Feb. 18, 2005
By Elliot Olshansky
CollegeSports.com
With less than a year remaining before the 2006 Winter Olympics, many of the top NCAA women's hockey players can't help but think about representing their countries in Italy next February.
Harvard tri-captain Nicole Corriero isn't one of them.
The senior from Thornhill, Ontario is the nation's leading goal-scorer, averaging 1.8 goals-per-game going into this weekend's series at St. Lawrence and Clarkson. She ranks behind only Minnesota's Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell - both locks to play for Team USA in Turin next year - in points per game. However, in spite of her collegiate accomplishments, Corriero will not be donning the red and white of her home country anytime soon.
In fact, you could even say it's because of her collegiate accomplishments.
In February 2003, Corriero -- then in her sophomore season at Harvard -- was scheduled to play for the Canadian Under-22 select team in the Air Canada Cup -- a tournament held in Germany that also features teams from Finland, Switzerland, and Germany. Only one problem: the tournament conflicted with Harvard's home game against Dartmouth, generally the highlight of the Crimson's ECACHL season.
|
|
 |
"When I got invited," Corriero said in an interview this past Monday, "it took me maybe a day or so to really think about it. But for me, it wasn't as difficult a decision, because the Harvard-Dartmouth rivalry is something that is very unique and very special. Harvard-Dartmouth is definitely the game that people come to [at Harvard]. That's definitely the game that a lot of our fellow students will come out to as well, and people around the neighborhood. It's always fun to see that in that game in particular, the student section is always packed."
"The reason why the game is so great is not because our teams hate each other, per se. A lot of my best friends go to Dartmouth. I think it's just the level of play. We bring out the best in each other, and it's such a fun game to be a part of. It's always so intense. Everybody brings their 'A game,' and that goes both ways."
Beyond the excitement of the Harvard-Dartmouth game at the Bright Center, Corriero also considered its importance. "I also think that at that point in our season," Corriero said, "with only four teams going to the Frozen Four, every game counts, especially against top teams. So for us, and for my team, I knew that I would be a lot more use to my team at home than I would to the Under-22 team in Germany.
"And, of course, it was the beginning of the new semester, and I'm applying to law school, and my grades are obviously very important. So, I didn't think it would be good for me to miss, not only the Beanpot and the Dartmouth game, and the game against Mercyhurst, but I didn't want to miss out on a week of school as well."
In the end, the choice was clear: Corriero declined Hockey Canada's invitation, as did Dartmouth defenseman Louise Pietrangelo, who had also been invited. Corriero explained her choice in a letter to Hockey Canada. "I sent the coach an e-mail, outlining why I couldn't go, and I talked to her on the phone a couple of days later. I probably didn't go into as much detail. I didn't really think much of it at the time, to be honest."
Harvard won the game, 2-1, and continued on as the nation's top-ranked team, winning the Ivy League title and ECAC regular season title before losing the ECAC tournament crown to Dartmouth, and falling to Minnesota Duluth in the NCAA championship game.
Despite the late-season disappointments, everything appeared to be fine, for the moment. Corriero was invited to two more Hockey Canada camps, including the selection camp for the next Under-22 team. This time around, though, Corriero was cut, despite having made the team during the previous summer.
"I didn't really think of it much at the time," Corriero said. "I was pretty upset for a couple of days, but I thought of it more as something with the way I was playing. I was kind of confused, because I kind of felt like I had a decent camp, and like I could have been on that team. But there's nothing you can really do. When you go into those camps, all you can do is just play your hardest, and after that, it's out of your hands."
That fall, Corriero, along with other Canadians playing college hockey in the U.S., received a letter from Hockey Canada regarding her commitment to the national team program.
"Hockey Canada had these player agreements that they wanted us, our coaches, and our athletic directors to sign," Corriero said, "that basically said that Team Canada would be my number one priority over my Harvard commitments, both hockey and school."
"I was very hesitant to sign it, and Coach [Katey] Stone and the Harvard athletic director didn't sign it, so I didn't send in my agreement, because I didn't think that Team Canada should have a priority over an education at Harvard and playing with my team at Harvard. I kind of made it clear to them that as long as I was in the program, Team Canada wouldn't be my first priority. I would put my education and Harvard hockey before that."
Corriero expresses no regret about her decision, despite the fact that neither she nor Pietrangelo has competed for Canada since.
"They want people who are going to be committed to their program," Corriero said, "and I completely respect that. I think that because I wasn't able to provide the commitment that they wanted, we just severed ties."
Corriero had another successful season with the Crimson in 2003-04, leading the nation in scoring with 73 points (42g, 31a), earning second team All-American honors, and helping lead the Crimson to an ECAC title and the NCAA championship game, where Minnesota won the title with a third-period outburst.
Then, at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece introduced the world to a loophole in Olympic regulations, using foreign nationals of Greek descent to fill out teams in sports like baseball and softball, which aren't popular in Greece. With the 2006 Winter Games scheduled to take place in Italy - a country not exactly known for its female hockey players - the possibility of Olympic competition reappeared for Corriero, whose family is Italian.
"I had considered playing for Team Italy," Corriero said. "Me [and former Harvard teammates] Angie Francisco, and Vanessa Bazzocchi, we'd all been considering that. It wouldn't have been hard for me to get a dual citizenship, but there were a lot of factors that would have gone into it that made it not really worth it."
"Also, I wasn't really crazy about going to the Olympics on a not-very-good team and just getting outplayed by everybody. I mean, some people have Olympic dreams, but that's not mine. I don't have any hang-ups about hockey. If my last game happens to be in a Harvard jersey, I wouldn't consider my career to be unfulfilled."
So, with the books closed on her international career, Corriero has focused all her energy on her senior year at Harvard, and with 45 goals and 20 assists to her name, it's kind of hard to argue against that. Harvard struggled early on, but the Crimson have picked it up, currently sitting first in the ECACHL with four games remaining in the regular season.
"It's definitely been great," Corriero said of her senior season, "and I think that having that knowledge in the back of my head that this could be it has certainly been that extra force propelling me forward. I have two amazing linemates, Julie [Chu] and Sarah [Vaillancourt]. Our linemate chemistry is just awesome. They're both incredible hockey players who make everyone around them better."
As if her success on the ice weren't enough, Corriero has law school in her sights.
"I've worked for the past five summers or so at my uncle's personal injury law firm in Toronto," Corriero said, "so I could go into that field, at least I'd probably want to do that at first. Then, I'd want to go into sports law."
One recent issue in sports law has already motivated Corriero's academic pursuits in the form of her senior thesis.
"I'm writing my thesis on fighting in hockey, and my thesis takes on a more sociological perspective, but I eventually want to look into it on a more legal scope, and talk about why it's there, ways it can be regulated, and ways that the game can be safer."
It probably doesn't hurt that Corriero is a good friend of 2001 Harvard graduate and fellow Thornhill native Steve Moore, not to mention his younger brother Dominic, a 2003 Harvard graduate. The elder Moore, playing for the Colorado Avalanche, had his neck broken last season by a brutal hit from Todd Bertuzzi that resulted in Bertuzzi being suspended from the NHL and indicted for assault causing bodily harm (he plead guilty and received a conditional discharge).
"That definitely made me think about what kinds of things you can do - implicitly or explicitly - to make people be more aware of the consequences of their actions," said Correiro.
So, what has she found?
"My research is more qualitative than quantitative," Corriero said. "Hockey's the kind of sport that has an inherent aggression to it that requires a more constructive means of releasing that aggression. So, in the case of professional hockey and junior hockey, that's in the form of fistfights, because very rarely do people get hurt, and there's a very standard way of doing it. It allows for a kind of policing and regulation without injuring somebody. But there are a lot of factors - the speed of the game, the fact that you've got sticks, you're in an enclosed area - that up the intensity, and you start thinking more instinctively instead of rationally, and that's where the violent acts come from."
For Corriero, thinking instinctively has been a huge help to the Crimson on the ice, and her ability to think rationally about her future has helped her prepare for life off of it. Before she enters her life after hockey, though, there's still a national championship to win, or so she hopes.
"I think that over the years, I've definitely been so benefited by my hockey team, and just the amount that my game has been able to develop here over the years. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity, and my philosophy is that I want to give as much back to the school and the program as I possibly can."
While Corriero certainly hopes to bring Harvard a national championship - "that's definitely the primary goal of my season," Corriero said - could the 2005 Patty Kazmaier Award be on the list of "presents" as well? One of 10 candidates for the award - along with teammate Chu - Corriero could be come the fourth Crimson player to win the sport's highest individual honor.
"I can't even describe that," Corriero said, when asked about the award. "I'm just going to go out there and play my best. I'm not the one who picks who wins, and there are some pretty amazing hockey players on that list, so I'm certainly not expecting anything, but obviously, that would be amazing."
Given Corriero's commitment and sacrifices - not to mention her play - "amazing" seems like just the right word.
 Harvard's Nicole Corriero |
