Guillemette comfortable as Top Dog

Yale Bulldogs Captain Ann-Renee Guillemette helping out a student at the Eurocamp Hockey School. Photo by Chris Dawson.
It’s a late July morning and Ann-Renee Guillemette is instructing at the Eurocamp hockey school in North Bay. On this day the little players are trying to push a tire down from one and of the ice to another.

While some of her other male instructor counterparts can be found jokingly holding up some players from getting from one end to the other, Ann-Renee is seen helping one young tyke aged player make it through the exercise instead of hindering him.

It’s that leadership and enthusiasm that helped the North Bay native get voted in as the new captain of the 2007-2008 Yale Bulldogs NCAA Division 1 women’s hockey team.

Guillemette takes her new role very seriously and she’s flattered and excited about her new role with the Bulldogs.

“I knew that I had to work hard anyways even if I didn’t get that ‘C’ but now that I have that responsibility, I mean we are all a team not one player coaching everybody else, it’s one player encouraging everybody else and everybody working as a team,” she said.

Guillemette’s first responsibility as captain is to keep in touch with returning players and make sure they are following their off-season workout schedule.

“We want to make sure everyone is keeping up with the workouts and that makes me want to push myself even harder because I know all the other girls are pushing themselves hard so I’m going to be top notch when I get back to the school.”

Familiar faces in the ECAC

Guillemette needs to push herself since she is playing in the ECAC; one of the most competitive divisions of NCAA women’s hockey in the United States.

But there are some familiar faces for the North Bay native as she will be competing against two other North Bay area girls, Melanie Guillemette, who plays defence at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Kyrsten Venasse, who joins St. Lawrence University this fall.

“She’s three years younger than me,” Guillemette says about Venasse.

“It’s far away but it’s such a change from here and I love it and I love change and when I got there it was incredible and now that I see all my friends coming up and I get to play against them it’s really good that we are all in the same league and it’s a really competitive league and I love that.”

Future in Hockey?

Despite getting named a captain to a high profile university team, Guillemette is keeping things in perspective. She will graduate next spring with a major in both Economics and French. Her aspirations are to focus on her career not to try and play for Canada’s national team or in the WNHL.

“I think after I graduate that will be pretty much it for me,” Guillemette answered very honestly.

“I want to stay in touch with hockey because it’s been a part of my life forever and coaching in the Eurocamp is a good way to keep in touch with your roots but after that playing wise I’ll keep it a little low key. After when I’m a little older I’ll play in an all-women’s league but I’ll take a break for a while.”

Yale head coach Hilary Witt has said that Guillemette always seems to find a way to overcome adversity in her first three years at the Ivy League School. So whether it’s her hard work on the ice or scoring high in an economics exam; the chances are Guillemette will continue to be a success even after she’s left the hockey rink for good.