Born to Lead
2/24/2020 6:35:17 PM | Women's Ice Hockey
Born to Lead
By Andrew Vitalis, Special to WCHA.com
Sometimes you have players on your roster who wear several different hats. Rarely do you have one who wears them all.
Consider that when Jincy Dunne was a redshirt freshman she was named an alternate captain for the Ohio State women’s hockey team. As a freshman.
The Dunne name was a familiar one to Buckeye hockey fans. Jincy’s sister and former teammate, Jessica, was a regular on the Buckeye blueline from 2014-2017. During that time, Jessica Dunne played in 65 career games which was more than enough time for Jincy to see what Ohio State was about.
During that same time period Jincy Dunne was getting her first experience at the national team level as a member of the U.S Women’s National Team at the 2012 Four Nations Cup and the 2014 and 2015 IIHF Women’s U18 Women’s World Championships where she won silver and gold, respectively. The Buckeye coaching staff was watching her too. Eventually the inevitable became official and Dunne was off to Ohio State to play with her sister and continue her hockey career; playing in the best conference in the nation.
“I actually had no idea where I wanted to go so, I kept my options open. (Jessica) just loved it there; she just fell in love with it right away,” recalled Dunne. “My sister and I have grown up together, we are 14 months apart so we basically treat each other like twins and she is my best friend. I thought, ‘okay I will go take a visit’ and I just fell in love with the school. My grandfather lives 20 minutes away and we have gotten so much closer over these last couple years and I think that was also a big factor in it.”
The on-ice reunion with Jessica didn’t happen right away. Prior to her freshman season kicking off Dunne suffered a concussion that took her out of the line-up for several months. Because of that the O’Fallon, Mo., product chose to redshirt keeping her four years of eligibility intact. Still, despite being limited on the ice, Dunne’s presence made an immediate impact on the team thanks to natural leadership qualities that most desire, but few can master. In short, Dunne was an all-star before she even scored her first goal or skated her first official shift. Given the instability of the program at the time, her arrival was timely – and needed.
Several hundred miles away Nadine Muzerall was watching. The hockey veteran tried to recruit Dunne to the Minnesota during her time on the Gopher coaching staff and was well aware of Dunne’s program-changing potential. When Muzerall was named the fourth head coach in OSU history in 2016, she immediately glanced at the roster and started to develop a plan. Tasked with the daunting task of making the Buckeyes a winner on and off the ice once again; Muzerall needed help. She needed stability.
For full article, visit http://www.wcha.com/women/articles/2020/02/born-to-lead.php
