Photo Credit: Seifried Portrait Design.
First Row: Evelyn Folkerts (Manager), Maya Earhart, Kennedy Murphy, Nani Rosario, Avery Kurt, Geminnie Lopez, Marial Parish, Alexis Sundeen, Elin Sheppmann, Francesca Martin, Hayden Olson, Corinn Wells, Paige Hartwig.
2nd Row: Kate Hagan, Halyn Haycraft, Lauren Bettin, Harper Artz, Kynlee Beemer, Madison Sokolaski, Joslyn Meyer, Aspen Wickert, Alexis Haycraft, Kylie Flanagan, Carly Gustafson, Taylor Truesdell
Back Row: Josh Meyer, Aaron Haycraft, Ryan Parish, Greg Ingvoldstad, Madelyn Leqve
FAIRMONT – Last season was a year of firsts for Fairmont High School girls hockey during the 2024-2025 winter season.
On top of bringing in Aaron Haycraft as the team’s new head coach, the Cardinals had their best season in over five years. Fairmont’s 15-11-1 record was the first time the program has seen an above .500 win total since the 2015-2016 campaign.
Now, with the return of multiple key pieces from last season’s roster, coach Haycraft believes this year’s Cardinals team can soar onto even bigger heights this coming winter.
“I love this team,” coach Haycraft said. “This team is a really tight-knit group of girls, and they love to compete and play hockey. It’s a fun group to be around, and it makes my job extremely easy coming to the rink every day. They really enjoy playing hockey together.”
The reason for this belief stems from the return of so many players from last season’s roster. Coach Haycraft and the rest of his coaching staff have the pleasure of bringing back 13 individuals with prior varsity experience: eight sophomores, four juniors, and one ninth-grader.
Coach Haycraft hopes that last season’s varsity tenure will help develop some of these athletes. While the group is still relatively young as a collective, one season under their belts at the varsity level can only help.
“We are returning those eight sophomores, four juniors, and our ninth-grader, but at the same time, all of those girls have a year of varsity experience underneath them,” Aaron Haycraft said. “They all played last year. While we are still a young team, we are far more experienced than we were last year.”
The Cardinals’ style of play will be similar to last season, emphasizing defense and puck possession to limit the opponents’ shots on goal.
Outside of goalkeeper Alexis Sundeen coming back to this season’s roster, Aaron Haycraft returns all four starting defenders from last year – Harper Artz, Kynlee Beemer, Kennedy Murphy, Avery Kurt – giving the Cardinals plenty of experience in their backline.
The consistency on the defensive side of the ice gives the rest of Fairmont’s forwards confidence to skate fast, always look for chances at the net, and control the puck in the offensive zone.
Luckily for coach Haycraft, the Cardinals are set to return their top four goal scorers in Alexis Haycraft, Lauren Bettin, Mariel Parish, and Halyn Haycraft. This same line helped last year’s Fairmont team average three goals per game over 27 contests.
“We have an exceptional goalie in Alexis Sundeen,” coach Haycraft said. “We rely on her for a lot of our success. That creates a lot of confidence with our other players to go out and play aggressively and fast, and not worry about making mistakes because they know they have that backdrop behind us.”
One thing coach Haycraft and his staff did this season was increase the strength of schedule for his team. Going to play a handful of teams who are traditionally strong in the sport, such as Mankato West-Loyola-St. Clair, Simley and Prior Lake, can not only increase the team’s Quality Results Formula (QRF) but prepare Fairmont for the tough competition found in the section.
“We made the decision to increase the difficulty of our schedule by finding teams that play really fast and physical,” coach Haycraft said. “When you get out of southern Minnesota, the game is extremely physical, and I’ve always said, ‘You can’t learn to play fast unless you are forced to play fast.’ By playing that faster competition, that will increase our read and react time.”