In the winter of her freshman year, Kayla Holmberg decided she was going to try out for the Wright County Blades varsity girls hockey team. The problem was, most of her competition had been playing since before they could lace up their own skates. Though a fan of the sport for years, Kayla didn’t even own a pair of hockey skates. Her mom, Kim, likened her tryout to a non-golfer like herself being sent to play in the Masters with Tiger Woods. Kayla said it was like being thrown in with the sharks. “Mr. (Denny) Harmoning (the Annandale School District athletic director) said if you can stand on skates, you can make the team,” she said. “That wasn’t exactly the case.” After spending 30 minutes the night before just practicing how to get in and out of all the complicated equipment hockey players wear, Kayla went to the Buffalo Civic Center for a brutal two-hour work-out. She faked her way through an hour of drills, felt more comfortable during the scrimmage, though still outclassed, and afterwards the coaches said they had never seen a kid so obviously out of her element stick with something for so long or try so hard. They wanted to see her back the next season. Kayla has played hockey for two years now. After that first eye-opening tryout, she set her sights a little lower and joined the Buffalo youth team. This winter she earned a spot on the Blades junior varsity team playing defensive and forward positions. Her plans are to try out for varsity again next season as a junior. “There are not a lot of openings, so I’m not guaranteed to make it,” said Kayla. Kayla is a sophomore at Annandale High School, and the only Cardinal on the Blades team. The Blades are made up of athletes from six schools with Buffalo, Monticello and St. Michael contributing the most. Annandale, Maple Lake and Delano have smaller participation. Their home ice is in Buffalo and they play about 25 games a season. This season, which ended the first week of February, the JV Blades finished with a 17-6-2 record. They are a part of the North Suburban Conference and play teams like Centennial and Spring Lake Park. This season the JV team had more than 20 players. “It’s so different from just running around like in basketball,” said the former basketball player. Kayla, an all-around athlete, also plays softball and volleyball in the spring and fall and rollerblades in the summer.” “Like my dryland coach said, hockey is the only sport where you are an inch or two off the ground on a little blade. Here the things you worry about are balance and hand-eye coordination.” Kayla has always been a hockey fan, ever since her dad started bringing her to Husky games at St. Cloud State University when she was just a kid. She expressed interest in playing the sport years ago, her mom said, but there weren’t many opportunities for her. She could have played with the Annandale-Monticello-Maple Lake youth group as part of a mostly boys team, but only until a certain age. After that she wouldn’t have had anywhere to go. The Holmbergs were directed to Buffalo, which had all-girls teams, but back then their home ice was in Litchfield and that seemed like a long way to drive every night for practice, Kim said. Three years ago Kayla decided she had had enough of basketball, took the season off and spent it playing hockey on the lake behind her house. “We bought her some skates and a stick and she found herself a net,” Kim said. Sometimes neighbors Dan Labo and Brandon Beckman, both hockey players on the Monticello-Annandale-Maple Lake Stars team, would come over and give her tips. The following winter she was ready to try for a spot on an organized hockey team. She joined the U15 team and since then her life has been hockey, hockey, hockey. “I dedicated myself for a whole year,” Kayla said. “The season ended last Friday and this has been the longest that I haven’t skated since last winter.” The Blades play all year round whether on dry land or ice. In the spring they work on speed skating, conditioning and puck handling. The summer program starts with stick handling and shooting skills. When there is no ice they run, but the Buffalo rink has ice through much of the summer, which means summer leagues for the kids. Working for Kayla is her knowledge of the sport. “She knows the game,” her mom said.“A lot of the parents said there are other kids who have been playing longer that still don’t know the concept.” For Kayla, it’s just a matter of learning the skills. “She has really improved a lot,” said her mom. And not just at skating, but in every aspect of the game. Most can’t even tell she’s a two-year rookie to the sport. “Everyone keeps saying, ‘Are you sure she’s never played before?’”
