> Roseville's Brodt will make debut in Twin Cities
>
> John Millea / Star Tribune
>
> Winny Brodt's college hockey career has already come full circle, and she hasn't even played
> a game.
>
> The winner of Minnesota's inaugural Ms. Hockey award in 1996 ended her career at
> Roseville High School that year, signed with New Hampshire and was all set to embark on
> her college career last fall. But the NCAA Clearinghouse ruled that a high school English
> class Brodt had taken was not acceptable for college eligibility.
>
> Now, finally -- after returning to high school for one more English class
> and practicing with the Roseville girls' team last season -- Brodt has
> begun her studies at New Hampshire and will play her first collegiate
> game this weekend right back where she started, in the Twin Cities.
>
> New Hampshire is one of six teams competing in this week's
> All-American Collegiate Classic, a round-robin women's hockey
> tournament at Mariucci Arena. The Gophers and Harvard will play the
> first game at 7 tonight Two games will be held Friday, three on
> Saturday and three on Sunday. Also in the field are Augsburg, Gustavus
> Adolphus and the University of British Columbia.
>
> "It's going to be neat playing in my hometown," Brodt said this week from Durham, N.H. "It's
> going to be a lot of fun."
>
> The last official game that Brodt played in was Roseville's 5-2 victory over Burnsville in the
> 1996 state high school title game. Twenty-one months have passed.
>
> "Sitting out was hard, but it made me want to play more this year," said Brodt, one of three
> Minnesotans on the New Hampshire roster. The others are Melisa Heitzman, a junior
> forward from Bloomington Jefferson, and Jaime DeGriselles, a sophomore defender from
> Apple Valley.
>
> Brodt's excitement about playing in the Twin Cities was heightened after the Gophers'
> inaugural game last Sunday against Augsburg. Her parents were among the 6,854 fans at
> Mariucci Arena who saw Minnesota's 8-0 victory, and they phoned Winny after the game.
> "I couldn't believe they got 6,000 people at the first game," she said. "That's awesome."
>
> Minnesota didn't have a women's hockey program when Brodt was selecting a college. "I
> was committed here because I signed a letter of intent, so I really didn't even have a chance
> to think about [attending Minnesota]," she said. "If I would have decided to go to Minnesota,
> then I would have had to sit out two years.
>
> "That would not have been worth it. That would have been tough."
>
> Back to earth
>
> Gophers coach Laura Halldorson said that with her players' debut behind them, they need to
> concentrate on the games ahead.
>
> "There was so much buildup for that first game. Everything was very positive Sunday, the
> crowd and the way we played and the score," she said. "But the reality is that not every game
> is going to be like that, so we can't just think it's going to happen automatically. This is going
> to take a lot of energy and effort this weekend again for us to be successful. It's going to be a
> real challenge.
>
> "We really want to make an impression on the Eastern programs, and I think we match up
> pretty well with Harvard."
>
> Halldorson calls New Hampshire the tournament favorite. "They're one of the best teams in
> the country, definitely," she said. "They're the ones to beat, I would say, and we'll be
> underdogs when we play them."
 
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