Although Andrea Poley may find herself at the bottom of a pile-up on the ice, she’s the first one up and ready for action when the whistle blows. For this senior co-captain hockey player, her petite stature doesn’t affect her fearless attitude and aggressive play on the ice. Once she takes the ice suited with her equipment, feelings of invincibility help her battle intimidation by larger opponents in a fast-paced, aggressive sport.
Poley got involved with ice hockey long before her college years at RPI. Along with her brother and sister in Bourne, Mass., she joined a learn-to-skate program at the local hockey rink. When a recruiter came to gather some players for a youth hockey league, she eagerly joined the team with her younger brother. Up through high school, she played hockey in youth leagues and at her prep school, Taber Academy in Marion, Mass. With over ten years of hockey experience prior to college-level play, the Division-III hockey team attracted Poley to Rensselaer.
Any athlete that plays college-level sports knows the challenges of balancing academics and social life along with their athletic training. Rensselaer’s hockey team has a demanding schedule with two-hour practices six days per week, in addition to two games per week. For each game the team members show up two hours prior to the game for warm-up and stay for 45 minutes after the game. Road trips require extra time, with some games being five hours away.
“The time spent traveling on the bus makes it difficult to perform in top condition when the players are relaxed and may sleep on the bus ride to the game,” explained Poley. As co-captain, Poley takes charge in motivating her fellow teammates to “keep their heads focused on the game.” All the time spent in training and traveling pays off in the end when the women take home another victory. When discussing the possibility of women’s hockey at Rensselaer of converting to a Division-I squad, she stated that she is “excited and motivated” about the prospects of Division-I hockey program.
When she graduates this spring with a B.S. in ecological economics, her rigorous, hard-core hockey career will likely come to an end. She does have plans to join an adult hockey league sometime down the road, though post-graduate plans include graduate school in urban planning and landscape architecture. Her motivation for success on and off the ice will prove to be an asset in achieving goals in the future.
