Kent School’s girls hockey team is currently having one of their best seasons in many years with a 9-3 record, and part of that success can be credited to their goalie Alyson Baldwin ’16.

Baldwin is a Texas native and a recent commit to the University of Wisconsin, but what makes her different from any other “good” goalie is how and what she has accomplished to get here.

At six months old she was adopted from Russia. From the beginning her parents noticed her athletic abilities and started her off ice-skating at a very young age. Around nine or ten years old, after seeing many kids her age out on the ice playing hockey, she decided to join them.

“My first season I started as a forward, but I was horrible,” says Baldwin, “Then I thought I should try a different position, so I tried goalie. It kind of just stuck.”

Since then, Baldwin has excelled as a goalie.  At a relatively small 5’1”, she’s learned to overcome height with skill. She believes, “it would be ideal to be a couple inches taller, but I’ve made it work.” Through her training, she “realized it’s not just about the size. If you’re shorter, you have to be quicker, so I’ve tried to master getting to the spot where I need to be to save the shot.”

Her attempts at mastering such skills have paid off. Because of her Russian origins, Russia’s Olympic hockey team has had an eye on her. This past summer she went to Russia for an evaluation camp for the national team. At the camp she tried out in front of the President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation for a recommendation for the team, and at the end earned both his praise and that recommendation. She says that the moment was  “a big deal” to her because it’s something she’s “ always wanted” before she even “thought of college.”

Baldwin started at Kent as a repeat junior coming from another prep school in Canada. She realized, “If I want to go play college hockey, it was a lot more than just the hockey.” When competing with thousands of applicants, “it’s more of the academic part, and that’s what my old school didn’t really offer.” Since coming to Kent, not only has her academics improved but her goalie skills have, too.

Now that she has the next phase of her life picked out as a Wisconsin commit, Baldwin plans on trying for her national team dream. Baldwin credited her dad with helping her get to this point. “I wanted to make this dream from when I was young to happen,” says Baldwin. “It’s been my goal and my dad has helped me go this far.”