Hockey families across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were abuzz last month with the news that Hill-Murray School in Maplewood hired Natalie Darwitz to coach its girls hockey team.

The three-time Olympian was raised Catholic, a parishioner of St. Thomas Becket in Eagan, and led the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team in back-to-back national championships. Now 39 and a mother of two, Darwitz said she’s excited to join the Hill-Murray community, which feels like a perfect fit.

Q) When did you start playing hockey?

A) Five. It would’ve been sooner, but there were no girls playing at the time. I had to wear my mom down.

Q) What do you love about hockey?

A) You’re on a tiny little blade, wearing all this expensive equipment and chasing around a black puck. It seems crazy, but it’s just so much fun! I love the multi-tasking of it. You’re skating while you’re handling a puck. You’re stick handling while moving your feet. You have other people after you if you have that little black thing on your stick. There’s not one play that you can duplicate — not the same lane or the same stroke. It’s always different. Plan A in hockey is most likely not going to work — it’s plan B, C or D. That makes things exciting!

Q) And what do you love about coaching?

A) As a player, I was very action oriented. You just do it. Coaching, you can’t go and do. You have to communicate it, you have to teach it, you have to motivate them. I realized that coaching made me a better person. Coaching is serving.

Q) What are the key ingredients to a winning team?

A) The teams I look back on that were successful, there was a common goal and a shared understanding. We all have our roles, and we believe each role is important. When that happens, it’s just so powerful. I call it “the it-factor.” You have it and you know it, but you can’t describe it.

Many people would say the most skilled team wins. No, I’ve been a part of the most skilled team, but if we couldn’t come out of the locker room as one unit, there were less-skilled teams that could beat us. I believe so much in leadership, culture, accountability and principles.

Q) Tell me about your first Olympics, Salt Lake City, when you were 18 and the leading scorer.

A) The coolest experience for me was, after every warm-up, before I’d leave the ice, I would find my family and wave to them. They were always in the same spot. That to me represented that this was so much bigger than just me. So many people sacrificed and helped me get there.

We were favored to win gold. We played Canada eight times leading up to the Olympics and we were 8 and 0, and then we lost our game to them in the Olympics. That one hurt. We played a B-minus game, and you just can’t do that at that level.

Q) There were also a lot of highs, like the time you scored against Harvard in the NCAA hockey championship with a minute eight left on the clock.

A) One of the coolest experiences is at the end of the game throwing your gloves off and jumping on a pile with your teammates. The joys of being on top and the agony of defeat … In sports, the sun rises the next day and you get another crack at it.

Q) Is the rink a place to escape all the pressures of adolescence?

A) Hockey is a kid’s game. This is your opportunity to forget about all of your stresses; let your hair loose and be free. There’s so much joy out here because you get to play a kid’s game and you get to be a kid while doing that.

Q) What attracted you to Hill-Murray?

A) I feel really welcome. It feels right. And the principles we live by are aligned. We both believe in mentoring the whole student-athlete. Athletics are a vehicle to help you in your everyday life. If your everyday life doesn’t align with what you do in athletics — or vice versa — we’re missing the mark.

Q) Do you talk to your athletes about mental health?

A) Yes. Mental health is really important. We could go into a Tuesday with a plan, and we might read our players and say, “Hey, we seem tired today.” If we’re tired because we’re being lazy, that’s one thing. But if it’s the dog days of the hockey season, if it’s January and you’re just tired of the grind, maybe tomorrow’s a day off.

The teams I coached the past two seasons, when we’d get into January and February, we had Tuesdays off. That day did wonders. It was a day to focus on their studies, to restock on food, to do everything they needed to set themselves up for success.

Q) And go to bed earlier!

A) Yeah. I talk to the team about that. “What’s better: 10 p.m. or 1 a.m.?”  They don’t need me ranting at them. They don’t need a second mom or dad. But they need someone to speak truth into their lives, so we say: Do simple better. Get the basics right.

Q) How far has hockey come since you played?

A) I think players can skate faster, shoot harder, stick handle better, but I don’t think the hockey IQ is there because they don’t play unorganized hockey anymore. Everything is all set up for them. It’s practice, it’s go to a skate coach, go to a league where you play games, it’s not go to the park and have a pick-up game. That’s how you learn to facilitate your own rules, how to communicate, how to problem solve. We’re missing those lessons.

Q) What would you say to teens who are considering trying out for Hill-Murray hockey but afraid they aren’t good enough?

A) We all have those doubts, and sometimes we talk ourselves out of it before we even try. But if you don’t try, you won’t know. You’re not living life to its fullest.

It takes courage to try, and it’s amazing when we try things, what doors open — either open, or what we learn through that process that will help us through the next door.

Q) How has your Catholic upbringing stayed with you?

A) I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and through our creator. Faith is an important part of life, and my boys are now learning about it.

Q) For all the time you spend on ice, you’re also a hot-weather person. 

A) I love being on the lake. It’s my happy place. I’m on Prior Lake, and I love to surf, ski and just be on the boat. I feel like there should be a balance in life. There should be multiple things. My identity is not wrapped up in hockey. I talk to my athletes about that: Hockey is what you do, it’s not who you are. God has a path for you.