Harvard Heads to Frisco for Scoring Load

Last spring, for only the third time in team history, the Harvard women's hockey team elected three captains.

The team elected two rising juniors--U.S. Olympic gold medallist and defenseman Angela Ruggerio and Canadian Olympic silver medallist and the 1999-00 ECAC Player of the Year, Jennifer Botterill.

The team's other choice was soon-to-be senior Angie Francisco.

And as a result of Francisco's leadership this fall, the team's dynamic is much different than it might have been.

The Crimson has a much smaller roster than past years, with only fifteen skaters, and some of the team's key skaters are trying to overcome injuries before the season's start. The team is also one player less than it was supposed to be.

Ruggiero opted to take the 2000-2001 school year off, in order to train with the U.S. National team as it centralizes in Lake Placid. Voted the best defenseman at the World Tournament last year, Ruggiero also intends to take off the following year to compete at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

These circumstances have pushed a great deal of responsibility onto the stick of the team's lone senior captain, the 5'7 Francisco.

However, Francisco has made it a habit of overcoming obstacles and defying expectations.

Francisco started playing hockey at the age of six in her hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. She played in boys' leagues, and contrary to the difficulties that some might expect from playing only with males, Francisco loved every minute of it.

"The boys were great to me and the coaches were great, too," Francisco says. "I never had any problems. It was just a great experience."

Francisco was continuing a family tradition of hockey excellence.

Her father, Pat Francisco, played for Minnesota-Duluth in the 1960's. Angie's cousin, Jason, went on to play for Wisconsin from 1989 to 1993, and was part of the 1990 National Championship team.

Francisco's other cousin, John, currently plays with the WCHA's Minnesota-Duluth.

But when Angie Francisco decided to stop playing hockey after the seventh grade, there were no problems, no pressure from her hockey-rich family.

Francisco instead went on to play basketball through her senior year in high school.

"I played on the varsity team at my high school for my last three years," Francisco says. "I was not really the girl with all the talent, I was the one who went diving for the balls."

Consistent and determined, Francisco helped her team to the state's top eight her junior and senior year. But Francisco knew this was not going to be where she was going to make her mark.

When Francisco started thinking about college, she knew that going to college was going to mean playing college hockey. It was something that always had been in the back of her mind, and as she put more thought into what she was going to do after high school, she sensed that her plan had to include hockey.

"How was I supposed to say to a coach, 'I really want to play for you, but I haven't played for five years?,'" Francisco says. "That's really hard."

Francisco knew it would be difficult to jump back into the sport so late in the recruiting process, but she proceeded to look at some schools across the country and talked to a few coaches.

In Harvard's Coach, Katey Stone, Francisco found someone that was very willing to listen to her story.

After speaking with Stone, Francisco realized she had two options--give it a shot and come to Harvard or stay at home and attend Minnesota-Duluth, which was scheduled to field its first women's team in what would have been Francisco's sophomore year.

The latter seemed like a reasonable choice to Francisco. The extra year would give her the chance to get back on the ice and provide her with the time she needed to refine her skills.

However, Stone and some others directed Francisco in the other direction. In Francisco's eyes, coming to Harvard was her only shot at playing college hockey.

Francisco took a post-graduate year at Phillips Academy, and played hockey for Andover. Her coach at Andover was supportive, and the preparation was essentially just what Francisco was looking for. The team was good, but not so good that Francisco did not get enough ice time to work on her skills.

"It helped me get my feet back under me," Francisco says. "It helped me get back up to speed."

The next year, Angie Francisco came to Harvard. She started her hockey career on a Crimson team that was about .500. By her sophomore year, Francisco was a member of the team that captured the AWCHA National Championship.

"My first year, I really enjoyed the team," Francisco says. "By my sophomore year, we had really turned things up."

Last season was a difficult one for the Crimson. Arguably one of the best teams in the country, Harvard lost its semifinal game to Dartmouth and did not get invited to the National tournament.

It is no surprise that Francisco is determined to bring success to a new Crimson team, with a "new look" this season--fewer skaters and less "big-name talent."

"We only have fifteen skaters or so, so our numbers are definitely down, but that doesn't mean our goals have changed at all," Francisco says. "We still want to be the best team in the country, and we want to do that with smiles on our faces."

"We know that the days of winning games on pure talent are not going to happen anymore. We're going to have to work a lot harder," Francisco says.

Francisco points to the team's shorter, more intense workouts and to her co-captain, Jennifer Botterill, as two factors that can help bring the 2000-2001 Crimson to national dominance.

"We want to be the best team in the country," Francisco says. "We know that's not going to happen overnight. "We have a lot to prove this year. It's not about last year, or years past. We have a lot to prove about our team this year. We are a hard working team with a blue-collar work ethic, and we've got some talent too."

"Also, when you have someone like Jen (Botterill) as your captain, it just makes you want to work toward those goals. She's not just an amazing player but an amazing person. She motivates us and makes us want to work that much harder," Francisco says.

Botterill is the first person to say the same things about Francisco.

"Angie is just the hardest worker," Botterill says. " She is so talented and uses her intensity to finish every play. Angie is a playmaker and has such a great impact on the team--she is just a treat to play with."

Francisco is poised to help raise the level of Harvard's play. However, she knows that it is going to take major contributions from everyone on the team in order to do so.

"It's that blue-collar work ethic that each one of our teammates has to have," Francisco says. "Everyone has to take accountability, everyone has to take it upon themselves to make the team better."

Francisco is determined to make accountability the theme of this year--for her team and for herself.

"There cannot be any looking over your shoulder on the ice, no one can play comfortably," Francisco says.

"Everyone has to take account for themselves and their team," Francisco says. "Everyone has to be able to say 'I think I'm going to make a difference and I'm going to make this team better'. That's what it comes down to."

Francisco surely has the credentials to back up her plan.

She heads the list of the Crimson's returning scorers, and last spring, she was awarded the team's Dooley Award, given to the player with the most sportsmanship, enthusiasm and dedication to the game.

"Angie does whatever it takes to help the team succeed on the ice," Botterill says. "She is unselfish and always puts the team first."

But just because Francisco plays with a team-first attitude, does not mean she has not stood out individually too.

Francisco, who plays both center and wing and is one of the most aggressive players around the net in the ECAC, was an All-Ivy honorable mention last year with 14 goals and 36 assists.

Unexpectedly, Francisco has only one personal goal for this season.

"Individually, I think the one thing I want, is, at the end of this season, to be able to look back and to know I have no regrets," Francisco says. "How did I handle everything I did and didn't do? If I can honestly say that I'm proud of myself, then I'll be a pretty happy person."

It's going to take something special for Francisco to assume responsibility for the Crimson. She admits that she isn't about giving a good speech, it's about leading by example.

Can she help Coach Stone instill that sense of accountability and blue-collar work ethic that in Francisco's eyes is the key to the National Championships? Francisco seems to think so.

In any case, Francisco says, "It's going to be an exciting year."