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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While the Buffalo Sabres have struggled to make it to the playoffs in over a decade, Buffalo was named one of the best cities for hockey fans in a recently released study by WalletHub.

Plans to build a large vessel dock at Schenectady’s Mohawk Harbor have been scuttled.

What was envisioned a magnet for tourism has met a quiet end. The Mohawk Harbor large vessel dock project has been canceled.

Schenectady City Engineer Chris Wallin says the project that aimed to accommodate large boats, yachts and the Erie Canal Cruise Line fell victim to delays caused by the pandemic.

What we called the Large Vessel Dockage project at Mohawk harbor was funded through a 2018 CFA grant, which was a competitive, funded grant through New York State,” said Wallin. “Between 2018 and today we had the COVID epidemic. So the project was put on hold. It was brushed off and restarted around 2022 when we started working with the Army Corps and the DEC and going through the design for the large vessel dockage.”

Wallin says permitting costs were higher than expected, as planning work dragged on.

“As we started to investigate the size and requirements for these docks, the docks were larger and larger, where we were dealing with a 10 foot dock in width, 10 to 12 feet in width, approximately 150 to 250 feet in length, depending on what the budget would end up coming back at,” Wallin said. “And as we started just going through the permitting and cost procedures, we started noticing the costs increasing [with] every revision of the estimate.”

Wallin says the docks chosen for the project also carried a high price. Due to seasonal changes with the Mohawk River — including potential ice jams and flooding — the docks would have to be removed every year and stored. Ultimately, after going out to bid, Wallin says the project came in about $1 million over budget.

“So, where we had around $2 million dollars for the project. I think it came back higher, maybe closer to three. We were looking at, okay, this an investment we still want to make. As we met internally and with the Galesi Group, who was the property owner and would be operating the dock, we came to the conclusion that the ownership and the operating of the docks wasn’t feasible from a cost and from an investment standpoint,” said Wallin.

Meantime, the Erie Canal Cruise Line, envisioned as utilizing the large vessel dock, could not stay afloat due to the economic storm wrought by COVID and went bankrupt. Wallin says a possible alternative, the Albany-based Dutch Apple Cruises, was also dead in the water as its boats were too tall to pass underneath the nearby Freeman’s Bridge.

A representative from Galesi Group was unavailable to comment on the scuttled project.

Metroplex Development Authority Executive Director David Hogenkamp says the agency quickly regrouped to ensure public recreational access to the waterfront.

“We really went back and did some research of what vessels were using Mohawk River and how many vessels were docking at the current harbor. And it was decided that the majority of the vessels that were coming to enjoy the harbor were able to enter through the existing harbor and enjoy Mohawk Harbor. And as of right now, there aren’t any river cruises or anything else that we felt justified making a further investment in the docks. Not that we can’t do that in the future, but right now, we wanted to focus on the local public access,” Hogenkamp said.

Citing recent construction of a hotel and the Mohawk Harbor Events Center, Hogenkamp says development of Mohawk Harbor Landing, including a kayak launch and expanding public spaces, will continue.

Michigan’s Elite RB Turns Heads by Making Major NIL Move originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The college football transfer portal saw over 4,000 entries between the winter and spring portal windows, allowing a plethora of teams to make significant additions.

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Although there were plenty of talented players in the portal, one of the hottest commodities was Alabama transfer running back Justice Haynes. The former five-star recruit spent two seasons in Tuscaloosa before deciding to transfer, with 247Sports ranking him as the No. 1 running back in the portal.

He ended up transferring to the program that handed Alabama its final loss of the season in the Michigan Wolverines, and will look to become the program’s featured back as it hopes to return to title contention.

While fans are already excited about his play on the field as he rushed for 51 yards on six carries in the team’s spring game, according to On3, they are also just as enthused about his ventures off of it. As shared to X on Monday, Haynes inked an NIL deal with Loom Juice, which will see him have an ownership stake in.

“Go blue! Loom juice will be stocked shortly,” wrote one fan.

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“NIL! Go Blue,” exclaimed another.

“Remember when this was the vision for NIL instead of who has the biggest donor base,” suggested a third.

“Equity ownership stake. The ichigan difference,” commented a fourth.

“Actual NIL! Very refreshing to see,” said another.

“OWNERSHIP over ENDORSEMENT,” added another.

According to the company’s site, Loom Juice is a “juice water” with no added sugars. They were named one of the best new brands in 2024 by BevNet.

As for Haynes, On3 currently has his NIL Valuation at $684,000, with this being his first recorded NIL deal since transferring to Michigan. The Wolverines will open the 2025 season against the New Mexico Wolfpack on Aug. 30.

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Related: Rule of Legendary NFL Coach May Prevent Arch Manning From Entering 2026 NFL Draft

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 2, 2025, where it first appeared.

{KXLG – Watertown, SD} The Watertown Shamrocks have been recognized as the North American Hockey League’s (NAHL) 2024-25 Organization of the Year, the league announced. This prestigious award highlights the Shamrocks’ exceptional achievements both on and off the ice during their inaugural season in the NAHL.

Shamrocks’ President Ryan Bisgard expressed his gratitude, stating, “We are so honored to accept the league award of Organization of the Year. Thanks to the dedication of the players, coaching staff, front office, game day staff, and most importantly, the community of Watertown, the Shamrocks have been able to build a long-lasting foundation for years to come. I am immensely proud of what our organization has been able to achieve in such a short amount of time and can’t wait to see what is in store for Watertown, on and off the ice.”

In their debut season, the Shamrocks demonstrated remarkable success in engaging the Watertown community. They sold out 20 of their 29 regular-season home games and reached full capacity five times, fueled by what the organization calls “the best fans in the NAHL.” The team also secured significant financial backing through partnerships with 65 local businesses, ensuring high standards for players and staff.

Vince Foley, Chairman of the Shamrocks, commended the team’s personnel, saying, “We appreciate the recognition offered by the league to our staff. Our front office, broadcast team, athletic training, and coaches worked tirelessly and brought imagination and energy to creating a Shamrocks team that Watertown can be proud to call its own. We also appreciate the support and mentorship of the other Central Division teams’ staff as our team worked through our build-out.”

Beyond their performance at the arena, the Shamrocks made a significant impact through community service. Players dedicated an impressive 972 hours volunteering for various local organizations, including Joy Ranch, Watertown Youth Hockey, Watertown Lions Club, Watertown’s Girls Rule, Watertown’s People Against Child Hunger, the Salvation Army, local elementary schools, and The Village of Harmony Hills assisted living facility. This commitment was further underscored by forward Owen Chartier recently receiving the NAHL’s Community Service Award.

The Shamrocks also actively engaged in philanthropic efforts, raising $49,864 through auctions of game-worn jerseys and first-goal pucks. Their Teddy Bear Toss Night saw fans donate 612 stuffed animals to the Salvation Army. Head Coach and General Manager Casey Kirley has emphasized the importance of character and community involvement among his players, a quality that has resonated with the Watertown community.

On the ice, the Shamrocks overcame a slow start to finish strong, going 14-11-0-4 in the latter half of the season and securing a 6th-place finish in the Central Division. The team has also successfully facilitated over 12 players’ achieving collegiate hockey commitments.

Looking ahead to the 2025-26 season, the Shamrocks are already experiencing tremendous support. Season tickets are currently sold out, and a waiting list exceeds 200 tickets, indicating strong anticipation for their second year in the league.