'Not bad for a girl'

Lutheran, The, Nov 2001 by Favre, Jeff

Kristen Opalinski knows pain. The 21-year-old junior at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, has handled pucks flying at her face as an ice hockey goalie and has been tripped countless times playing soccer. In 1999, after a soccer injury, she endured three surgeries to reconstruct her knee.

Still, the most painful time for Kristen may have been in high school when she participated in traditional postgame handshakes with the opposing boys' hockey team. "I was called every bad name you can think of," said the member of Trinity Lutheran Church, Latrobe, Pa., where her father is pastor. "My religion is my foundation, but in those cases it was hard to be forgiving."

Instead of retaliating physically or with unkind words, Opalinski, who was the first girl to earn a varsity letter in hockey at Greater Latrobe High School, let her skills do the talking. Her shining moment came during her senior year against a team from Maryland.

In the last game of a round-robin tournament, Opalinski's team played the school they were destined to face in the championship game.

"We won that first game, and during the handshakes, there was this little kid who had been slashing me the entire game, a real punk, and he said something to me that I can't repeat. I thought, 'We'll see.'

"We beat them again in the championship and this time during the handshakes, I gave the kid a little wink and said, 'Not bad for a girl.' It was such sweet justice."

The first two years in high school, Opalinski also faced opposition internally from teammates' mothers, many of whom objected to a girl playing hockey with their sons. "How can you be a mom and not want to see a girl out there busting her butt to make it?" she said. "But by my senior year, everyone knew I wasn't going away."

Since recovering from her injury, Opalinski has continued to thrive at the college level in soccer and men's hockey. Earlier this year, she was invited to tryouts for the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team, making it to the final six before being cut.

She also finds time to participate in the Adopt-a-Player program sponsored by the Minneapolis parks and recreation department, which places college players with local youth teams.

An art major, Opalinski has found a way to combine her passions by designing goalie masks. One of her favorites is the mask she wears for Augsburg. It includes waterfalls, the number 33, the Luther rose in Augsburg colors and a skyline of Minneapolis with lightning bolts.

"I put a lot of thought into these," she said.

If she can't make a living designing masks, she hopes to work in graphic design, perhaps creating team logos.

For now, Opalinski plans to keep playing. She hopes that little girls who hear about her success will be inspired.

Jeff Favre

Favre is a contributing editor of The Lutheran.