Courtesy of Chelsey Brodt Rosenthal
[Editor’s Note: In this story, we refer to sources by first name throughout for the sake of clarity.]
A new professional women’s hockey league has launched, with Minnesota one of the North American league’s six markets.
The game last weekend at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center between Minnesota and Montreal set attendance records for professional women’s ice hockey.
With all that attention, the rapid rise of girls’ and women’s hockey over the past three decades is worth revisiting: It’s one of the most remarkable stories in the history of American sports, in which Minnesota played a key role.
In the early 1990s, female hockey teams were few and far between. Girls who played competitively were frequently the only females on their youth teams. By the early 2020s, vibrant youth, high school, college, and professional girls’ and women’s hockey leagues spanned North America.
Although Minnesota lagged behind a handful of hotbeds on the East Coast, it eventually became an epicenter of the game’s exponential growth, proving this state once again to be the state of hockey. There are more girls and women playing hockey in Minnesota than in any other state in the union, and no team played a more significant role in this revolution than the Roseville Raiders girls’ hockey team in the 1990s.
The Roseville Area High School team began play in the winter of 1995, the second year of Minnesota’s first-in-the-nation girls’ state hockey tournament. When Roseville’s first team took to the ice, roughly 50 schools across the state played competitively. The number is now close to 150. Roseville ran roughshod over the opposition, posting a perfect 26-0-0 mark in its first winter en route to a state championship. The Raiders, in fact, won the first 51 games the team ever played.
Roseville made it to the state tournament, held every year at the end of February in each of the program’s first four seasons. The Raiders won state titles in 1996 and 1999, finished third in 1998, and won the consolation round in 1997. The early rosters of the University of Minnesota’s women’s hockey teams, including the 2000 national title team, featured a handful of Roseville Raiders. In the seven-year stretch between 1993 and 2000, when Minnesota was suddenly deprived of an NHL team, Roseville’s out-of-the-blocks girls’ hockey dynasty helped fill the cultural void.
“There was a ton of exposure for us between the newspapers and news channels,” says Ronda Curtin Engelhardt, now the head coach of the Minnesota Whitecaps of the Premier Hockey Federation (formerly known as the National Women’s Hockey League). She led the Whitecaps to an Isobel Cup, the Stanley Cup of women’s professional hockey, in 2019.
“That exposure helped get a lot of little girls started, which was great,” Ronda says. Girls’ high school hockey emerged at the perfect time for maximum coverage, convincing many girls and women to play the game their brothers had long been playing. The sports pages of the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press daily newspapers, in particular, had plenty of room for the newly sanctioned sport, transforming the top players of the state’s first girls’ hockey dynasty into local celebrities.
“We had huge support and got a lot of coverage in the media so people wanted to check it out,” says Winny Brodt-Brown, who, in 1996, was named Minnesota’s first Ms. Hockey. In college, she chose to major in journalism because of all the attention her Roseville team had received. “I realized how much the media helped grow girls hockey right away by giving it the respect it needed,” she says.
Renee Curtin Schwartz, who played for Roseville and received the Ms. Hockey honor in 2001, shares, “I took my daughter out to the library a few weeks ago and somebody asked if I was Renee Curtin. I said, ‘Yeah.’ She said, ‘I just want to tell you that you inspired me, even though I was older than you.’” All these years later, Renee remains the all-time leading scorer in Minnesota high school hockey history.
But before all the hoopla, hogpiles, and skates around the Fairgrounds Coliseum with the championship trophy—before the state tournaments, awards, and front-page stories—the core of Roseville’s championship teams was a handful of girls playing hockey on Ramsey County driveways, ponds, and rinks. They were often the only girls on boys’ youth hockey teams.
Winny, for example, started playing against the boys in Mites, the youngest group in youth hockey, at age 4. “My parents wanted us to have the opportunity to play the sport—especially my mom, because she didn’t have that opportunity.”
Now in their late 30s and 40s, the women who made Roseville the state’s first girls’ hockey power and helped spearhead the growth of the sport as teenagers look back with appreciation on the many remarkable moments they shared together a quarter-century ago.
Courtesy of Ronda Curtin Schwartz
Early Years
Kelly Olson grew up in Little Canada and says her parents put her in skates when she was about 3.
Kelly’s neighbors built a backyard rink every winter. “My room happened to look south over their backyard, and I was always in awe of the rink.”
She soon found herself skating on it regularly, out in the elements until she couldn’t feel her face. When she was old enough, her parents enrolled her in the neighboring Roseville Youth Hockey program as a mite. As was typical, she was the only girl on her team.
“It was hard at times, but the boys pretty much always had my back,” she says. “I credit my parents for putting me in with the boys, and my teammates for the level I got to.” Kelly later co-captained Roseville’s first championship team with Winny Brodt. Twice, she earned All-State honors.
The Curtins and Brodts were next door neighbors in Roseville. They lived on a short street not far from County Road C. Both families had five kids and were laden with athletic ability. Different configurations of Brodts and Curtins played endless games of driveway hockey or walked over to nearby Central Park for shinny on the pond.
“We put on skates when we were 18 months, and I figure-skated all the way up until I was 18,” Winny says. The same was true for Chelsey, who was six years younger. Her older brother Vic served as captain for the St. Cloud State (SCSU) men’s hockey team. Her older sister Kerry played boys’ hockey until age 15 and became the first women’s hockey coach in Huskies history. Their father, Jack, helped found the Minnesota Whitecaps in 2004 and served as coach and general manager.
“Skating is both Brodts’ strength. They grew up on figure skates with their edges. Both being defenders, they can keep people in front of them,” Ronda says.
“I think my figure skating helped with my hockey skating ability, skating backwards and being mobile,” Chelsey says. Chelsey’s skating ability helped her shut down Eagan’s scoring dynamo Natalie Darwitz, another great of the early years of Minnesota girls’ hockey, in a highly memorable state tournament win for the Raiders.
The Curtins donned ice skates for the first time as toddlers too. They, too, came from a family of excellent hockey players. Their older brother Luke was drafted by the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and had a long career as a professional hockey player. Ronda started playing at age 4. She was on Winny’s team for one year in Mites but, beyond that, was always the only girl on her teams. Nevertheless, her younger sister Renee, two years her junior, was her continuous stick-wielding co-conspirator.
“I played because I loved the game so much,” Ronda says. “I loved playing with my sister. Every day, I was happy to be at the rink.”
“Getting to play with my sister was the best time of my life,” Renee says. “We both pushed each other on and off the ice. We just clicked and knew where we were on the ice.”
The two fostered a keen sense of anticipating what the other would do on the ice, an intuitive understanding not unlike siblings who sing together in close harmony.
“We had a knack for finding each other because we played so much together. Even in the summer, we’d rollerblade around the lake, passing a tennis ball to each other,” Ronda says.
“My sister had more of the defense in her. I was all about scoring,” Renee says.
Renee’s remarkable stickhandling always stood out while Ronda gained a reputation for her on-ice awareness, a trait that has translated into her accomplished coaching career.
This cluster of talented, motivated players, all in the same school district, took advantage of the opportunity presented them when Roseville High decided to give girls’ hockey a try.
“I remember the excitement to be able to keep playing, because the boys were just getting bigger and stronger,” Ronda says.
“My dad told me that I needed to play girls’ high school hockey so that it would be able to grow and so that my little sister Chelsey and her friends would have a place to play,” Winny, then entering her senior year, recalls.
“I don’t think I ever stepped on the ice with Winny, Chelsey, Ronda, or Renee until I played Roseville High School Hockey,” Kelly says. Despite differences in ages, she bonded with all of them quickly. “You have so much in common before you even step on the ice together, being a female, being in the minority in that sport; we piggybacked on each other.”
Renee made the remarkable leap to varsity as a middle schooler. “I pushed myself a lot. I knew my sister was on the team and I wanted to play with her, so I worked extra hard to make that happen.” To say the least, she was up to the challenge. She scored five goals in a game twice as a seventh grader. She went on to score 544 points in her unparalleled high school career, still the all-time scoring mark in the history of Minnesota prep hockey. For a number of years, she held the record for most goals in the state tournament.
It didn’t take long for people to realize that Roseville was going to be a problem. The Raiders started piling up wins by the double digits.
“I remember our first game and knew we had something special,” Renee says.
The bandwagon for this remarkable team started building up just as quickly, as hockey fans from across the metro came to the Roseville Ice Arena to check out this unstoppable team. The 1995-1996 Roseville Raiders averaged nearly 10 goals per game. They outscored opponents 255-49 for the season.
“I kind of knew we’d be good because Roseville had a lot of really talented female athletes,” Winny says, citing not only the area’s experienced players but also the 1995-1996 Roseville girls soccer team, which also made it to states. A handful of girls from the soccer team laced up their skates that winter for the new hockey team. “A lot of the girls were just girls that had skated on ponds, girls that had played with their brothers but had never played organized hockey. That was the culture we had in Roseville. A lot of people just went and played outdoors at the local rinks.”
Courtesy of Winny Brodt-Brown
Ms. Hockey Winny Brodt scored more than 120 points for the season, including a pair of goals in Roseville’s 5-2 championship game win over Burnsville, to complete a 26-0-0 season.
“We relied on all 22 girls on the team. Everyone contributed, and we’re all still friends to this day,” Kelly says. “We all respected each other and took care of each other. Our coaches were patient and flexible. There was a lot of camaraderie in that locker room.”
The Raiders played and practiced at the Roseville Ice Arena and the Fairgrounds Coliseum in nearby Falcon Heights. By the time they reached the state tournament, which was played at the Coliseum, community support for the team was impressive. A sizeable chunk of the St. Paul suburb turned out for the games.
“I loved playing at the Coliseum because I’d grown up watching the boys’ sectional games there,” Winny says. “To be able to pack the Coliseum for girls’ hockey in the state tournament was a pretty special moment for me.”
“I think I had a kink in my neck,” Kelly says, of the championship game against Burnsville. “You look up at the clock, you look down at the ice, you’ve got a shift, there’s a faceoff. You’re praying that that time continues to tick down.”
She adds, “I remember looking up in the stands and seeing the support of our school. You looked up there and you saw your girlfriends and your guy friends up there supporting you, holding up posters and cheering for you.”
Courtesy of Chelsey Brodt Rosenthal
Leaving a Legacy
Behind the bench, Rich Kuehne anchored that first Roseville girls’ hockey team.
He had coached Winny on the JV boys’ hockey team before becoming the full-time girls’ coach. He was universally described as a laid-back leader who focused on the fundamentals and never yelled. The girls didn’t have lockers at the Roseville Arena, so Kuehne let his players leave their equipment stacked up in his classroom during the school day while he taught math.
“I always looked up to him. He had command and he had respect from each and every one of our teammates. He was definitely old school,” Kelly says. To a great extent, Kuehne let his players create on the ice, allowing their talents rather than a rigid system of play to take precedence. Kuehne taught and coached in Roseville schools for 35 years. He died at age 76 in 2017.
“He was very soft spoken and a super kind guy. One practice, I snuck Skittles in my glove and they came out on the ice, all these different colors. So he’s dealing with these twelfth graders and you’ve got me, a seventh grader,” Chelsey says.
Chelsey was in sixth grade when her sister Winny won the 1996 state championship. Like Renee, Chelsey made varsity as a seventh grader. Chelsey and Renee had played together previously, being just one year apart. Chelsey, the younger Brodt, made the most of her opportunity, twice earning All-State honors and becoming one of the most decorated defenders in Minnesota high school history.
Despite Winny’s graduation, the Roseville Raiders continued to steamroll through the competition in 1996-1997, going undefeated until falling to Hibbing in the state quarterfinals.
The next season, Roseville remained a power in girls’ hockey, finishing third in the state tournament.
A very much veteran 1998-1999 Roseville club, led by now-senior Ronda Curtin, dominated in much the same fashion as the first Raiders club. They went wire-to-wire undefeated to earn their second state championship.
Roseville fought through the flu over championship weekend and pummeled Bloomington 8-2 in the 1999 title game. Ronda, that season’s Ms. Hockey, ended her high school career in style by blitzing Bloomington for four goals, once again at the Fairgrounds Coliseum.
“It was very exciting for the community and the school, having the state tournament in our backyard. The community rallied behind us and we received a great send-off,” Chelsey says. “When my family goes to the State Fair and we’re at the Coliseum in the barn, watching the horses, I tell my daughter, this is where we won a state tournament in 1999.”
Reflection
“I put my arm around my sister before the championship game and somebody took a picture of it. I remember saying to her this is my last year and I need you to give me everything you got,” Ronda says. “I didn’t know that would be the last time we would play a hockey game together, so that makes it a little bit more meaningful now.”
Renee Curtin fought through injuries in her last two years at Roseville, earning Ms. Hockey in 2001. Unfortunately, her injuries prevented her from playing at the University of Minnesota, which offered her a full scholarship. Nevertheless, Renee has stayed connected to the game not only through family but by mentoring younger players in the area.
The immediate success of high school girls’ hockey in Minnesota encouraged the rapid development of a women’s hockey program at the University of Minnesota, which first took to the ice in 1998.
Roseville alums figured prominently on the early Gophers teams. Both Brodts, Ronda Curtin, and Kelly Olson eventually played for Laura Halldorson at the University of Minnesota. Virtually every school in the country recruited every one of them, but there was at least one Roseville Raider on each of Halldorson’s three national championship teams (2000, 2004, 2005).
Winny Brodt (2000) and Ronda Curtin (2002, 2003) were both named Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Defensive Player of the Year, while Ronda was named WCHA Player of the Year in 2002.
Since Minnesota didn’t have a women’s program in 1996, Winny decided to sign on with the No. 1 team in the country, the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Kerry had received offers from early eastern women’s hockey programs but decided to stay home. Winny was highly conscious of embracing opportunities that were unavailable to her older sister.
Part of the U.S. women’s national team program since she was 13, Winny later took a two-year break from her college career to play for the U.S. National Team. She ended up playing one season at New Hampshire, helping them win a national championship. She earned MVP honors in the national women’s tournament. When the University of Minnesota added varsity women’s hockey for the 1998-1999 season, she headed home to the Twin Cities.
“The only time we [Winny and Chelsey] were able to play together was my freshman year and her senior year at the University of Minnesota,” Chelsey says.
Looking back, the players on those great Roseville teams of the 1990s are blown away by the progress that girls’ and women’s hockey has made over the intervening years.
“The skill level of these girls and women now is beyond exciting to see,” Kelly says. “They are so fast, so skilled, and so smart. It is just a different level from when I played.”
Kelly coached prep school hockey in New England and now resides in Arizona, where she operates a hockey rink with her husband, a former professional player.
“Not too long ago, I played for the Whitecaps and we had to pay money to play and raise money to travel. Now, girls can play professional hockey and make some good money from that,” Chelsey says. “Some of these girls don’t realize how fortunate they are.” Chelsey now serves as an assistant coach on the combined Roseville-Mahtomedi girls’ varsity hockey team. The head coach is her husband, Craig Rosenthal.
“My niece plays for Hill-Murray and, going to those varsity games, I cannot believe how far girls hockey has come,” Renee says. “It’s so fast, and the girls are so much stronger. The way they can shoot the puck now, it’s definitely come a long way.”
“The older I get, the more I appreciate it,” Kelly says. “I try to relay that to kids: Enjoy every shift, every hug from your parents after the games. I was at the Roseville Arena about a year ago, and my picture when I was 16 is still hanging there in the lobby, which is so cool because I can show it to my kids.”
“Never lose sight of your love for the game,” Ronda adds. “That’s what you need to be able to work harder than the person next to you. Stay in the moment. Don’t try to rush. There’s too much rushing in sports now.”
