“I think every athlete’s dream is to one day play in the Olympics, and every Olympian’s dream is to have the chance to play an Olympics in their country,” Vaillancourt says. “We know that every game is going to be packed with people and crazy fans. It would be a different kind of dream come true again.”
Canada and the U.S. will play in separate round-robin groups in Vancouver, so if all goes well, the top two teams in the world are lined up to renew their rivalry in the gold-medal game.
“For both teams, we know that usually when we play, it’s a really competitive game,” Botterill says. “I think those are the games that are most fun to play in, where you know you have to be ready. You have to be ready to compete and perform at your best.”
The Harvard family in Vancouver will be missing a member—coach Katey Stone. Stone was one of three candidates to coach the American team in 2010, and in that capacity, she coached Chu, Ruggiero, and Cahow at last year’s Four Nations Cup.
“It was just a blast,” Ruggiero says of having Stone back behind the bench. “She’s someone that really cares about you as a person...and so to have her be able to coach me and Julie and Caitlin one more time was pretty special.”
In the end, the Olympic job went to Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson.
“There’s disappointment, sure there is,” Stone admits. “When you commit yourself to the development of the game in this country, and when you feel like you’ve done well developing talent here, as well as being successful, it’s certainly something you want to be a part of.”
Though Stone will be happily home in Cambridge coaching the Crimson in February, she will have an eye on her former skaters as they shoot for Olympic gold.
And as the quintet takes the ice in Vancouver, its Harvard roots won’t be far from the women’s minds.
“We represent—we try to do our best and bring the values we learned from Coach Stone—the importance of working hard and all the things that she taught us while we were at Harvard, and bringing that to the national team,” Ruggiero says.
“Harvard hockey, every time I talk about it or get a chance to brag about it to my teammates on the national team who played for other colleges, I think it’s very clear to them and to anyone who knows me what a special place Harvard hockey has in my heart,” Chu adds. “[I like to] let Coach Stone and let all the other players know what a great tradition they’ve created, and a great foundation for all of us to keep wanting to come back to.”
—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.