Eyes on the rise

BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider

MADISON, Wis. – To know Caroline Harvey is to know that the freshman defender for the Wisconsin women's hockey team is wired differently than many in her 20-something demographic.

Harvey still wears elbow pads from her pee-wee days and skates that were purchased used from a neighborhood sporting goods store in her hometown of Salem, N.H. It's a matter of comfort over style.

She's practical.

Harvey is an early riser who started a workout club at her high school and whose second-best skill might someday land her on Food Network. She once spent the better part of an hour on Face-Time as her mom, Martha, talked her through a recipe for a Tuscan chicken dish.

She's ambitious.

Harvey still answers to a nickname bestowed upon her when she was an infant. Most everyone refers to her "KK" because that's what her then-14-month-old sister Grace, unable to pronounce her given name, called Caroline. The nickname stuck though it's OK if you call her Caroline.

She's adaptable.

Harvey is the headliner of a heralded seven-member recruiting class who committed to the Badgers when she was in the eighth grade. As a 14-year-old she had her choice of college destinations, but decided quickly and intuitively that UW was the place for her.

She's focused.

Those traits have given way to one of the best debuts in program history. Harvey, 20, was named Rookie of the Year in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and will take an impressive stat line into the NCAA tournament that begins Thursday.

Harvey has 11 goals, 24 assists, 35 points – the third-highest total on the team – and a stellar plus/minus rating of plus-36 in 37 outings. She found a way to be a force in a league where the other top teams – regular-season titlist Ohio State, playoff champion Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth are all in the 11-school NCAA tournament field – were loaded with upperclassmen.

The six players named to the all-WCHA first team were either graduate students or seniors. The top three award-winners – forward, defender and goaltender of the year – were grad students or fifth-year seniors. Harvey was named to the all-WCHA second team, which included three grad students.

Throw in the fact UW played the second-toughest schedule in the country – 17 games against NCAA tournament qualifiers – and you have a robust learning environment.

"She's come in here and done an awesome job of just playing her game," fifth-year senior center Jesse Compher said of Harvey. "She knows her role and does a great job at it."

Compher, a transfer from Boston University, and Harvey played for Team USA in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Harvey was the youngest member of the squad, but the wunderkind didn't look a bit out of place while helping the Americans to the silver medal.

"Once she steps on the ice, she belongs there," Compher said. "She's definitely one of those girls who was just born with it. At the same time, she works harder than anyone I know."

Harvey is the seventh UW product, and first blue-liner, to be voted rookie of the year in the WCHA. The last five – Sara Bauer (2004), Meghan Duggan ('07), Annie Pankowski ('15), Abby Roque ('17) and Sophie Shirley ('19) – have at least one NCAA championship ring in their possession.

Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson was asked if Harvey has done anything that's surprised him.

"I knew she was a good north-south skater," he said. "I didn't realize her east-west ability to move from side to side was as quick as she's shown me early on.

"I knew she was a great skater and could navigate around the ice. Her lateral movement as she comes in and goes right to left or left to right is about as good as I've seen from a female defenseman."

Harvey also has a deceptively accurate shot from the point and is adept at getting the puck to the net.

"A lot of teams are structured to block shots," Johnson said. "They've got layers of people to try and get the puck blocked before it gets to your goaltender. She's got a knack for getting that puck through."

Way to go KK!#Badgers freshman Caroline Harvey is the 2022-23 @WCHA_WHockey Rookie of the Year after posting 35 points in her first season in Madison!#OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/sD2ijDABtn
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerWHockey) March 1, 2023

Brianna Decker, the second-leading scorer in UW history who starred for the U.S. in its run to the Olympic gold medal in 2018, remembers seeing Harvey play at a USA Hockey developmental camp as a high school prospect.

"Her deceptiveness to move the puck and create offense is the most impressive skill about her game," Decker said.

Harvey was introduced to hockey when she was 2. She sat in her stroller and watched older brother Nolan in action.

"Why can't I do that?" she would ask her mother.

"I wanted to play just like him," Caroline said.

She started figure skating and that transitioned to hockey. At one point she played in a boys' checking league and more than held her own. Her affection for the game was heightened by regular trips with the family to see the Boston Bruins play. Caroline said her dream job would involve working for an NHL team like some of her UW predecessors, including Duggan, the director of player development for the New Jersey Devils, and Meghan Hunter, the assistant general manager for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Wisconsin has won six NCAA titles since 2006 and Johnson, the winningest coach in women's college hockey history, is nearing his 600th career triumph. It didn't take long for Harvey to find her ideal fit.

At one point during the recruiting process – coaches calling all the time, questions from family and friends – an overwhelmed Caroline posed an important question to her parents.

"How am I going to know what the right school is?" she asked.

"When you go to the right place and you see it, you'll know in your heart it's the right place for you," Martha said.

Caroline called her mother while she and her father, David, were in Madison for her campus visit.

"Mom, I saw it," Caroline said.

"When we got there she wasn't sure what she was going to do," her father recalled. "In her mind, she wanted to play for the best women's program in the country and she wanted to play for the best coach.

"She felt the culture there was strong and she felt the tradition was strong. She was very focused on playing for what she thought was the best.

"She was pretty focused at 14 knowing that's where she wanted to go. She knew what she wanted. She thought Wisconsin would help her play beyond the college level. It's just that the national level came sooner."

Caroline planned to enroll at UW and play for the Badgers last season, but that plan was shelved when she was invited to tryout out for the U.S. Olympic Team.

"We thought she was playing with house money," her father said. "If she made it, great. If she didn't, wow, she'd done so well to get that far."

David Harvey proceeded to tell a story about his youngest child's unique focus and vision.

When Caroline was 6, she told her aunt, Amy Harvey, that she was gearing up to play for Team USA in the '22 Games. Caroline had already calculated the four-year windows and concluded her Olympic debut would come in 2022.

"That's the one I'm shooting for," Caroline declared.

"It was one of those things where we all kind of laughed and said, 'It's great to have goals, Caroline. Keep following your dream,'" David recalled.

Fast forward to the day 12 months ago when Caroline sent a video to her father. It showed her boarding the team plane in California bound for China as her name was announced. Her back was turned and she was waving.

"I lost it at that point," David said.

Indeed, Caroline had realized a magnificent goal she'd mapped out years earlier.

"It put me on one knee," her father said. "It hit me so hard."

The end result at the Games – a 3-2 loss to Canada in the gold medal match – was hard for Caroline to digest.

"She's not about individual stuff. She's about winning," David said. "She was heart-broken when they didn't win the gold medal."

Team USA Badgers at the 2022 Winter Olympics — The Badgers were well represented on Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics

Despite having not yet skated a shift for the Badgers, Caroline became part of a staggering UW legacy in Beijing. She was one of 11 players in the gold medal game – five on each team – who either played or had signed to play for the Badgers.

"She takes great pride in that," David said. "It's a who's who. It's not too hard to look at a school like Wisconsin and look at what success that they've had and see how many players in the past and even in the present with so many Canadian and U.S. players. It's pretty impressive."

Caroline said adjusting to the physical nature of the college game and becoming more responsible in the defensive end were two major items on her to-do list. Embracing a leadership role was another.

"I think my game has matured," she said.

David credited Compher for taking his daughter under her wing and helping Caroline manage the many challenges of a being a college student-athlete.

Martha was asked what kind of feedback she's gotten from Caroline about her experiences at UW.

"She loves it," she said. "It was everything she had hoped it would be."

David said Johnson and his assistants, Dan Koch and Jackie Friesen, have been firm, but fair with his daughter.

"We're still in awe of it," David said of the operation. "We still can't believe she's at Wisconsin. The fans are great. The facilities are the best. She's happy."

University of Wisconsin Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Jesse Compher

Caroline Harvey

Sophie Shirley

Related Videos