Marions Quinn Dunkle’s attractions are in hockey … like the Olympics

Marions Quinn Dunkle, one of the best hockey players of his age in the country

CORALVILLE On a warm Tuesday afternoon, about a dozen people have found their way to the Coral Ridge Model Ice Rink. Moisture from nearby doors leading to the outside has left a condensation film on the glass around the field.

The scene doesn’t exactly scream hockey.

But for Quinn Dunkle, its almost always the hockey season. You may not become the best female player to ever come from Iowa without constantly working on the game.

The best speech of all time is not hyperbolia.

You’re talking about 17-year-old Marion, one of 60 girls invited to attend the prestigious one USA Hockey U18 Select National Player Development Camp later this month in St. Cloud, Minn. You’re talking about a girl who had three full riding scholarship offers from Division I colleges when she was in eighth grade.

Since I’m one of the few girls in Iowa who plays hockey, I hope to be a role model for younger girls, she said. Tell them they can play with the boys. You can match, you can still beat them regardless of your gender.

That’s how he grew up and plays in boy groups. His father, Sean, is from Red Deer, Alberta, and called AAA level hockey In Canada, conveying the love of the game to his daughter and son.

Gabe Dunkle, 20, also played AAA in the Midwest before ending his career The rough riders of Cedar Rapids High School. He is a student at the University of Iowa.

For those unfamiliar with the youth hockey hierarchy, the AAA level is really good: lots of games, lots of high-level competition for players with more than usual abilities. Only junior hockey like Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and U.S. Hockey League, it’s better.

Yes, I played AAA hockey, but nothing like his level, Sean Dunkle said. It’s great, interesting to see him cross my game level. It’s hard for me to teach him things once he’s overcome it.

Sean Dunkle (right) talks to his daughter Quinn when he takes her to a rehearsal last week at Coral Ridge Mall in Coralille. (Photo: Jeff Johnson)

Since there’s nothing like a girl’s game for junior hockey, and Iowa isn’t exactly a sport, Quinn has had to leave home to continue her career development. He attended preschool and played in the program in Rochester, NY, for the past two years.

As fall circles, the shell spends about a month at Linn-Mar High School, then head to the North American Hockey College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Shell returns to Linn-Mar when the hockey season ends in late winter / early spring.

Clearly, it’s very hard to be away from my family and friends, he said. But you have to make some sacrifices to achieve it, to achieve better competition, to find better development (path), to find new resources. You have to move out of the Midwest, Iowa sometime.

I miss her, said Quinns’ mother Jolene. I think it’s great that he’s working towards something, and he’s learned a lot of good lessons. He deserves everything he gets because he has a good girl, a good player. We watched our son do it (move away), and he watched our son do it. We’ve seen that many hockey players did it, so it was kind of a natural thing for us. Yet many people in the area really questioned our choice. I understand that. But it has proven to be okay.

Even as a beginner, you can watch Quinn, who is a defender, and get an impression of the way he skates graciously and smoothly. You look at his ace puck drills that his dad held on Tuesday, you watch him let go of a powerful wrist shot in the top corner of the net and you understand shes ladies.

Its skill is easy to see. But you have to listen to people who know a lot about the game to appreciate how good he really is.

What he’s going through is unrealistic, said Kevin Brooks, a former RoughRiders and M.Sc. university player and longtime youth coach. Brooks helped Quinn learn to skate as a very young girl and has been a kind of mentor to him as he progresses in the game.

Kevin Brooks (left) skates with Quinn Dunkle during practice when Dunkle was a little girl. Brooks has helped mentor Dunkle on his journey through hockey. (Photo by Kevin Brooks)

Hands down the best player (here), Brooks said. She is one of the best girls in the country. Quinn is the humblest, hardest player I’ve ever met. He will one day be an Olympian.

Did you read it? Olympic?

I want to get really far in hockey, of course get into DI University hockey, he said. But career-wise, I hope to become a doctor, has not ruled out the entry of a professional golfer. I like golf, its a big hobby in life. I’m really good at making and selling things, so I also have the skill to do that. Well, how does everything work.

Maybe the Olympics one day. Wait and see.

Dunkle is not yet committed to Division I school. There’s just 41 DI varity women’s hockey program in the United States, Wisconsin is this year’s national champion.

Ohio State, Minnesota and Penn State are other Big Ten Conference schools with programs. Most are located in the east.

The NCAA puts kibosh in schools that recruit younger girls soon after Dunkle received his three offers in eighth grade. Academically, in his younger year, recruitment can begin again.

They have started talking to me again (since June 15), he said. So I’m in the process again: I take a lot of calls, I did research. It can be stressful sometimes, but its a really exciting time. I am very determined. This happens.

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