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By Tara Sowle
UWRF Sports Information
Falcon senior Jenny Kern will add some much needed experience to this
season’s very young UWRF women’s hockey team.
Competing in tough situations makes a player stronger the next time out
and Kern will be looked upon to be a leader in all types of situations
for the Falcons in 2004-05.
She is one of the two remaining seniors this year and will do much of
the direting from the blue line.
The Falcons suffered big time losing four out of the five top scorers
from 2993-04. But with this year’s strong defense, fans can expect
to watch a lot of close, low scoring games.
There are a lot of new faces this year and Kern sees this season as, “a
fresh start with a new team.” Kern played in all 27 games for the
Falcons in 2003-04.
Kern started playing hockey when she was 13 years old and has been hard
at it ever since. Both her parents, Brian and Diane, are athletic and
encouraged her to compete in sports. She played for Park Center, Minn.,
High School and earned All-State honors. She also played on the Minnesota
Selects for four years.
Before Kern joined the Falcons she played for NCAA Div. I MSU-Mankato
where she played 59 games over two seasons.
She says she loves to play hockey because it is a fairly new sport for
women and because, “I have learned so much from it because it is
a team sport and it teaches you a lot about responsibility.”
Kern’s advice for younger players just starting out is, “Work
hard right away, you have to re-earn your position every year and you
have to make hockey a major priority.”
With one year under her belt with the Falcons, Kern sees herself as being
able to, “step up more and help her team with more confidence. I
hope to be a more consistent and solid player this year.” With three
returning sophomores to make up the rest of the players on defense, Kern
hopes her experience will help the team.
“Jen is a hard worker who leads by example and does not make many
mistakes,” Falcon Coach Joe Cranston said.
Her solid defense is what will make this year’s team a tough competitor
in a very experienced and strong conference.
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Jennifer Kern
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