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Jacques makes most of first season

CALUMET – Growing up in Calumet, hockey is as much a way of life as it is anything else. Just ask former Copper King Chelsea Jacques. Jacques is fresh off her freshman season at Colgate, having played defense for the Raiders in the most successful season in school history. For the youngster, the experience was a dream come true.

“It was kind of what I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember,” said Jacques. “[It was] definitely a surreal experience.”

Hockey is in her blood. Her uncle, Sean, is the athletic director at Calumet High School, but he also played a lot of hockey growing up before becoming a linesman in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, often seen charging up and down the ice at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Her brother, Brendan, played two seasons in the North American Hockey League for the Springfield Blues before joining the Northern Michigan Wildcats this season.

Still, hockey was something she liked, but was unsure of at a very young age. Fortunately for her, it became a passion a few years later.

“I watched my brother a lot when I was little,” said Jacques. “It always seemed kind of fun. I tried it when I was very young, in the back yard. At that point, I wasn’t quite at the level I wanted to play or fall in love with the game. I started again maybe when I was six. Ever since then [I enjoyed it].”

As a girl, hockey in the Copper Country was not an easy task for a young lady who had dreams of following in her brother’s footsteps. She struggled trying to make boys’ travel teams, often having to settle for playing house league instead.

She could have given up, but instead she pressed on, working on her skating and her shot, and eventually, that work paid off as she made the peewee travel team.

“A lot of people don’t expect girls to want to play hockey,” said Jacques. “I went through a lot of the not-making-the-boys’-travel-teams, playing house hockey and all that. My last year playing boys hockey, I made the travel team and I remember getting hit pretty bad. I loved it.”

Soon after, the Keweenaw Storm formed competing at the Tier II level, giving local girls from Houghton, Hancock, Calumet, and the surrounding areas a place to play together. Jacques was skeptical at first.

Despite being apprehensive about the experience, she and her teammates grew together under the watchful eye of Glen Patrick, and before long, the group shone, winning state titles and playing in multiple national championships.

“At first, I did not want to play, especially after playing with boys for so long,” said Jacques. “That’s how a lot of people felt. Once we started growing as a team and making it to national championships, that was awesome. I would not have wanted to be a boy, even though I said that a lot when I was younger.”

Several of her former teammates with the Storm have gone on to St. Norbert in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association. Jacques chose a different path, jumping to the Madison Capitols, a Tier I hockey club.

While there, she had the chance to compete in various tournaments around the country and compete for another national championship. While they did not win, she did, in a way, as Greg Fargo, head coach of the Raiders liked what he saw of her, inviting her to come out to visit Hamilton.

What she discovered when she arrived was a community very similar to Houghton, a city built around a university. With a student body of around 2900, Colgate is actually smaller than Michigan Tech, but that was part of what helped sell Jacques that it would be the right fit for her.

“It just kind of hit me that that place was right for me,” said Jacques. “I heard a lot about it from my teammate in Madison who was committed to go there. When I visited, I just kind of fell in love with it.”

The transition to NCAA Division I hockey was not an easy one for Jacques. Even though she dressed for 34 of the team’s 38 games, it took her 23 games to finally get on the score sheet in a positive way, with an assist her team’s second goal during a 5-3 win over Rensselaer. She doesn’t remember much about the play that led to the point, but rather the struggles she went through to get it.

“It was a little frustrating in the beginning,” said Jacques. “It was rewarding to finally get something. It’s a lot harder to get on the scoresheet.”

Over the remaining 11 games she played, she notched two more assists.

The Raiders tied for fourth in the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association, and earned a home playoff berth against Harvard, a team that had beaten them each time the Raiders faced them during the regular season.

It took three games, but Jacques and her teammates prevailed in overtime in the third and deciding game.

“That was the first time it had ever happened in the program’s history,” said Jacques of getting a home playoff berth. “That was cool to have some of the school out there supporting us. That was a pretty cool feeling to be able to move on and celebrate that at home.”

The magical season came to an end in the semifinals of the ECAC Tournament with a 5-2 loss to No. 5 Clarkson. The Raiders finished with a record of 22-9-7. The 22 wins were the most wins in school history.

During the banquet after the season ended, Jacques’ teammates surprised her by naming her the most improved player.

Jacques cannot wait for getting back to campus. Next season, the team moves into the Class of 1965 Arena. She and her teammates will look to build upon the success of last season in a renewed chase of a national championship, something Jacques has yet to win despite all of her success in hockey to this point.

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