Kayla Friesen: Born On The Bayou, Raised On A Rink

There are a lot of interesting aspects to our amazing new rookie forward Kayla Friesen as you might expect. Obviously she’s a terrific hockey player, and we’ll get to that. But, as we mentioned in a Friday Fun Fact a couple of weeks ago, she was born in Monroe, Louisiana. The Friesens are not the first Canadians to come to Louisiana. That would be the Acadians back in the 18th century. But none of the Cajuns, as they came to be called, were there to play hockey. But Kayla’s Dad was. She explained
"My Dad was just actually playing hockey (As a center for the Monroe Moccasins in the WPHL) down there at the time, and he was also over in Europe playing when my sister was born, so she’s German. So we’re also Canadian, and my brother is just a Canadian, born in Winnipeg, nothing crazy:) So we're all over the map. It’s pretty unique. My sister is two years older, and my brother is two and a half years younger. I’m right in the middle of them both.” We told Kayla we would use the Friesen sisters dual citizenship as a Friday Fun Fact, which we did, and Kayla agreed saying“That’s a good one to use, absolutely!’

Kayla was the #1 Draft Ptck for the Whale, and we taliked about the amazing experience of that evening. And since it was streamed on Twitch, a huge gaming platform, we wondered if Kaylamight be a gamer herself. She replied “I’m not a gamer really at all. I’ve played a few games, NHL and what not. And I’m sure I have a few computer games, but I’m not really familiar with Twitch at all. So I’m kind of excited to get more in the loop with it, and get more information on it. I’m sure this season will help with that.”

During her collegiate career, Kayla amassed 80 points, playing for Saint Cloud State initially, before transferring to Clarkson. Kayla spent three seasons at Saint Cloud State, and just missed playing for our former #9, the amazing Molly Engstrom. Kayla told us“The girls absolutely love her there! She’s been awesome for them.i enjoyed my time at Saint Cloud. I loved the girls, we had a really good group of girls. It just kind of came down to that there were little things here and there kind of bothering me. I think going into my third year, I was kind of losing my love and passion for hockey. And growing up that was my big thing, it was hockey, hockey, hockey. I loved the sport and would do it every free moment I had. And I felt myself losing that. And I knew that wasn’t something I was going to sit back and watch happen, and let happen. So I had a few conversations with the coaches, teammates, and then with my parents.And it was probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in my life regarding hockey, to leave. So I wasn’t sure if there were going to be other teams wanting to pick up someone going into their senior year. So it’s definitely scary, but exciting at the same time. When I finally made the decision, Clarkson reached out right away, and it was a blessing. I knew a couple of the girls on the team, and when I decided to go there it was one of the best things that could have happened, for sure.Sometimes all you need is a fresh start in a sense.”
Over her three years at Saint Cloud, Kaylaplayed in over one hundred games and was a consummate two way player. She ranked consistently high in offensive categories for the Huskies, and had more than twice the amount of assists as goals. And, she led all team forwards in blocked shots as well. She was also named Captain in her Junior year. We asked Kayla if she embraces a leadership role, and she gave us this terrific response
“I don’t think you ever need a letter to be a leader or a role model.i think having a letter on your chest puts extra pressure on. Sometimes people handle it, sometimes they don’t. But at the end of the day, a letter on your chest doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t make anyone look at you differently, or it shouldn’t. I think being a leader comes from within, and there are different leaders in every aspect of hockey. There’re loud leaders, hard working leaders, on ice leaders, off ice leaders. So I think growing up, just because the experiences I've gone through, I love to be a leader and role model. I do coaching in the summer when I’m at home. So getting to be a little bit of a role model for girls and leading them in the right direction, and kind of sharing my story with them, is something that I love doing. And then obviously at Saint Cloud, I was the captain. And that was was a big honor, absolutely, being a junior. I don’t think that had happened there. So it was a big accomplishment and an honor and it was definitely, a challenge I was willing to take on. And I did a pretty good job. Everyone has their own opinion:) I love to be a leader anyway that I can, on every team that I’m on. And in different situations in life too.” Cetacean Nation notes that Kayla was also an assistant captain for Team Canada’s 2015 Silver. medal winning Women’s U-18 Championship.

You can find out more about #29 Kayla and what's happening with your Pod on our website www.nwhl-cetaceans.com and by following Cetacean Nation social media sites on Facebook (Cetacean Nation Hockey), Twitter (@nation_cetacean) & on Instagram (cetacean_nation_hockey) As we say around the rink in Danbury, Fins Up!