Moving away from home five years ago wasn’t easy for Brittany Haverstock. But as she continues to make an impression on Hockey Canada’s top talent evaluators, that sacrifice is paying dividends.
The 20-year-old from Hammonds Plains, now a sophomore blue-liner with the NCAA Division I Wisconsin Badgers, has been living away from Nova Scotia since she was 15, when she moved to Alberta in Grade 10 to enroll at Warner Hockey School.
“It was difficult being away the first couple of months,” she recalled. “I was definitely very young to leave. But once you get used to it, it’s a great opportunity.”
Moving away has limited Haverstock’s time at home to little more than Christmas holidays and brief summer visits. But it ultimately landed her a scholarship at Wisconsin and coveted spots on the Canadian under-18 and -22 teams.
Most recently, she was identified among 109 up-and-comers for Hockey Canada’s strength and conditioning camp from May 25 to 30 in Calgary, an event designed to mold the national team’s stars of tomorrow.
Haverstock has been doing all the right things to get to the top.
“It’s going to take a lot of hard work,” she said. “It’s a final goal for me (to make the national team) but it’s not something you focus on. There are so many little steps in between.”
Next week’s camp is one of those “little steps,” as has been Haverstock’s steady year-by-year development.
She couldn’t have asked for more as a freshman in 2008-09, when she made the Western Collegiate Hockey Association all-rookie team and tallied 17 points in 39 games to help the Badgers win an NCAA title.
Although her point total dipped to seven this past season, the Badgers lost five key seniors after their championship run and entered a rebuilding phase under U.S. Olympic head coach Mark Johnson.
“I think we learned a lot this year,” said Haverstock, who describes herself as an offensive-minded blue-liner. “We’re going to be hungry to have a really great season next year and I’m looking forward to it.
“Our goal is to win (the next) two national championships. That would be awesome.”
Representing
• Nova Scotians who will train with Hockey Canada’s women’s program at a strength and conditioning camp in Calgary from May 25 to 30.
• G Carmen MacDonald, Pictou
• D Alexis Crossley, Cole Harbour
• D Brittany Haverstock, Hammonds Plains
• F Jillian Saulnier, Halifax
• F Blayre Turnbull, Stellarton
• F Jessica Wong, Baddeck
