The Lincolnwood native has played for the Glenview MsConduct Women’s Hockey League since her sophomore year at Carthage College. After graduate school, Groner secured a job as a social worker, but hockey remained an important aspect of her life.

 

Her laid-back persona contrasts with the fierce competitor who emerges on the ice. Looking at her brown, wavy hair tucked up in a bun and the piercings on her eyebrow and lower lip, you would have no idea she spent the majority of her youth as a figure skater.

 

When Groner was young, her mother insisted she stay in figure skating. Groner’s coach and the other player’s parents had to convince her mom that she was unhappy. In junior high, Groner was allowed to pick a new sport but felt lost doing so. Her sister suggested she try hockey. Groner had been around the rink since kindergarten, and she already knew how to skate, so it seemed like the next logical step for her. It was a decision that changed her life. She traded in her figure skates for hockey skates, laced them up and charged onto the ice.

 

“I preferred more team sports. I was more of a tomboy, so I liked going out and playing catch with my dad and stuff like that,” Groner says. “I didn’t really have as much of a chance to play sports as I wanted to.”

 

By the time she hit seventh grade, Groner was using her figure skating skills in a new way. She joined a girls' hockey team and realized that she had a lot of catching up to do. Flash forward to high school and you’ll find Groner now learning the game with more self-assurance. When sophomore year rolled around and there weren’t enough players to sustain a girls’ team, Groner geared up to join the boys. However, boys’ hockey is a different environment. The pace is quicker and there’s checking.

 

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated when I was the only girl on the boys’ team,” Groner says as she secured the thick, black tape onto her stick.

 

"There were some bad hits where this guy came from behind and just cross-checked me in the back and I fell forward. It could have been really bad, but I was okay.”

Groner explains that when male hockey players are young, they go through a checking clinic to learn how to properly hit their opponent. Girls don’t have to do this because there is no checking in their league. In high school, Groner found herself in this checking clinic next to boys half her age and size. While she continued to master the fundamentals of the game, and accept the idea of being the only female, she had a new challenge to consider: She had to learn how to defend herself on the ice. Because of her gender, Groner found the opposing team would either refuse to check her or they’d target her unfairly, blasting her into the boards with no mercy.

 

"They do target the women because they think that they’re better than the women, or they think that the women are going to be an easier target than some of the male players,” says MsConduct General Manager Sean Sodko. “That’s absolutely the wrong type of thinking, but unfortunately that does happen.”

 

While there’s no denying that hockey is a male-dominated sport, this idea doesn’t faze Groner. She explains that every sport starts out as male-dominated, and hockey is no different. She advises that people do what makes them happy and not worry about the rest. 

 

“Life is too short for stupid stuff. You have one life to live, so live it to the fullest, and have the most fun doing it,” Groner says. “That’s something I feel when I play hockey, and I try to make sure that I do that in everything I do.”

 

Despite the differences in playing style and the issue of targeting, Groner did not get discouraged, nor did she back down. In fact, she played with a men’s recreational league at her local hockey rink. This experience was entirely different from the other boys’ league. They taught her what an off-side violation was and were patient and welcoming. There was no targeting, no bias and no need to prove herself. Instead, they gave her a new perspective to the game.

 

“I went on and I fell in love and I never turned back,” she says. “I was obsessed.”