A lot had happened with women's hockey these past few years. It wasn't just a thing that existed, it was now a thing people actually followed and cheered for. It still had a long way to go to reach the same level as male hockey, but it was something.
During summer break between eight and ninth grade Alicia received a phone call from one of the coaches of Finland's female hockey team (Naisleijonat). It was an invitation to the annual summer training camp for the Finnish national U18 team. Alicia didn't even hesitate to accept. This was her chance to make her longest running dream come true. She knew of course that this wasn't an invitation to actually play for Finland during the next championships, but it was one step closer.
The camp wasn't just for the girl U18 team but also the "adult" Leijonat, male and female, as well as the boy's U18 and U20 teams. This meant that Alicia got to meet some of her childhood heroes. Among them Riikka Välilä who have been playing for team Finland since the first official women's world championships in 1990. She made a lot of new friends during this time and she was able to come out of her shell and even started speaking more Finnish. When the training/development camp was over Alicia officially joined the U18 as a prospect and continued training with them.
How Alicia managed to focus on school, play for the Blues as well as training with the U18 Leijonat no one knows to this day. Luckily it wasn't the season for any of her other hobbies, so she had all the time for hockey.
By the beginning of December Alicia had proven that her hockey skills were something extra. The coaches were so happy with her that they put her on the roster for the U18 world championships in Přerov, Czech Republic. So, at 15 years, 3 months and 26 days Alicia became the youngest player to have ever played in any junior world championships. There wasn't much talk about her during this tournament, sure some people commented on her age, but she was just a third line right winger who was doing very well for her age. The real talking would begin later that spring.
The time after the tournament just flew by. They had won gold for the second time in U18 history and Alicia had scored three goals in the tournament. After that the U18 team had even had the opportunity to train with the Naisleijonat several times during the spring. Because of that she'd even played on a line with some pretty big names. There was nothing that could bring her down. School was going amazing, they'd won the school volleyball tournament, her hockey was developing and she'd even gotten herself a boyfriend named Lukas.
In mid-March Alicia was watching the roster announcement for the Naisleijonat on Twitter to see which of her teammates from U18 and Blues would be going to Burlington in April. She was listening to head coach Pekka Hämäläinen as he said a few familiar names and while Alicia was busy texting her friend and congratulating her for making the team he said something crazy.
" ...and finally, the newest addition to Naisleijonat who will join us in Burlington is none other than Alicia Andersson of Espoo Blues, a 15-year-old left handed forward from Tenala, first time playing for Naisleijonat."
Alicia paused the video and stared at the screen for a few seconds. Then she screamed.
On Monday when Alicia went back to school she was glowing. Everybody congratulated her; students, teachers and other staff members. It was kind of weird as she had never talked to a lot of the students that suddenly talked to her like they were her best friends. She knew it was only because she was kind of famous now, but she didn't care, she had her friends and she didn't have time to let a bunch of fake people into her life.
Her new coach had talked to her parents a few days before he'd made the announcement and they had given him their permission to let Alicia join the team. They'd all agreed that it would be more fun if they kept it quiet and let Alicia find out the news on her own. Given her young age coach Hämäläinen never had the intention of adding Alicia to the roster, but because there had been a few injuries, and they knew that she was good, the coaches had decided to bring her along in the end.
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Back to the kind of famous part. It's of course a big deal for a small town when someone from there makes something of themselves. This was however kind of big all over the country. She was first of all the only Swedish-speaking Finn on the team, and she was in fact the first one ever, so about 300 000 people were going crazy just for that. Second of all she was the youngest player to ever be on a national team (15 years, 7 months and 2 days), so newspapers over the world were writing about her. The second youngest one was a 17-year-old Russian player.
Not so much happened before the tournament. The local newspaper wrote a few articles about her and she gave a few interviews. When a Finnish-speaking reporter wanted to interview her she kind of panicked. She didn't feel like her Finnish was strong enough to handle an interview. Luckily one of the assisting coaches offered to be there with her and help her through it. As it turns out Alicia's Finnish was really good, and she only needed help with a few words.
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There were some difficulties with getting her to the states. As no one in management had believed they'd put her on the roster until very late no one had thought about fixing the necessary paperwork. IIHF have an age restriction when it comes to playing for the national team. For the men's team you must be 18 but are able to play as 16 but then you must obtain an underage waiver. The same rules go for the women only it's enough to be 15 years old. After some stressful phone calls to the right people the paperwork was filed in time and Alicia was able to travel with the team.
Alicia was taking the whole thing quite easy. Sure it was a great honour to be on the national team at such a young age, but it wasn't like she was even going to play in a single game. She was only there in case of an emergency.
Suddenly things were happening. Her name was on tonight's line-up as the second line center, but that had to be a mistake...right? No, it wasn't. She was in her gear, she'd been on the ice during warm-ups. "Why am I not in the press-box?". The game was starting and Alicia was in the face-off circle.
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Notes:
The age thing is no big deal in real life and there have been a lot of players who have been very young when they first started playing for a national team, but this is an "alternate reality" so let's say that this is a big deal. Also Leijonat means the Lions (the name for Finland's national hockey team) and Naisleijonat means the Lady Lions (Finland's female national hockey team). The age restriction part is also partly made up...
This chapter is set between the summer of 2011 and spring 2012
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The Story of Alicia
FanfictionIn January 2007 Alicia joined her first hockey team. She was so happy. She'd never believed that this day would come, but here it was. One step closer to what she'd been dreaming about her whole life. Alicia had no idea that this was only the beginn...
