Magdalena Luggin '23 Recruiting Profile

My older brother and sister always had a big impact on me, so when they started playing hockey, I started too at the age of 4. I didn't love it at first because I was the youngest and the only girl on the team, but I didn't want to give everyone the satisfaction of me giving up. I think back then my competitiveness started because I always had to compete against bigger, older, and better boys. I am not only determined and ambitious on the ice but also in school: good grades on a test on Wednesday are as important to me as winning the tournament on Sunday.

The year I grew the most, as an athlete, person and student was the year 2020. In this year I both had my greatest success and my greatest setback. In January I made the U18 Team Austria roster for the U18 women's worlds and the following week I went to the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne to win the gold medal with my team in the 3-on-3 mixed nations competition. Later that year when COVID hit the world, I had to cancel my plans to go play in Canada which I have been working for since I first started playing hockey. I decided that it was best to play another year in a boy’s league and stayed in Austria to play with Okanagan Hockey Europe. This year brought my now best qualities of seeing everything positively and trusting the process. It also helped me to understand that if one door closes another one opens.