Heidi Smart: The only girl on men’s club hockey team

Heidi Smart has always enjoyed being out on the ice. Whether it was figure skating when she was in grade school, or being on an ice hockey team as she is now, Heidi has a passion for skating.

"I love just being out on the ice. I have always liked to play hockey and I really enjoy all that it brings," said Smart, a freshman at UCCS. "Playing, practicing, skating, the whole "team feel;" it's almost like we are a second family."

Smart is originally from North Dakota and has been playing hockey off and on for many years. She began playing in 2000 and continued to play when her family moved to Finland in 2002.

"I had been playing for a couple of years, and then my family decided to move over to Finland," said Smart. "My mom is actually Finnish, and we thought the move would be nice because then we could be closer to family," she furthered.

While in Finland, Smart was part of a women's team, but she said that she likes being a member of the UCCS team more.

"You can check in this league!" she said. "I didn't like how there was a no-checking policy in Finland because I really don't mind getting hurt."

Smart continued to play hockey through her freshman year of high school, but soon began to realize that practices and games were sapping the amount of time she had to study.

"After my freshman year of high school, I took a break from hockey for a while," she stated. "It was just really time consuming and I didn't have enough time to study during the week."

Following high school and the move back to the United States for college, Smart began to feel the urge to lace up her skates and take to the ice.

"In the fall, I was walking with some friends through the club fair and spotted the hockey table," she said. "I was super excited and called my dad to ask him if he could help me pay for the equipment and he thankfully did," she stated. "I then went to the try out and, well, they didn't say don't come again, so at that point I knew I had made the team."

Being the only female on the team would probably be intimidating for some girls, but for Heidi Smart, it is not a problem.

"So far, I am the only girl who has tried out and made the team, and for me, I don't really care too much. I love to play hockey and so do they, so they just treat me as their teammate, not a girl," she said.

Smart's passion and love for the game is genuine and she hopes, like all of her teammates, that the team will only continue to improve.

"We won't be able to participate in the playoffs this year, but we are getting so much better and becoming, well, a real team."