Winny Brodt

Winny Brodt (nmnathletics.com)

The person I admire the most is Winny Brodt. She was a hockey player for the Minnesota Gophers and also played in the USA Women’s hockey team in the Olympics. Since I love to play hockey, she is one of my role models. The characteristics I admire about her are: never giving up, dreaming big, and realizing that winning isn’t everything. She has shown all of these qualities in her life.

Winny Brodt was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on February 18, 1978, and grew up in Roseville, Minnesota. She is the middle child between two brothers and two sisters. Each child is six years apart, so currently, the youngest is 18 and the oldest is 42 years old. Her dad owns his own insurance agency, and her mom is a stay-at-home mom. She spent a lot of time with her parents before and after school. Her mom started her out ice-skating when she was eighteen months old. She is still skating today.

Winny attended Emmet D. Williams Elementary School, Roseville Area Middle School, and Roseville Area High School. Her favorite subjects in school were English and History. In college she had a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Communications. Throughout school, she was involved in student council, National Honor Society, soccer, hockey, and golf.

The person that influenced her the most was her A Bantam coach, Denny Malarkey. He took her on his team and gave her the opportunity to play at the highest level of hockey. He also gave her the confidence as a player. She loved playing hockey because she had a passion for the game. Her parents were a big influence and support in her life and allowed her to follow her dreams by giving her the things she needed to help her reach her goals of playing for the University of Minnesota hockey team and on the women’s USA National hockey team.

Winny encountered many struggles in life. When she started hockey, she played with the boys and played on the top teams. She had to work hard to get the respect of her teammates. This attitude and work ethic followed her through her career in anything she did. She was never satisfied with how good she was. She always wanted to get better and knew she had to get better. When she started playing hockey, there were no women’s Olympic hockey teams or women’s college scholarships. She was extremely lucky that these opportunities came along for her. She always says, “Dream big. Don’t let your fears control your life.”

I know now that you can succeed at anything as long as you try to get better, and that you shouldn’t be satisfied with where you are at; you should always try to do better. Dream big; don’t stop yourself just because someone else thinks that what you are doing is stupid. Winny Brodt dreamed big and followed her dreams.