Frankenmuth goalie goes from backyard rink to Penn State scholarship

FRANKENMUTH, MI – When Lauren Hernick had a choice, she picked pads over sequins and toe saves over toe loops.

Hernick is only 5-feet, 4 inches, but she has become an imposing figure in the goalie crease, earning a scholarship to play college hockey at Penn State.

It began for the 18-year-old Frankenmuth native when she was 3 years old and watching her father, Thomas Hernick, play hockey in a beer league at Saginaw Bay Ice Arena.

“My dad played hockey, so I wanted to skate right away, and we had a backyard rink,” Hernick said. “I went to Saginaw Bay Ice Arena and started playing hockey in preschool. I’ve been playing ever since.”

Thomas and Sandy Hernick took both of their daughters, 3-year-old Lauren and 5-year-old Payton, to Saginaw Bay Ice Arena to learn how to skate.

“I don’t remember which girl asked, but they wanted to play hockey,” Thomas Hernick said. “I told them that we had to teach them how to skate first, so we went to Saginaw Bay. One half of the ice was figure skating. The other half was hockey.

“My oldest gravitated to the figure skating side, and Lauren went to the hockey side.”

Lauren Hernick noticed that she was an unusual participant in the hockey activities.

“The figure skating side was all girls, but the hockey side was all boys,” Lauren Hernick said. “I remember that you were only playing like half of the ice and you don’t really have a goalie … you kind of rotate being the goalie.

“My first game doing it, I did really well and didn’t let in any goals at a tournament. Nobody else wanted to do it. I was pretty good at it, so I asked them to let me stay doing it. Let’s see if we can win. After that, I stayed the goalie for the rest of the year.”

And a goalie was born, although it wasn’t always easy finding a team.

She played on a boys travel team in Bay City and then the Saginaw Jr. Spirit girls team. She still practiced with the boys teams, offering to serve as a goalie for their workouts.

“If you want to play locally, there really wasn’t a girls team,” Lauren Hernick said. “I give a lot of the credit for my skill level now to playing against the boys growing up, especially boys older than me. They were a lot faster, and the game was faster.”

She continued to play locally during her first year at Frankenmuth High School, while also competing in track for the Eagles as one of the team’s top freshman sprinters.

As a freshman, Hernick ran the 100-meter dash in 13.92 seconds and the 200 in 28.75 seconds. She teamed with Rosemary Brenner, Dani Titsworth and Keira Larrison on an all-freshman relay team in the 800, finishing in 1:53.76.

She also earned a Division 2 regional title as part of a 400 relay team that won in 52.70 seconds.

But Hernick’s hockey aspirations grew larger, and she traveled to Northville to play for HoneyBaked Ham and Biggby Coffee teams during her sophomore and junior years of high school.

“When I played for Biggby, it was really exciting because there were a lot of shots, and I was able to keep my team in the games,” Lauren Hernick said. “I was getting maybe 50 shots on goal a game.

“It was fun. It was entertaining. It was in our zone the whole time, and I was constantly seeing action. It was exciting knowing that I could win games for me team.”

Her future changed, however, when she enrolled in an elite hockey camp at Penn State, making the seven-hour drive in December.

“Penn State has always been a dream school of mine, and I subscribed to their email list,” Lauren Hernick said. “I got an email about the camp and asked my parents if we could go. I went to the camp and afterwards sent them an email saying thank you.

“About a month later, the goalie coach called me and offered me a spot on the team. I knew the coach (Ben Halford) before I went to the camp. I knew him from his goalie coaching business, and I had been talking to him all year. I never thought that while I was talking to him, he might have been recruiting me too.”

Penn State plays in the Atlanta Hockey America conference and is coming off a 31-6-1 season, 19-1 in the conference. The Nittany Lions were ranked in the Top 10 in the country before falling to St. Lawrence in an NCAA hockey regional game.

The Penn State coaching staff, however, had plans for Hernick before she took the ice for the Nittany Lions.

“I committed to Penn State in January of my junior year,” Hernick said. “They thought it would be a good idea for me to play in Philadelphia during my senior year because I could improve my skills and play for a better team.”

In 11 games for the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers 19-under team, Hernick was 8-3 with four shutouts and a 2.61 goals-against average for a team ranked 11th in the nation.

“The Flyers were a Tier I team, and we were ranked 11th in the country and went to the nationals, which was really cool,” Hernick said. “It was in Boston, and the rink had 12 different sheets of ice with a ton of scouts everywhere. Everywhere you went, there was a college coach watching.

“I had already committed, so I wasn’t super nervous playing there. I didn’t have to worry about it. It was good, though, because my college coaches were able to watch me play.”

Hernick played in two games for the Flyers in the national tournament, going 1-1.

She does not expect to play much during her freshman year. Penn State returns standout goalie Katie Desa, who was the Goaltender of the Year in the AHA.

“There’s another freshman goalie coming in, so we’ll compete to get in a few games our freshman years to get some experience,” Hernick said. “That’s my goal.”

Hernick does have dreams about maybe playing professionally or in the Olympics, but her goal is to become a dentist after her college hockey career.

“Sometimes I wish I was a forward because it looks so much cooler and more fun to score goals,” Lauren Hernick said. “But I’m really glad that I chose goalie. I enjoy it, and I’m good at it.”

It also beats wearing sequins.

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