{"id":11654,"date":"2022-02-11T08:51:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T14:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/?p=11654"},"modified":"2022-02-14T11:09:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T17:09:59","slug":"uw-stevens-point-alumni-in-key-roles-for-olympic-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/2022\/02\/11\/uw-stevens-point-alumni-in-key-roles-for-olympic-team\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Stevens Point alumni in key roles for Olympic team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Haley<\/a>
Hailey Rock and Brian Idalski at Olympics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese National\nwomen\u2019s ice hockey team may not be the first team you\u2019d cheer on at the\nOlympics. But this team has the strongest ties to northcentral and western\nWisconsin.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is coached by Brian Idalski, and Hailey Rock\nis its athletic trainer. Both are University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point alumni,\nand Rock is from Hammond in St. Croix County. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idalski majored in health promotion and wellness<\/a>, graduating in 2001. He played for the UW-Stevens Point men\u2019s hockey team<\/a> from 1991-1995 and was part of the Pointers\u2019 1993 NCAA Division III national championship team. He coached the UW-Stevens Point women\u2019s hockey team from 2001-2006. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rock played on the women\u2019s hockey team<\/a>, coached by Ann Ninnemann, and studied athletic training<\/a> at UW-Stevens Point, graduating in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ninnemann played hockey\nfor and coached with Idalski. And Holly Schmies, athletic training professor at\nUW-Stevens Point, was the team\u2019s athletic trainer when Idalski was head\ncoach.  \u201cIt is really cool how all the connections come back to UWSP,\u201d\nSchmies said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idalski coached the\nUniversity of North Dakota\u2019s women\u2019s hockey team for a decade, taking it to its first two NCAA tournaments and a Frozen Four.\nThat program was cut in 2017. In 2019, he was hired to coach the Kunlun Red Star\nVanke Rays, a Chinese-based women’s hockey team in the top Russian league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He contacted Schmies.\n\u201cWhen Brian called, and we chatted about needing to hire an athletic trainer\nfor an opportunity in China, I knew Hailey would be a great fit,\u201d Schmies said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the biggest gamble I\u2019ve ever taken in my\nlife,\u201d said Rock, who had never traveled outside the country. \u201cMy parents\npushed me to go. They said, \u2018home will always be here.\u2019\u201d She quickly felt at\nhome with the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Haley<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Having worked with both of them, Ninnemann said\nshe knew Rock and Idalski would work well together. \u201cTheir competitive drives,\nsense of humor and overall general personalities mesh very well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Idalski\u2019s first\nyear coaching, the Vanke Rays won the league championship, the first\nnon-Russian team to achieve this. (Idalski has a translator and is thankful\nmost of his players know some English.) In year 2, a 17-game winning streak was\ninterrupted when COVID-19 postponed the championship series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coronavirus was a\n\u201csurreal\u201d experience, Idalski said. After being detected in one region of\nChina, the country was under quarantine within a few weeks to protect Chinese\nfrom further spread. The team relocated to Russia to continue its season and is\nbased in a Moscow suburb because COVID-19 travel restrictions require lengthy\nquarantines when entering China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As athletic trainer,\nRock\u2019s job is to attend each practice and game, assess problems and help\nplayers before and after games. COVID-19 added another layer of attention. \u201cWe\nknow how fast it can spread,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cWe\u2019ve maintained very well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idalski\u2019s success with the Vanke Rays likely contributed to the Chinese State Administration of Sports naming him head coach of the Chinese Olympic women\u2019s hockey team for the 2022 Games. The Chinese team received an automatic entry into the Olympics as the host country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Olympics, teams\nare treated well, showered with clothing and collectibles, he said. That\u2019s just\none aspect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one knows what athletes go through to get to this point. It\u2019s difficult to perform at this level,\u201d he said. COVID-19 precautions are comprehensive, with daily PCR tests, mask wearing except on the ice and traveling only between the Olympic Village and their events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s run ended\nFeb. 7. \u201cIt was a great experience. We won two games and defied expectations,\nso I was pleased,\u201d Idalski said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. I never\nimagined I\u2019d work at the Olympics. This whole experience has been amazing,\u201d\nRock said. \u201cI loved every second of it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Haley<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When she began her\nathletic training program at UW-Stevens Point in 2016, instructor Schmies asked\nstudents to write their top three locations to work. Rock listed the Olympics,\na professional team and college team. She\u2019s already achieved two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program set her up\nfor success, Rock said. \u201cI definitely wouldn\u2019t be here without the athletic\ntraining program, my professors, my clinical preceptorship, my experiences. I\nwill be forever thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idalski shares those\nsentiments. When the hockey season ends in April, he heads back to Wisconsin\nand spends the summer in Rhinelander, where his wife\u2019s family lives. He\nconnects with his Pointer mentors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI owe a lot to many people at UW-Stevens Point,\u201d he said, citing Interim Provost Marty Loy, who was wrestling coach and professor in what was the Department of Health, Exercise Science and Athletics; Fred Hebert, chair of that department; and Frank O\u2019Brien, then-athletic director. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt times you don\u2019t\nrealize how much you learned,\u201d Idalski said. Eight years after he began\ncoaching and was rebuilding the UND team he drew on advice from Loy: \u201cStep out\nof your echo chamber. Don\u2019t be afraid to draw from other sports, other people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thoroughly enjoyed my time at UW-Stevens Point \u2013 as student, as a player, as a coach. I honed my craft and am very thankful for the opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtesy of UWSP University Communications and Marketing<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chinese National women\u2019s ice hockey team may not be the first team you\u2019d cheer on at the Olympics. But this team has the strongest ties to northcentral and western Wisconsin.   It is coached by Brian Idalski, and Hailey Rock is its athletic trainer. Both are University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point alumni, and Rock is from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,12,15,546],"tags":[463,305,341,342,343,344],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11654"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11665,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11654\/revisions\/11665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}