December 11, 2007

By Mike Scandura

Special to USAHockey.com

Following is a list of honors earned by Yale’s Crysti Howser, a junior from Wilmette, Ill.:

* In 2005, she became only the second player in Yale history to be voted Ivy League Rookie of the Year as the Bulldogs won the Ivy League championship.

* She was a finalist for National Freshman of the Year and earned First Team All-Ivy League honors.

* She was voted the Northeast Region Freshman of the Year.

* In 1999, before she entered New Trier Township High School, Howser was selected for the Olympic Development Regional team.

All of the above occurred while she was playing soccer. But commencing with the 2007-08 academic year, Howser is concentrating solely on hockey - for which she already has made a significant mark.

For example:

* Earlier this year, she was named to the U.S. Under-22 team that played Canada in a three-game series.

* She tied for fifth in scoring at the 2007 U.S. Women’s National Festival and was invited to the 2007 USA Hockey Holiday Camp.

* As a sophomore, she led Yale in scoring with 37 points (22 goals, 15 assists) for a second straight season, with her point total being the highest by a Bulldog in 19 years. And when she led the team as a freshman with 26 points (12 goals, 14 assists), she did so even though she missed seven games due to her commitment to the soccer team. She also was second in plus-minus with a plus-17 rating.

* She was voted MVP last year when Yale won the Nutmeg Classic.

* She was invited to the U-22 tryouts for Team USA in August of 2006 but failed to make the team.

That’s when Howser was forced to make a decision that she had hoped she wouldn’t have to make.

“When I was at the U-22 camp in 2006 and didn’t make the team, I realized if I wanted to make the team I would have to give up soccer,” she said. “My goal always has been to make the Olympic team for hockey. It has been since I saw the ’98 Olympics.

“I love the sport of soccer and I love my teammates at Yale. I struggled with it for awhile, but in the end it wasn’t that difficult of a decision because hockey was my priority and making the Olympic team always has been a goal.”

Howser didn’t play soccer over the summer for the first time in at least 15 years, she said.

“I told my coaches (soccer coach Rudy Meredith and hockey coach Hilary Witt, who’s worked at several USA Hockey camps) last winter that I would just play hockey in the summer and fall,” Howser said.

Even the two years during which she played soccer and hockey at Yale proved to be a relief when compared with her schedule in high school.

“All through high school I had a crazy schedule,” Howser said. “But when I got to Yale, the NCAA doesn’t let you practice with one team if you’re playing for another at the same time.

“In high school I went from soccer to hockey and seemingly never went home. A big difference was the driving. In high school we’d drive an hour to soccer practice and drive over an hour to hockey practice. I might not get back until 1 a.m.

“It was brutal.”

Fortunately her time with USA Hockey has been more enjoyable.

“I thought in 2006 I played well at the U-22 camp, but not as well as I could have,” Howser said. “But there wasn’t a sense of, ‘Oh wow! I don’t know if I belong here.’

Howser said she enjoyed the camp and had a teammate with whom to share it.

"This year I felt more comfortable and got to play on a line with my linemate, Sheila Singler (Wausau, Wis.), from last year at Yale. We had a lot of success during the season and it was natural to play on a line with her last summer," she said. “I like the speed involved in playing at a higher level. I like the faster pace and feel I play better at a faster pace. Now, I need to keep improving skill-wise, but the biggest thing is there’s a difference in being in shape for soccer as compared with hockey.”

Because Howser is concentrating on hockey she’s able to stick closely to a hockey-player’s regimen, which among other things includes spending time in the weight room.

“Now, I can do a lot of things in the weight room that I couldn’t do before,” said Howser.

Howser couldn’t help but being nearly overwhelmed with emotion when she suited up for the series against Canada.

“It definitely was a great moment getting ready for the first game against Canada,” she said. “Putting on the USA jersey gave me goose bumps. But there’s a lot I’m looking forward to with the USA Hockey program. And I have a long way to go to achieve what I want to achieve.”

Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.