Once upon a time Molly Groenewegen was a young girl learning the rudiments of hockey at North Frontenac Arena as an 11-year-old Frontenac Flyer. She was then attending St. Patrick’s Catholic School in Harrowsmith. Although many young hockey players grow up and out of the sport, Molly has kept on playing, for the Sydenham High School Golden Eagles, and finally for the Queen’s Golden Gaels Women’s team.

Now in her fifth and final year at Queen’s, Molly, who plays forward, is the captain of the Golden Gaels and will be leading the team when it plays at the Ontario University Athletic Association Tournament in St. Catherine's at Brock University in early March.

Molly wants to bring her hockey experience back home when she graduates. As a concurrent education student, she studied Geography and Math for four years, making the dean’s list upon graduation. This year, she is completing her education degree, which includes month-long placements in local schools. In the first term she did a placement at Sydenham High School, and she is now placed at Loughborough Public School with the grade 7 Challenge Program.

“I’m hoping to do some coaching when I graduate, either for a high school or at the local level,” she said in an interview earlier this week. She hopes to get a job teaching at Sydenham High School eventually.

She has little time these days to think that far ahead, however, as she works her way through what she describes as her toughest year at Queen’s and looks forward to the upcoming hockey tournaments.

“The biggest thing for us this year has been finishing ahead of Toronto, who have been our main rivals for as long as I’ve been playing for Queen’s.”

As the second place team in the Ontario League, behind Wilfrid Laurier, the Golden Gaels have earned a bye into the semi-finals, where they expect to meet their historic rivals from the University of Toronto .

“We are feeling good about playing Toronto because we beat them each time we played them this year,” Molly said.

The winner of the semi-final will not only play in the League Final against either Wilfrid Laurier, Brock or Guelph , and they will also earn a berth in the Canadian University Championships, to be hosted by St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia .

While Molly Groenewegen has not found the on-ice role of being captain of the Golden Gaels too difficult, since the team has “really good chemistry and there are no real issues with the players”, she has had to find extra time for community events this year. As captain, she has been involved in fundraising activities for the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston, including a skills competition with members of the armed forces, the Kingston Police, and Penitentiary. There will also be a Kids for Kids hockey tournament later in March to the benefit of the neo-natal cancer program at The Eastern Ontario Cancer Centre.

For the next two weeks, however, apart from the students at Loughborough Public School , Molly Groenewegen will be concentrating on the final hockey games of her university career.

Meanwhile, at a dairy farm near Harrowsmith, her proud family will be waiting to hear of her success.