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4 Friday, February 1, 2019 brooklintowncrier.com A Special BTC Feature Brooklin High Students Capture World U18 Gold By Richard Bercuson According to Brooklin High School teacher Matt Snowden, the odds of having two members of a world championship hockey team attend the same high school are one in 547 million. Yet, it happened at Brooklin High. Maggie MacEachern and Daniella Calabrese returned from the World U18 championships in Obihiro, Japan, sporting gold medals after helping Team Canada defeat the US 3-2 in overtime. The two grade 12 students also play for Durham West in the Provincial Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and made Team Canada last summer. The road to the gold medal victory included a semi-final overtime win over Russia, 4-3, a team they'd beaten in a tournament pre-competition 4-0 and then 5-1 in the round robin. Canada also lost 3-2 to the US and defeated Sweden 2-1 in other tournament games. Later this month, MacEachern and Calabrese will wear Ontario jerseys at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alberta. On January 18, Brooklin High feted the two athletes with a lunch time spirit rally, replete with video highlights and Team Canada dress day. Needless to say, the school and staff made it quite an event. Here then is what the girls had to say about their experience, in their own words: Q: You're leaving for Japan. What are you thinking about? MacEachern: We left on Dec. 29 for the first pre-comp camp in Vancouver. I was going in with a lot of confidence being a returner from last year's team and then being named captain in the summer. So I was pretty aware of my role and confident going into the tournament. We were nervous going to a new country but excited to get with the group again and see what we could do. Calabrese: For me it was a little bit different. With this being my first time competing at the worlds, it was different. I was obviously very excited to be back with this group and wearing the jersey. I had a little more nerves having only experienced the summer series. I was really excited getting everyone back together to see what we could do on the world stage. What's the mood of the team on the way overseas? MacEachern: We had a lot of staff on board who had done their research on how to get us physically prepared, like getting us on a sleep schedule, getting us up earlier, going to bed late, trying to acclimatize our bodies in Vancouver before making the flight. We slept a lot in that couple of days. We were nervous going over, trying to figure out how our bodies would adapt. But ultimately I thought that our excitement for the tournament really held us over and didn't make us too tired or nervous so when we got there we were ready to go even though our bodies weren't quite ready yet. Calabrese: I think we were a little overwhelmed going over. It was a very long flight. But we had all the staff doing everything they could to make the change as easy as possible. We were put on different sleep schedules. They told us what to do and what not to do on the plane, like get up, walk around. They gave us little tips that really helped and then when we got there it was just pure excitement. Obviously you're trying to sleep but at the same time you're just so excited. It's kind of hard to get any rest. You arrive in Japan and the adrenalin is flowing, As you're preparing for the first game, what's going through your mind? MacEachern: We started not where the tournament was. We had a little pre-camp. We had a few days there just practising. We wanted the first time we got on the ice to be a good practice and had an exhibition game against Russia where we won 4-0 so that gave us a lot of confidence going into the first game. Our coaches were really up front with us. They told us our roles and what we had to do as a team. We really focused on our goal of a gold medal performance. But not just on that because if we didn't win it'd look like a total failure. So we really focused on the little things and having a great experience together and how that will take us to the gold medal. How did it help having been there the year before? MacEachern: I knew what to expect. For a lot of the girls, it started weeks before. How to get ready. All the rest needed. I knew that I needed a week off before to prepare. The long flight - it took us about a day to get there. I'd done Russia the year before and it was similar to that so I knew the physical issues that were going to come up and how mentally tiring the couple of weeks were going to be. The rush you feel at the end. I won bronze last year. It was still a medal but it wasn't really our goal. I knew what we had to do this year to get the gold. Calabrese: I was a little more nervous. I know I relied on Maggie heavily. Like, before the tournament, I was asking her what to pack and what to expect. It was really good to have someone to turn to and talk to. And then obviously our support staff on the team and our coaches were super supportive with everything. They were so open to questions. They set down expectations of each player. We focused a lot on team objectives and team goals. Our mantra was Humble Warriors. It was more like putting the team first and sacrificing. We kind of knew what it was going to take. Going into the Russia game which we won gave us a lot of confidence. The Sweden game, the first couple of periods we really set the tone for the rest of the tournament. As a new girl on the team, was there a different level of anxiety for you? Calabrese: I wouldn't really say anxiety. I was obviously a little bit continued on page 5