"It
was nice to put that jersey on." Maryna Macdonald of Ditidaht
Nation, B.C.
Though she's been attending
one of the world's most prestigious universities for several weeks
now, Maryna Macdonald frequently finds that she has to reassure
herself that she is indeed a student/athlete at Harvard University.
Macdonald, a member of
British Columbia's Ditidaht First Nation, is a first-year student
at the renowned university, located in the Massachusetts city of
Cambridge, which is part of the Boston metropolitan area.
Macdonald, an 18-year-old
who plays defence, is also gearing up for her rookie season with
the Harvard Crimson women's hockey team.
"It definitely hits you
in different moments," Macdonald said of the numerous times she
has had to take a quick pause to confirm to herself that yes, she
is actually at the Ivy League school.
She arrived at Harvard
in August as her hockey squad began its preparations for the coming
year. Her classes at the university began the first week of September.
Being a first-year student,
Macdonald has yet to declare her major at the liberal arts school.
But she is eager to eventually study environmental engineering.
Macdonald and her Harvard
teammates are scheduled to kick off their 2018-19 regular season
on Friday, October 19, at home against the Dartmouth Big Green from
Hanover in New Hampshire.
The Crimson compete in
the 12-team conference dubbed ECAC Hockey, formerly known as the
Eastern College Athletic Conference.
Harvard is the only Massachusetts-based
entry in the ECAC Hockey loop.
The circuit also includes
six schools from the state of New York. They are Clarkson, Colgate,
Cornell, St. Lawrence, Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute.
A pair of Connecticut
schools Yale University and Quinnipiac University
are also members.
And the league also includes
Rhode Island's Brown University and New Jersey's Princeton University.
Macdonald has actually
already donned a Crimson jersey.
Harvard defeated visiting
McGill University from Montreal 4-0 in its lone exhibition match,
which was held this past Friday.
"It was nice to put that
jersey on," Macdonald said.
The teen was one of seven
defence players Harvard dressed for that outing. Macdonald and another
rookie, Kyra Willougby, took turns taking shifts with sophomore
Sydney Sorkin. Macdonald said she still anticipates having some
butterflies in her stomach prior to Friday's official season opener
even though she has already suited up for Harvard, albeit in a pre-season
contest.
"Of course I'll be nervous,"
she said. "That's a good thing though."
Despite being a first-year
university student, Macdonald is well accustomed to living away
from home.
That's because in 2017
she moved more than two hours from her home in Port Alberni, B.C.
in order to spend her Grade 12 year at Shawinigan Lake School, a
private co-ed boarding school.
She primarily made that
move in order to toil with Shawinigan Lake's Female Prep squad,
which competes in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.
The Shawinigan Lake squad
managed to win just four of its 21 games. But Macdonald led all
blueliners on her club in scoring with nine points, including four
goals, while appearing in 18 matches.
Macdonald already knew
what it was like to live away from home. But it's a considerably
different feeling now.
"Definitely being across
the continent is different," she said.
Macdonald insists she
has not established any personal statistical goals she would like
to achieve this season.
"I don't like to set
goals like that," she said. "Sometimes it puts you in the wrong
mindset."
Before she headed to
Shawinigan Lake, where she was an assistant captain, Macdonald had
spent two seasons starring with the Vancouver Island Seals' Major
Midget AAA squad.
She was the Seals' top
point-getter among defence players during both the 2015-16 and 2016-17
seasons.
Macdonald also represented
British Columbia four times at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships.
She was a member of B.C.'s bronze medallists at the national tournament
in 2017.
Meanwhile, Macdonald
is joining a Harvard squad that a year ago posted a conference record
of 10-10-2, good for seventh place in its league. The Crimson also
registered an over-all record of 13-16-2.
"We have a pretty young
team," Macdonald said, adding she is one of seven rookies on this
year's roster.
But that doesn't prevent
the Crimson from shooting for the stars. Macdonald said at a recent
goal-setting meeting team members agreed they are striving to win
a national title this season.
And even though they
posted a .500 mark in conference play last season, Macdonald does
not believe a league championship is out of reach this year.
"It could be anybody
winning that," she said.
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