thanksgiving Tournament and made the Top 25 League Scorers list.
She has been invited to and will attend the West Coast tryouts for Team USA this May and will go there with the attitude of having the opportunity to see and play with the best women in hockey to find out what skills she really needs to develop before taking the next giant step.
She can look back and see that at all the hard work and the bruises from playing against the boys has finally paid off.
She says she will remember her father driving her and her brother Matt to Riverside three nights a week for them to practice with their teams and the weekend games which could be anywhere in Southern California, Las Vegas or Phoenix.
It’s a long season from September to April each year, and the summers were filled with training camps at Providence College and numerous summer leagues preparing for the upcoming seasons.
Besides her hockey career, Jamie has played on the YVHS girls tennis team for the last four seasons. She was named the team’s Most Improved Player and received the Coach’s Award for her play as a junior. As a senior she was named the team’s Most Inspirational Player.
Jamie claims that much of her competitive attitude is owed to tennis coach Cindy Miller.
As busy as she has been, she has been able to maintain a B average in her studies.
Back in 1980 at Lake Placid when Team USA defeated the Russians, ABC’s Al Michaels made one of the most celebrated comments ever in the history of sports television. As the final seconds ticked off the clock with the frenzied chant of “USA, USA” in the background, Michaels said these simple words: “Do you believe in miracles?” Each time Jamie watches that movie, she has a simple response to Michaels’ words: “Yes.”
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