When Erica McKenzie
was 6, she would tag along with her older brother,
Corey, and his best friend, Jeff Taffe, whenever they
played hockey at a local rink. She
begged her father, Neil, to sign her up for a league.
But Hastings had no girls' youth hockey
program at the time, and Neil McKenzie, a basketball
player in his youth, had no interest in seeing his
daughter play a contact sport. ``My dad did not want
me to play ice hockey,'' Erica McKenzie
recalled, laughing. "He always said one thing:
Hockey is for boys."
Erica pulled the
classic kid move and got her mom, Kathy, to sign her up
for hockey. It was a boys team run by a friend of
the family, and Erica turned out to be one of the best
players. |
Erica's
game was nurtured by [some of Hastings']
hockey-elite. She tagged along with Jeff Taffe at
the local rink. Jeff went on to play for the
Gophers, and then the Phoenix Coyotes. Her Pee Wee
A coaches were Marc Chorney and Phil Sykes, both former
NHL players.
From article by Michael Rand, Mpls Star-Trib,
Feb 19, 2003 |
|
|
|
|
Year |
All-State Team |
GP |
G |
A |
Pts |
|
1999-2000 |
Third Team |
|
34 |
23 |
57 |
|
2000-01 |
Third Team |
|
39 |
19 |
58 |
|
2001-02 |
Second Team |
|
51 |
22 |
73 |
|
2002-03 |
First Team |
|
58 |
26 |
84 |
|
2003-04 |
First Team |
|
68 |
22 |
90 |
|
Totals |
|
250 |
112 |
362 |
|
|
Erica McKenzie
8th-grader
2000 3rd T All-State |
|
|
Erica McKenzie
Senior,
2004 Player of the Year
Hastings |
|
|
|
|
| Coach
Jeff Corkish says Erica does things "with the puck 95
percent of the boys I've played with and against never
did". |
|
Erica
was named the 2004 Associated Press Player of
the Year on Tuesday. .. The first person she wanted to
thank was her brother, Corey, for letting her play with
boys who were six years older when she was in
kindergarten... "He is like a role model for me," she
said. "He didn't care that I was younger. He didn't care
that his best friend was Jeff Taffe [now with the NHL's
Phoenix Coyotes]." |
2003
First Team All-State
2004
First Team All-State
2004
Ms Hockey
2004
Player of the Year
Member
of the Girls All-Time Top Players listing
because of twice
"First Team All-State". |
|
|
