COLORADO SPRINGS — Celebrating a birthday last month, it occurred to Angela Ruggiero that she had spent half of her 30 years playing on one USA Hockey team or another, a realization that fostered both amazement and exasperation.
“It’s crazy. I can’t even remember not playing hockey, and it’s getting hard to remember not being on this team,” Ruggiero said. “You plan things — where will you be, how will you train — around the Olympics. Things that happen in my life I remember in terms of hockey, it’s like: ‘Oh, yeah, that was the year we played Finland.’ “
A week from today, hockey will become the focal point for Ruggiero, with no question about where she’ll be (Vancouver) or what she’ll be doing (trying to win the women’s hockey Olympic gold medal). As a 19-year-old in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, Ruggiero played in her first Olympiad, a rookie on the victorious U.S. team. Now, 12 years later, the defenseman is participating in her fourth Olympics, as an alternate captain.
The idea of participating in four Olympics is surreal to Ruggiero, but perhaps no more so than any other aspect of her career. Growing up “a Cali kid,” Ruggiero began playing the game with her younger brother, against other boys, their father serving as chauffeur, hauling them from their home in Simi Valley to assorted rinks in the Los Angeles area.
The family’s financial difficulties nearly derailed her career before it started, but “there were all these people around us who allowed my brother and I to continue.”
At 15, Ruggiero was invited to a USA Hockey camp at Lake Placid, N.Y., the first time she competed against other girls. What had merely been fun now became her passion, leading to a secondary education at Choate, four years at Harvard, and, of course, all that came along with playing for Team USA.
“I’ve had the world given to me because of hockey,” Ruggiero said.
Sacrifices all around
As improbable as her story might be, Ruggiero said she “can’t even imagine” being in teammate Jenny Potter’s shoes. Another four-time Olympian and alternate captain, Potter, 31, will be playing in her third Winter Games, as someone who is now a wife and mother.
Potter is quick to say that, like Ruggiero, her time with the national team has been personally transformative.
“It’s made me grow up, it’s changed me as a person,” she said. “I’ve matured a lot quicker.”
Just maintaining a career, Potter acknowledged, has been “a battle.” Her children, 9-year-old Madison, and Cullen, 2, get angry whenever she leaves her home in suburban Minneapolis for training with Team USA. That, along with the ongoing struggle to make ends meet, has occasionally left her “feeling guilty.”
“My husband (Rob) trains and coaches hockey players, so he knows what it’s all about, but it’s definitely been a give-and-take relationship and there have been big tradeoffs,” Potter said. “I’m sure he’s felt a little short-ended sometimes because he’s had to give up his career. He sacrificed it for me.
“If my husband got a job that he really wanted, I’d have to support him. I want him to succeed in life, too. I know he’s kind of taken a back seat. Sometimes you look back and, I’m sure he has regrets, but I think the outcome is that we’re pretty proud of each other.”
Savvy vets with sense of wonder
Besides their on-ice contributions, this time around the duo is also playing the role of mentors.
“I think it’s awesome to have that kind of experience on the team,” said Jocelyne Lamoureux, a 19-year-old who, along with her twin sister Monique, are the two youngest players on the team.
Jocelyne said Potter and Ruggiero have proved to be invaluable resources, not only in regard to playing the game, but by not being overwhelmed by the enormity of the Olympic stage.
“I mean, you’re walking along and you look up and, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s Wayne Gretzky!’ ” Potter said. “I can remember standing in line, waiting for pasta, and Jaromir Jagr was ahead of me. And my friends would say, ‘Well, you’re an Olympic athlete too,’ and I’d be going, ‘I know, but that’s Jaromir Jagr, the guy we watch on TV.’ “
Along with learning to play it cool when participating in a brush with greatness, chances are there’s even been some discussion about what might happen as the clock winds down on Feb. 25. That day, perhaps with much of the world watching on television, is when the gold medal will be decided.
When they won in 1998, Potter and Ruggiero thought standing atop the podium and listening to the national anthem would become commonplace. Not so. Team USA took silver four years later and bronze in 2006.
“That’s something that you always dream about,” Potter said. “Jumping off the bench, throwing your helmet off, throwing your gloves off and piling on top of the goalie. That’s something everyone dreams about.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
