Hillary Knight ’07 skates up the ice. Contributed Photo

Hilary Knight ’07, former Choate ice hockey standout, is continuing her ways as an excellent right winger on the University of Wisconsin Women’s Ice Hockey team. The University of Wisconsin Badgers is one of the perennial favorites to win the national collegiate ice hockey championship, as the Badgers are currently ranked fifth in the nation. Knight, a freshman starter on the team, has played a critical role in the team’s success. With 29 goals in 28 games, Knight is proving that she can duplicate her successes at the Remsen Arena at the highest levels of collegiate hockey.

Born in San Francisco and then living in Lake Forest, Illinois, Knight started skating at age five and began playing hockey at six. A friend of Knight’s mother who was a hockey coach first encouraged Knight to play hockey. Choate’s Girls Varsity Ice Hockey coach, Sarah Nutting, first spotted Knight at a summer hockey summer at Dartmouth College. “At first, I had no idea where I wanted to go to school. I was certain that I wanted to attend a prep school, but I hadn’t the slightest idea of size or location,” Knight said. “I wanted a place that had a friendly community, could help me grow, could support my aspirations, and gave me a great academic foundation.”

Choate Career

After deciding to matriculate at Choate, Knight became a four-year letter athlete. Her maturation through the years impressed many coaches around the league. Nutting noted that Knight improved every year as a Choate player. This maturation and improvement combined with her innate skill are the major factors behind her success. Knight focuses the majority of her time on school work and hockey. She currently practices one hour a day and lifts for another hour. At the beginning of the season, she was spending four hours-a-day training.

Hilary Knight enjoyed significant success at Choate Rosemary Hall. Choate students still remember the Girls Hockey Team’ s New England Championship run last year. She was one of the, if not the, crucial elements to the team’s success. “She was just bigger, faster, and stronger than any of the other girls in New Englands” noted coaches Courtney Rieponhoff and Sarah Nutting. Knight scored more goals than any of the other players. Rieponhoff and Nutting remember that it was Knight’s work ethic that drove the team to improve as a unit and to make Knight one of the best hockey players to ever play at the Remsen Hockey Arena.

That’s not to say her fondest memories of Choate revolve only around hockey.

When asked what her best memories at Choate were, Knight said she couldn’t disregard any Choate memories. “Spending time with friends and creating various activities on Saturday night as well as the many bus rides to and from school for sporting events, especially on Deerfield Day,” Knight said were some of her most important memories.

College Career

Knight was recruited by more than 20 Division I schools and she spoke with coaches from each program. “I chose UW because it fit me,” she said. “The college process was hard because there are so many different schools to choose from, but after taking an official visit to UW and spending time with the hockey team, I knew right away the UW was the right place for me. It has an amazing academic reputation along with back-to-back national championship winning hockey teams combined with an amazing coaching staff.” University of Wisconsin head coach, Mark Johnson, is also the head coach for the Women’s National Team.

Knight has continued to make hockey waves since Nutting spotted her at Dartmouth hockey camp when she was in seventh grade. Her success has not stopped at the college level. Not including her 29 goals in 28 games, her performance against the North Dakota Fighting Sioux earned her her second Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) rookie of the week award. She was also the preseason 2007-08 WCHA preseason rookie of the year. In addition to these accolades, she currently is the points leader for Wisconsin.

U.S. National Team Career

Knight has also been a member of the Women’s National Ice Hockey squad. She represented the U.S. two times during her senior year at Choate. She made the roster at the Four Nations tournament and at the Sr. World Championships as the youngest player on the team. However, she proved that age did not affect her game, as she quickly became a scoring factor in the team’s offense.

Knight’s success is most accurately described in The Daily Cardinal, University of Wisconsin’s newspaper. Junior wing Angie Keesley remarks, “She’s gained a lot more confidence [this season]. She’s always been a great player, but with confidence she’s been able to show more of her skill. Each day she is improving, that’s what she loves doing. She loves to improve and I think it’s really showing.”