Courtney Burke – Youth Star – USA Hockey Magazine

Courtney Burke
AGE: 16
HOMETOWN: Albany, N.Y.
YOUTH STAR
12 U S A H O C K E Y M A G A Z I N E

Courtney Burke admits that she hated hockey rinks
when she was younger. Shewas dragged alongwith
her family to her brother Patrick’s games everyweekend,
and when her mother asked repeatedly if she
wanted to play, she always refused.
Finally, when Burke was about 6 years old, she
decided to try out a fewlessons and join her brother out on the ice. Skating
lessons soon turned into skating drills, and after a while, she was playing
on the all-boys teams in the Troy-Albany area of New York.
Years later, the 16-year-old is a poised, puck-carrying defenseman who
competed on the U.S. Women’s Under-18 Select Team that swept Canada
in the three-game 2010Women’s Under-18 series in Lake Placid, N.Y.
In addition, this past April, she led her Shattuck-St.Mary’s teamto the
2010 USA Hockey Tier I 16 & Under National Championship, ending
among the tournament leaders in scoring.
For a young woman who once refused to play hockey, Burke cannot
even imagine what her life would be like without the game.
“It’s just something that I love,” Burke said. “If I take even a week off
from hockey after playing for awhile, I miss it.”
Courtney Burke
AGE: 16
HOMETOWN: Albany, N.Y.
YOUTH STAR
12 U S A H O C K E Y M A G A Z I N E