Before Torino, Ruggiero and Company Return to Choate for One Last Game
By Cray Stevenson ‘07
News Associate Editor
Three Choate alumnae turned Olympic hockey medal hopefuls, Angela Ruggiero ’98, Julie Chu ’01, and Kim Insalaco ’99, returned to campus on Monday night for a taste of nostalgia and one last tune-up for the Torino 2006 games, reconnecting with familiar people and places before and after taking the ice against the Choate’s Boys Varsity Hockey Team in Remsen Arena.
“When your pulling in [to campus], it’s like time never passed,” said Ruggiero. “It’s great to have an opportunity to come back.” Julie Chu added that returning to her alma mater for the first time was “a great experience for me.”
For the three women, yesterday marked the first visits to Choate in several years. Despite their absence from campus, they maintain that their experience at Choate helped propel them to uncommon achievements after leaving Wallingford.
Angela Ruggiero gushed that “Choate has been so supportive of me” while Kim Insalacao was adamant that Choate is “a great place.”
Julie Chu said that, at Choate, “a lot of ice time and coaching helped me take one step closer to my dreams.” She also noted that Choate afforded her opportunities in the academic arena.
Kim Insalaco went on to star at Brown University after concluding her Choate career. Julie Chu played in her first Olympics at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games shortly after graduating from Choate. After the Olympics she matriculated at Harvard. Angela Ruggiero, another Harvard alum, won Olympic gold while still enrolled at CRH in 1998. Since then, she has captured a silver medal at Salt Lake and recently published her biography entitled “Breaking the Ice.”
“I wanted to provide something for all the girls that are growing up right now that don’t have that many role models to look up to,” said Ruggiero of her motivation of penning her life story. She wanted to show that “I am just a regular girl that had a lot of struggles that most young adolescents have and I was able to go to the Olympics and go to Harvard and do some amazing things in my life.”
Ruggiero was received warmly by a crowd of roughly forty people during a book-signing session in the Hall of Fame Room at the Worthington Johnson Athletic Center yesterday before the game. Though a scheduling miscommunication delayed Ms. Ruggiero’s arrival, Choaties, faculty members, Wallingford residents, and local media waited patiently to meet the author while munching on complementary cookies. The talented defenseman signed for nearly an hour, hugging familiar faculty members and conversing with awestruck children, before heading to the rink as her teammates arrived via the team bus.
While Ruggiero, Chu, and Insalaco enjoyed the warm reception they were given by the Choate community, they came to campus to take on the Boys Varsity Hockey team in their last tune-up before the Olympics. The Women’s team contacted Choate’s Coach Pat Dennehy about Monday’s scrimmage in hopes of lining up against some stiff competition before taking on the world’s best women.
“The guys are just great,” said Chu. “It’s a fast-paced game with a lot of strong players.” She described that Choate boys are better than the teams the Women’s team will face in Italy. Kim Insalaco pointed out that “it’s good for our goaltenders to see the faster shots” from players that are “a lot faster and stronger.”
With their last warm-up contest behind them, Choate’s three Olympians are focused on the Games.
Said Ruggiero of her mindset heading into her third Olympics, “I want to win. I want to win a gold.” According to the dominating defenseman, the team’s failure to capture gold in falling to rival Canada in 2002 has provided added motivation for her and her teammates during preparations for Turin.
Julie Chu, a member of the 2002 silver-medal team, has benefited from her past Olympic experience. “I know what to expect a little bit more,” she explained. “Going into 2002 [I was] a little bit overwhelmed by everything.” This time around, she said, “I’m really excited still and know it’s such an honor to go to the games.”
The U.S. Women are favored to win a medal, and many experts anticipate a rematch with Canada in the gold-medal game. They begin their quest to recapture gold in their first contest against Switzerland on February 11. Although they are expected to advance quickly, Ruggiero emphasizes the importance of remaining focused on the task at hand, saying “We can’t look past teams, especially Finland and Sweden.”
For anyone watching the U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey Team in the 2006 Torino Games, it will be hard to overlook three Choate alumnae representing their country - and their school.
