Ivy or Brown?
Cochrane’s Abby Niewchas doesn’t have to choose because she’s made the next level at Ivy League school Brown University.
The Edge Mountaineers Midget Prep girl’s hockey senior joins the 251-year-old institution in Providence, RI, in the fall, where she begins her National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Div. 1 women’s hockey career with the Bears.
“I’m really excited,” Niewchas says. “They’ve definitely been improving over the years. I know that the program they’ve had has been really good and they’re starting to improve a lot.”
Niewchas, 17, was a rock on the Mountaineers’ blueline all season, helping the team take bronze from the 2014-15 Junior Women’s Hockey League (JWHL) season. The 5-foot-8 defenceman contributed four goals and five assists over 23 games. She was one of seven Edge Midget Prep girls – four from the Cochrane area – to skate on Alberta’s U18 female hockey team at the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C., in February.
Niewchas attributes her, and Edge’s, success this season to first-year head coach Carla MacLeod’s steady guidance. The former Canadian Olympic and world-champion women’s hockey player convinced everyone to buy in to her scheme, even though the results were slow to start. The Mountaineers’ 2-4 September record in tournament and exhibition play was a distant memory by October, with Edge going undefeated (3-0-2) to open the JWHL season. Mountaineers took off from there.
“It was fabulous,” Niewchas says of her senior Edge year. “Carla’s a huge part of our success this year. She was really smart with making sure we were progressing at the right time. She didn’t want to have us winning all our games at the beginning of the year. She knew it would take time.
“I think, at first, a few girls were – it was hard to buy in because we weren’t doing very well. It was like, ‘What the heck is going on here?’ We went through a few hard weekends and I think that’s what built our team.
“To be on that team was awesome.”
MacLeod’s senior class is skating into the world of elite women’s hockey. She’s losing a sizable chunk of her bench (eight players) to graduation, including Niewchas, Bearspaw’s Channia Alexander (Mount Royal University Cougars, Calgary) and Cochrane’s Daria O’Neill (University of Vermont Catamounts).
MacLeod is pleased.
“She’s just going to love it,” MacLeod says of Niewchas’s future at Brown. “I was fortunate to play down at Wisconsin (in college).
“I say to the kids all the time, regardless of where you play – CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport), ACAC (Alberta Colleges Athletic Association), NCAA – it’s just an incredible opportunity and such a fun experience because you’re with like-minded people. You’re all in the same boat as student athletes and working towards a common goal. Abby’s just going to have a blast down there.”
With her prep hockey career in the books, Niewchas is focussing on a new chapter; playing at the next level for the NCAA Div. 1 women’s hockey Brown Bears.
“Brown just felt right. It’s a beautiful campus. Everyone was welcoming and friendly.”
Abby Niewchas, 17
Edge School Mountaineers Midget Prep girl’s senior
5-foot-8 defenceman
4g, 5a in 23 games
Team Alberta U18 female team
Committed to NCAA Div. 1 Brown University Bears next season
