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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — The top-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team is fresh off clinching its second straight Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season championship and junior winger Baylee Wellhausen played a prominent role. She's produced a career-best 14 goals in 31 games — fourth on the club — including her first collegiate hat trick during the title-clinching victory over Minnesota-Duluth on Feb. 12. Wellhausen is making a name for herself in the Badgers hockey world, which is a tall order given her family ties. After her birth mother died of breast cancer when she was 8, Baylee's father Kevin married the former Christina Granato, whose brothers Tony and Don now coach the Wisconsin men's team. What's it like having two doting uncles not only on campus, but headquartered in the same Kohl Center/LaBahn Arena complex? Baylee talked about that more during a recent post-practice chat.
What's the best part about having your uncles here?
"Oh, my goodness. I think just being able to see them around at the rink is kind of like a day brightener. I get to talk to them, see how it's going. They're always asking about hockey. I get to tell them congrats on a good weekend and they ask me about my weekend. Just seeing them on a daily basis is the best part of it."
The men's and women's hockey offices are in different buildings, yet you're a regular visitor to men's headquarters, right?
"I am actually, especially last summer when they were getting acclimated to the office, I'd pay them a visit when not many of the men's players were here. It's fun to have dinners at Tony's house, too. It's like having family here. It's a really big comfort."
Tony cooks?
"No. Linda (his wife) does the cooking. Tony just invites everyone and Linda does the work."
Tony said his conversations with you typically focus on the ins and outs — the tactics — of hockey. What drives those conversations?
"That's just a common interest we have right now with each other. From what I hear from my mom, we have very similar mindsets, Tony and I. We think very similarly."
Can you give me an example?
"I'm pretty self-critical. I'm pretty hard on myself if I'm not doing what I think I can be doing out there. My mom says Tony used to be the same way. He'd have a great game and go, 'I didn't do that well.' We have those mindsets. He knows what I'm thinking when I'm out there. The best part is that ever since I was younger, he's been one to be focused on having fun out there. His only question to me (after games) is, 'Did you have fun?' That's been instilled in my mind growing up. He's always making sure I'm loving the game."
When Tony was an NHL assistant in Pittsburgh and you were at Shattuck St. Mary's (Minnesota) School, you had a unique tie. He was working with future Hall of Famer Sidney Crosby and you were rooming with Crosby's sister, Taylor, who's now a goaltender at St. Cloud State. Tony said you shared a bond there. What did you get out of that arrangement?
"Because Taylor was my roommate, Tony would always ask me how Taylor was doing and I think sometimes he would ask for Sid, which was kind of funny. He wanted the inside scoop on how his sister was doing and not just from his sister's point of view. That was a pretty cool experience. We're still friends to this day, Taylor and I, so that's awesome."
Is this new family dynamic in any way a burden for you?
"I don't think so, other than I have two pretty protective uncles. But I would never consider that a burden. It's been surreal to have such great guidance all around me. It feels like I have family here, which is like the coolest thing."
Tony and Don are regulars at your games when their schedule permits. Do you know where they are in the arena?
"It's funny because they both do different things. Donny will usually stand by the glass (in the north end) for a bit and then move up to watch with my mom or my dad. Tony always stands by the glass. I can tell when he's watching the game. It always gives me that extra energy boost out there."
Any critiques?
"Tony is very positive. He rarely has anything critical to say. Donny is more of the person I'd ask for advice on that."
Why?
"Just personality-wise. I'm not really sure. He's very focused. You can tell he's the calm one and Tony's like, 'Go, Bayles, you did great.' Donny would be the one who would say what I need to work on. I would ask Tony, but Donny would have that advice."
Tony is famously finishing up his degree work while he coaches this season. Have you ever studied with him?
"No. I haven't done that because we haven't been in the same class (an online course in human and family studies). But he is taking a class I took last semester. He was asking me all about it. 'Is it easy? What are the quizzes like?' It's really funny seeing him in a class I already took."
Knowing all that's on his plate, what do you think about Tony going to school?
"I think it's awesome. He has to, I know, but he's very into it. I know it's hard for him to manage all that time with school and hockey — I know that's a struggle for him — but somehow he does it. He's just the best student, actually. I think sometimes he's overly critical of himself. I say, 'You just have to get through this class and you're going to be fine.' He puts everything into it and that's just because he wants to be such a good role model for his team."
You knew he was the WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year when he was a senior in 1987, right?
"I heard. That makes sense with the way he takes school on even now. He just always wants to be the best he can be."
You write a weekly blog on behalf of your team for uwbadgers.com. Do you want to be writer?
"Yes, I do."
In what genre?
"Goodness, it changes all the time. When I was younger, and even now, writing fiction or a super, awesome novel. I would read 'Harry Potter' and want to be like J.K. Rowling forever. Part of me wants to write a best-selling fiction novel. But going the journalism route, I'd love to be writing for a team or in broadcasting, whether it's the NHL Network. Staying around the hockey atmosphere is what I really want to be doing with my life."
