Playing the Field: Nicole Unsworth

×

Expand

Photo by Shelley Unsworth

In Playing the Field, we profile women who are making an impact in the world of sports, either in competition or behind the scenes. For this installment, we spoke with Nicolet hockey player Nicole Unsworth.

Photo by Shelley Unsworth

In 2014, Nicolet freshman Nicole Unsworth led all Wisconsin high school players, boys and girls, in points with 107. Her 63 goals, 44 assists in 27 games her earn her second team honors on the first ever USA Today/American Family ALL USA High School Girls Hockey Team.

This season, she and her teammates on the University School (USM) Co-op team won the State Championship, the program’s first. Unsworth won the Jinelle Siergiej Award for Best Overall Offensive Player in the state. In the state semi-final, she tied a State Girls Hockey Tournament record for shots on goal in a game with 15. Unsworth again led the state in goals, with 58. She finished second with 90 points. She was the only Milwaukee-area player in the top 10 of goals, assists and points.

Unsworth has already achieved quite a bit on the ice and she’s just a sophomore. In late March, her club, Team Wisconsin, hosted the national tournament for U14, U16 and U19 girls. While her team wasn’t as successful as they’d have hoped, several college coaches were in attendance and expressed interest about Unsworth.

Girls hockey is still a growing sport. The popularity of both the US and Canadian National Teams helps, as do newly formed professional leagues like the CWHL and NWHL. But in the Milwaukee area, there are just four girls high school hockey teams: USM, Arrowhead, Brookfield and a newly formed co-op called Lakeshore Lightning. The University School team is made up of players from six Milwaukee-area schools: University School of Milwaukee, Divine Savior, Nicolet, Saint Thomas More, Shorewood, Whitefish Bay.

“Some people, when I tell them I play hockey, are surprised,” Unsworth said. “Now people when they find out, they think it’s kind of cool. When I was younger some of the guys on my team would say ‘Oh, you play hockey, you must not be that good because you’re a girl.’ People have a stereotyped image of someone who plays hockey and when they meet someone who actually does, it’s not what they think.”

While national hockey participation and attention are up, it’s still rare for girls hockey to get much attention in the Milwaukee area, even among Unsworth’s peers. As she continues to dominate and make an impact, more and more people have taken notice.

“Freshman year, no one really knew (who I was),” she says. “This year, most people know. After state, a lot of people came up to me and congratulated me.”

But, she says, despite the scoring numbers and personal attention, it’s not about her.

“Every time my name is in the paper, it’s a whole team effort to make that happen,” she said. “The win had to be the whole team playing hard.”

More so than her high school counterparts that compete in more mainstream sports, Unsworth takes on the extra tasks of travel to University School for every practice and a grueling season schedule where away games are in Madison, Green Bay, Fond du Lac, Mosinee and Hudson. When she’s playing with Team Wisconsin, she’s out of town most every weekend to play against other competitive girls hockey teams.

With both teams, there’s the additional burden of bringing together players that don’t have a familiarity of going to school together and having friendships before they lace up their skates.

“At the beginning of the season, it’s hard with so many people from so many different places, but by the end of the season we come together as a team,” said Unsworth.

All the extra travel leaves little time for homework or socializing, so Unsworth is a lot more organized and careful with her time than your typical high school sophomore. She tries to complete her homework before she ever leaves school, using study hall to finish as much as she can. Hockey requires a large time commitment and sometimes it feels like a chore, but the benefits outweigh the negatives.

“I see it as being a really time consuming sport,” she says. “It’s a lot. I just make time, I guess. It’s worth going to all the practices when I get to go on the ice for a game. There’s always going to be stuff that you have to do—you have to go to practice every day. But there’s also stuff you want to do, because you want to play and you want to go to the games. You can always make time to hang out with your friends, or do your homework.”

A fierce, focused player on the ice, Unsworth has the tendencies of a natural leader. She’s both physically big, but she plays big on the ice. It’s impossible to miss her crashing the net, blond ponytail flying out behind her. She’s quick and though her obvious impact is in front of the goal, she’s a presence behind her team’s blue line as well.

Off the ice, it’s difficult to reconcile the quiet, shy, svelte teenager in typical leggings and boots with the dominating presence she has when she straps her skates on. Self-effacing and quick to divert talk to her team, Unsworth doesn’t carry the swagger that her first two high school seasons have afforded her.

It will be something to watch as Unsworth grows into and embraces a little bit of the attitude her on-ice performance affords her. She’s hit many of the peaks a skater wishes for in their high school career, but as her skills and her confidence grow, her game will only get better.

Correction: A previous version of this article erroneously stated there were three Milwaukee-area girls high school hockey teams. There are four. It also stated that Homestead was part of the USM co-op. Homestead is part of the Lakeshore co-op.