|
A
Perspective |
The town of Luverne is small,
as are the towns
of Roseau and Warroad.
Luverne High
School has a small enrollment,
as does Roseau
and Warroad.
The similarities end there.
Roseau and Warroad
[Northern Minnesota] are rich in hockey tradition.
Luverne [SW Minnesota] is in the area of the state
least known for any
hockey tradition. |
Natalie has accumulated 357
career points. As a junior, she scored 99
points (3.67 pts/gm). As a senior, she
scored 103 points (3.81 pts/gm). Her
achievements are not known outside southwestern
Minnesota. She deserves to be
recognized.
John
of MNPuck |
|
How She Got Started
Playing hockey with the boys was something that
came natural to Natalie,
who developed an interest in the sport watching
her older brothers, Nicholas and Nathan, play
when she was a child.
Hockey has always been a common interest
shared by every member of the Larry and Merecie
Domagala family, and it wasn't
any different for Natalie.
"I learned to skate when I was 2 years old, and
I started playing hockey when I was three," she
said. "I just
like everything about hockey. It's
one of those sports that you can play when you
are little. It
grows on you, and you grow to love it."
Natalie spent a good
share of her grade school years playing hockey
with boys teams in the winter.
She did more than hold her own against
the boys in elementary school. She
always was the leading scorer and top player on
the team.
But the challenge of competing against boys
became greater when Natalie reached the seventh grade.
"It got a little rough," she said. "Once I got to the Peewee level,
where checking is allowed, it got pretty tough because some of the
boys were a lot bigger than me."
Natalie joined the girls hockey program as an eighth-grader in the
2000-01 season, which was the year Luverne scrubbed its club program
to become an official member of Minnesota State High School League
ranks. |
|
When
Natalie was little she got a pair of figure
skates for Christmas.
She cried because they weren't black like her
brothers. So
they had to take them back
for hockey skates. |
|
Her High School Stats
|
Season |
All-State Team |
GP |
G |
A |
Pts |
Pts/Gm |
|
2000-01 |
-
- - |
(67) |
28 |
9 |
37 |
|
|
2001-02 |
-
- - |
41 |
9 |
50 |
|
|
2002-03 |
Honorable M |
53 |
15 |
68 |
|
|
2003-04 |
Honorable M |
27 |
74 |
25 |
99 |
3.67 |
|
2004-05 |
Honorable M |
27 |
76 |
27 |
103 |
3.81 |
|
Totals |
121 |
272 |
85 |
357 |
|
|
|
|
Natalie Domagala
Senior, Luverne
Controls the puck, Nov
2004 |
|
|
Natalie, Soph,
No.16
Skating for South Dakota
State |
|
|
Natalie Domagala
Junior
South Dakota State |
|
|
A Final Tribute
"She [Natalie] is very smooth.
She has a good shot, and
she sees the ice really well. She has great hands, and she is a very
good puck-handler. The one thing that sticks out in my mind when I
think of Natalie is that I've never seen her sweat.
She's so smooth
on the ice, and she makes everything look easy."
Coach
Dave Siebenahler
"I
did play against Natalie for a couple years
and I actually played with her on a summer
team for 2 or 3 years. We're friends and
still talk. She
is a very, very smooth player. Her skills
as an individual are beyond impressive. She
is very fast, good at stick handling, and
has a great shot. She was the biggest
threat for Luverne and you could instantly
tell that she was who you needed to watch."
Jill Jacobs, Marshall Tigers,
Class of 2008
A final comment from Natalie:
She would give
away all of her career statistics for one section championship,
and a trip to the State.
|
|
|
