Beyond the Playbook: Cross-border hockey co-op gives Canadian girls Minnesota exposure
Two Canadian teens are crossing the border every day to play high school hockey in Minnesota, building a unique bond with their team.
Addie Brown and Lexi Wood go to school in Rainy River, Ontario, but they suit up for the Broncos when it’s game time. Since 2018, a co-op between their school and International Falls has given Canadian players the chance to play high school hockey in Minnesota.
“We travel about an hour and 15 every day after school for practice and then same thing for games,” Brown said.
Brown says she was inspired to join by another Canadian player. “There was a girl before me by the name of Tirzah Carradice. She played from eighth grade to 12th grade, and I started playing in my 10th grade year, so I came with her when she was in 11th grade and she pushed me to come,” Brown said.
Coach Bryan Kershaw said the girls’ dedication is clear. “If you’re going to make the choice or the decision to drive an hour and 15 minutes, an hour and 20 minutes every day through who knows what kind of weather on what kind of roads, you know they’re dedicated right? You know they want to be there, so you don’t ever have to worry that you’re going to get their best effort because you know that hey, they made the effort to get there, they’re coming for a purpose and a reason,” Kershaw said.
By teaming up with Rainy River, International Falls managed to keep its program alive and give these girls more exposure than they would get in Canada.
“It’s definitely a huge opportunity for us. There’s not a whole lot of places for us to play in Canada for women’s hockey, so it’s definitely a great opportunity. At times you can kind of get like, you know mental blocks and think what am I doing? But yeah, it’s pretty worth it,” Wood said.
Looking ahead and looking back
Lexi has a few more years with the Broncos, but Addie is wrapping up her run. She said, “it was probably one of the best choices, especially me going into a collegiate level, something next year, Minnesota hockey is where it’s at, it’s where the exposure’s at, and I definitely do not regret coming to Minnesota.”
Since they don’t get to spend time together at school, their teammates have found ways to include them off the ice, too.
“We kind of we do a lot of team bonding type of things outside, and we make sure it’s in time where they can come join us, like if they have something we’ll wait until later, we’ll plan it another day. But we always have team bonding stuff after our practices when they’re here or whatever, so makes it a little easier,” said Payten Rousseau, a senior captain and forward for the Broncos.
It goes without saying that having Canadian players on the team is a big plus for the Minnesota side.
“They’re always pretty dang good at hockey, so it’s kind of useful having them on the team,” said Rousseau.
Brown and Wood helped the Broncos to a 5-17 regular season record, their highest win total since the 2018-19 season when they won nine games.
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