Building teams on a dream
HOCKEY IMPORTS ANSWER SOUTH KOREA’S CALL FOR THE PYEONGCHANG 2018 WINTER OLYMPICS
Some female college s t udents r eceived emails a few years ago that sounded like a phishing scam, offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for free travel and a spot on South Korea’s Olympic women’s hockey team.
The offers were sincere. Officials in South Korea had apparently scoured online rosters for North American college hockey programs, l ooking for women with last names that looked as if they might be Korean. They were on a shopping spree to assemble Olympic hockey teams from scratch for the 2018 Winter Games.
As the host of the next Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea has automatic berths in men’s and women’s hockey. But hockey here is an afterthought, so the country had to get creative if it wanted to field teams that would not be humiliated.
“I never dreamed this would happen,” said Danelle Im, who was born in Toronto to Korean parents and was attending Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., in 2012 when she received the curious email. She is now a forward on South Korea’s national team.
For the men’s team, they recruited several North Americans playing on one of the three South Korea-based teams in the Asia League. They offered naturalization to a handful of players from the U. S. and Canada — none of whom have any Korean ancestry.
Mike Testwuide, a Colorado native, was approached by the national team coach, Jim Paek, a two- time Stanley Cup champion with the Pittsburgh Penguins, during his second season with Anyang Halla of the Asia League. On a men’s squad that includes players with a wide range of abilities, Testwuide, a strapping 6- foot- 5 centre, offers the big, physic- al presence in short supply here. The prospect of joining the Olympic fraternity t hrilled t he 30- year- old Testwuide. But it took him a week to agree to become the first men’s hockey player to become a dual citizen of the United States and the Republic of Korea.
“There’s a lot of negativity out there,” Testwuide said. “In the U. S. it was like, ‘ Why would you want to play for another country?’” He added, “And in Korea it’s like, ‘ Why are we bringing you guys in?’”
Marissa Brandt, who played at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., will be a defenceman on the women’s team, whose roster is about 20- per- cent North American. She was born in South Korea and adopted by an American family. “When I was in the States, I didn’t want to be Korean, I wanted to be like everyone else,” she said. In the summer of 2015, she travelled to Korea for the first time since her adoption to attend a hockey camp and was transformed.
“It was definitely an eyeopener,” said Brandt, who now wears her Korean name, Yoon Jung Park, on her jersey. “Coming back, I am Korean.”
“It’s such a young hockey country,” said Matt Dalton, the Canadian- born goaltender who plays for Anyang Halla. “Anything they can put their hat on, they try to use it to further momentum. Like when we beat Japan once and people were like, ‘ We’re better now.’ When I hear something like that, my first instinct is, ‘ Guys, let’s not get too high here.’”
IT’S SUCH A YOUNG HOCKEY COUNTRY ... WE BEAT JAPAN ONCE AND PEOPLE WERE LIKE, ‘WE’RE BETTER NOW.’ WHEN I HEAR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, MY FIRST INSTINCT IS, ‘GUYS, LET’S NOT GET TOO HIGH HERE.’ — MATT DALTON, CANADIAN-BORN GOALIE FOR SOUTH KOREA