The Player of Her Generation: Skarupa Skates Her Way to Record Books

When Haley Skarupa looks back at her history-making career one day and gives thanks to all those who helped her along the way, she may start with Emilio Estevez. 

The Boston College-bound Skarupa is traveling the world, breaking record after record in international hockey competitions but her interest in hockey began as innocently as one could imagine after her older brother, Dylan, and her watched the Disney hockey movie "The Mighty Ducks" starring the aforementioned Estevez and thought it "might be fun to try one day."

"We were just watching it one day and he said to me, 'let’s start playing hockey," Skarupa said in a phone interview this week. "I said, 'OK. Let’s do it!' Then we started playing roller hockey together and eventually he started playing ice hockey. I remember I went to all his games and I loved it and I begged my parents to let me play. And eventually for Christmas, they got me skating lessons at an instructional clinic."

And so what started out as Skarupa pleading with her parents, Tony and Penny, for skating lessons at the age of six has blossomed into a playing career that has her coaches and teammates heralding her as the "player of her generation" as Skarupa has collected accolade upon accolade on both the national and world levels over the past several years.

"She plays with the best players in the world and stands out among the best," said Washington Pride Head Coach Kush Sidhu, who has coached Skarupa since 2008. "I don’t know that we’ll ever see a player like this for another generation in the U.S. It seems like pretty lofty praise but I’ve been at this a long time and been fortunate to work with some unbelievably talented players. And she’s like them and then some. She’s the real deal, for sure."

But Skarupa never envisioned things turning out like this when she first began playing. In fact, she never thought she would play past the high school stage.

"Up until 8th grade, I didn’t even realize you could play in college or anything like that. I just played because I loved it," she said. "I loved being around people and just the environment. It wasn’t really until attending that U.S. camp heading into my sophomore year that I thought to myself, 'Wow. I could really do something with this.'"

Stepping Up Her Game

After playing in a variety of different leagues throughout the course of her childhood, Skarupa joined the Pride, which competes in the Junior Women's Hockey League, her freshman year at Wootton, where she was also a member of the Patriots’ 2009 state championship team. She played alongside her brother on that state title team and calls it among the best moments of her playing career.

"Winning the state title was unbelievable," Skarupa said of playing with her brother Dylan, who now plays club hockey at the University of South Carolina. "It was just really special that we got to share that together." 

In addition to playing for the Washington Pride, for the past three years, Skarupa has been playing with the world's best hockey players as part of the United States Women's National Team. Skarupa began going to the U.S. team’s national camps in 2008 and was first selected to join the United States women's national under-18 ice hockey team in 2009. She was a member of the 2010 and 2011 teams that took silver and gold, respectively, at the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Women's U18 Championships.

In 2012, just a few weeks ago, she set the world record for most goals in a tournament with 11 as the U.S. team finished second to Canada at the championships played in the Czech Republic. 

"It’s just amazing playing with and against the best players in the world," Skarupa said. "It truly is an honor to play with such an elite group of players. It makes it so competitive. You meet so many great players and people from around the world. I have gained so much from it - on and off the ice."

And while she is playing with the best players in the world, her coach here in Washington believes that Skarupa stands out among them all.

"I’ve had several players over the years make the Olympic team and there are several commonalities and there are some things that make Haley so unique," said Sidhu, who has been coaching women's hockey since 1988. "Obviously she’s blessed with an abundance of talent, but on top of that, she has a very strong work ethic. Those things are common to kids that go on to have Olympic success. But what makes Haley unique is her competitive spirit. Her drive to compete is off the charts. That separates her from her peers and really puts her in a position to skate with anyone in the world."

A "Once-in-a-lifetime" Situation

For her dad, seeing her career progress over the last few years has been extremely rewarding though, like Haley, he never imagined that what began as a hobby would take her this far on the world stage.

"It was always sort of hard to gauge when you're playing in Maryland where the talent pool might not be as strong as it is in other parts of the country," Tony Skarupa said. "But when she first got invited to the U.S. camps, to watch her play at that age with a national team, she definitely held her own and we were extremely proud of her. It's been great."

Tony said he and his wife have tried to help keep Haley grounded despite the hectic travel schedule.

"We try to emphasize with her how truly lucky she is, traveling the world like she is," Tony said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime situation for her right now and we just want to make sure she enjoys it as much as she can right now because it's not going to last forever."

Staying balanced has been a big priority for Haley. So while she and the Pride will be playing in New Jersey and Calgary over the next few weekends, staying on top of her studies has remained a focal point for her. She manages to get all of her school work done even while on the road, thanks to Saturday study halls and the Internet that allows her to access her school work while traveling. It's a system that works for her as she continues to excel with the Pride.

So far through the 2011-2012 season's 38 games, Skarupa has netted 107 goals for the Pride, shattering all previous records and leaving her coach in awe of her goal-scoring abilities.  She also has 37 assists on the season.

"Last year she scored something like 100 goals in the season and we had never seen anything like that," Sidhu said. "This year, she scored 100 before Christmas. And she can get even better still."

Sidhu added: "I feel like she has all the tools from a technical perspective. She’s not necessarily the most complete hockey player that I’ve ever coached but she is the most competitive and most successful and she’s been able to maximize her talent and skill to not only make her a dominant player, but she also elevates those around her."

While Skarupa looks to close out this season with the Pride on a high note, she is already setting her sights on the future -- not just next year at Boston College but a couple of years down the line as well.

The 2014 Winter Olympics will be played in Russia and the 2018 games in South Korea, both of which are on Skarupa's radar.

"I’m definitely going to go for it," Skarupa said. "That’s been my goal for a long time now."

And what does her coach think of her chances?

"She’s in the mix and she has been for some time. It’s not like wishful thinking. It’s a very thought-out process to put together an Olympic team and she’s in that mix as a 17-18 year old and she has been for a couple of years," Sidhu said. "So, in my mind, she’s on the correct path. And she just keeps getting better."

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Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled the last name of Washington Pride head coach Kush Sidhu. We regret the error.