Sara Seiler, former captain of the Ravens women’s hockey team and a current fitness coach for the team, has headed to Germany in the hopes of being selected for the German national team that will compete in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Seiler, who is originally from Germany, was a part of the German team that competed in the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.
She is currently in Germany training in preparation for the Olympic training camps that will take place in mid-December and January, after which the roster for the team will be made.
Seiler said she thinks she will be gone until March 2014, if she does make the team.
In preparation for the training camps, Seiler said she is doing a mix of on-ice and off-ice training. She said she is also playing and practising with a club team, EFC Ingolstadt, in order to stay in shape.
“The Olympics are a rare opportunity and every athlete dreams about being a part of it, so for me it’s my last chance to go to the Olympics again,” she said. “I enjoy playing hockey, I mean if it wasn’t fun anymore I wouldn’t play, it’s still fun and now with this goal ahead it makes it a lot easier to train and practice.”
In terms of returning to the Ravens, Seiler said “right now it’s up in the air.”
“It’s awesome that I got the opportunities that I have with hockey but I’m old enough now to stop, so right now I don’t know what my long-term plans will be once I’m done playing this season,” she said.
Shelley Coolidge, head coach of the Ravens women’s hockey team, said Seiler is driven and is “a very focused, intense competitor.”
“Her leadership wasn’t just on the ice, it was also off of the ice,” she said. “[Seiler] didn’t take anything for granted and . . . paid attention to the detail and was very thoughtful in her execution.”
Coolidge said Seiler brought a sense of leadership as a fitness coach for the team, allowing them to learn from the kind of training that she had to do.
“Having her in that fitness role has provided her with that environment for her to train in, and then to be able to take some of the things that she’s learned in her own training and translate that to our student athletes,” she said. “[The] Ravens program as a whole is looking forward to supporting Sara in her quest to make the team in Sochi and we hope that we’ll have the chance to cheer for her at the Olympics.”
