Aimee Berg - USA Hockey August 20, 2009 Ruggiero: Miles to Go Before I Sleep Aimee Berg - USA Hockey August 20, 2009 Ruggiero: Miles to Go Before I Sleep Aimee Berg - USA Hockey August 20, 2009 53567872 Photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images Defensemen Angela Ruggiero #4 skates during practice at the USA Hockey National Women's Festival on August 25, 2005 at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, New York. What more could Angela Ruggiero want? After winning an Olympic hockey gold medal in 1998 as an 18-year-old prep school student, carrying the World Trade Center flag into the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake Games and leaving with a silver medal, graduating from Harvard in 2004, writing an autobiography in 2005, capturing a bronze medal at the 2006 Torino Games as the tournament's "Best Defenseman," becoming a TV reality show star by outsmarting MBA's and entrepreneurs on NBC's "The Apprentice," and - most recently - being enshrined in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame - all by age 29 - it seems there is nothing she can't do. And on Monday, one of the best defensive players in the world is likely to be called up for her fourth Olympic hockey team when the 23-player roster is announced. "I'm not surprised she's still at it," said Ben Smith, who coached the past three U.S. Olympic teams. "I'll be surprised when she stops. My God, she's not even 30." But two years ago, Ruggiero almost veered off in a radically different direction. It was the spring of 2007 and Ruggiero was living in New York, training on her own, and working as the director of "Project Hope" a non-profit venture created by the New York Islanders' owner Charles Wang to foster education through hockey in China. "The Apprentice" had just finished airing, and even though she was fired in the 10th episode (of 14), Donald Trump offered her a job. "Right before he fired me, he said, 'Hey, when this is over, give me a call.' So in May, I went to his office and met with him and his kids. They said, 'What do you want to do?' I'd been involved in commercial real estate right after college and thought, 'Okay, I could jump right into this.' " Instead, "I told him I'd think about it," she said. "I had all these opportunities. I didn't know what direction to go," she said. "I knew that once I fully entered in the working world, there was no turning back." Ruggiero also had to figure out where hockey fit into her future. She had already explored several variations on her life's most familiar theme. She competed in the 2007 inline hockey world championships (and won). She continued to promote her book, "Breaking the Ice". She kept the Angela Ruggiero Girls' Hockey School functioning in various locations. But training was becoming a grind and it was difficult to find a practice facility and stay sharp once her college career faded into the distant past. So Ruggiero did something uncharacteristic. She stopped playing. It was her first significant break from hockey since she was 7. "I didn't do anything.'' she said of the summer of 2007. "I wasn't working, I was away from everything. It was random. I was in New York and Oklahoma. "I needed to rebuild that energy," she explained. "If it wasn't in me, I'd fully know after taking a step away." Finally, in September 2007, she realized that if she was going to train for one more Olympic Games, it was time. She put on her skates again and "it's been full throttle since then," she said. She moved to Minnesota to take part in the national team's new residency program and, as usual, continued to multitask. She is two-thirds of the way through a master's degree in sports management at the University of Minnesota. And several corporate sponsors (i.e. Coca-Cola, Nike, and Visa) have financially enabled her to continue to play. But best of all, Ruggiero said, "Hockey was exciting and invigorating again. It was amazing the energy I had when I figured out I wanted to try for one more Olympics." Seven months after returning to the ice, she helped the U.S. beat Canada, 4-3, to win the gold medal at the 2008 World Championships in Harbin, China. In 2009, the U.S. defeated Canada again, 4-1, to defend its world title and set up another battle royale in Vancouver in less than six months. "I feel great," she said in a phone interview from her temporary base Santa Monica, Calif., last month. "I've had unbelievable training this summer in Southern California. I'm working with [forward] Richard Park of the Islanders, Chris Drury the Rangers' captain, Noah Clarke who's a pro in Europe - a lot of guys I grew up playing with. I do dry land with them then we skate for an hour afterwards doing drills and some pick-up." If Ruggiero makes the 2010 Olympic team as expected, she wants her father, Bill, to be in the stands. He has never been to an Olympic Games, but he works about 140 miles from Vancouver, managing a glass shop near Seattle. Had it not been for Mr. Ruggiero, Angela might not have taken up hockey. In the early 1980s, Simi Valley, Calif., was not a hotbed for youth hockey, but when Ruggiero's father found a club for her younger brother, Bill, Angela quickly became enamored of his goalie equipment. She asked her dad to sign her up, and in California, she said, "their attitude was: the more the merrier." Soon, all three Ruggiero children were on the same team. The oldest, Pamela, played at left wing, Bill was in goal, and Angela was put on defense, she said, because she could skate backwards. At 14, Angela moved east to attend Choate boarding school in Connecticut. A year later, she made the U.S. national team. When former U.S. coach Ben Smith saw her play, he remembered seeing "a frisky colt. She was so strong and raw. It was obvious she was special. And just 15! As it turned out, she was a woman among girls. At the Nagano 1998 Winter Olympic Games, Smith kept Ruggiero on the ice for the crucial last five minutes of the gold-medal game. Canada had just scored to narrow the U.S. lead to 2-1 and he said Ruggiero, "wasn't giving Canada an inch" as the U.S. prevailed, 3-1. After retrieving the historic game puck while her teammates were in a celebratory dog pile, Ruggiero was heard saying, "Do you believe after all this, I've got to go back to high school?" In 2002, Ruggiero had taken a two-year leave from Harvard to live at the U.S. Olympic Training Center to prepare for Salt Lake City with the team. The U.S. was expected to defend its gold in front of the home crowd. It was 31-0 entering the Games, but the U.S. lost to Canada, 3-2, in the gold-medal game. "It was super-emotional afterwards, but knowing that I couldn't have done much more, and knowing that our team couldn't have done much more, we had no regrets," she said. By 2006, Ruggiero was two years out of college, and the team came to Torino as a world champion for the first time. But Sweden upset the U.S. in the semifinal, 3-2, in overtime, and the U.S. failed to make the Olympic gold-medal game. The U.S. defeated Finland, 4-0, for the bronze medal and Ruggiero learned not to take No. 1 status for granted. "It's hard to stay there - although the US and Canada make it look easy - but people who are successful continue to grow and evolve," she said. So too, has Ruggiero's game. "I think she's playing some of her best hockey now because she's not being asked to do everything," said Katey Stone, who coached Ruggiero at Harvard and also guided the Ruggiero and the U.S. team at the 2008 Four Nations Cup. "The pressure's off her. She's emotionally in a different place as an athlete now." Ben Smith agreed that if Ruggiero had a weakness in the past, it was that she tended to take too much responsibility on the ice. "She knows it because we've talked, laughed, and cried about it," Smith said. "She can be bullish out there." Yet Ruggiero has always remained a dominant defensive force. "Every player knows when she's on the ice and not," Smith said. "Other coaches don't have to say anything because everybody knows. It's also interesting to see how the Red Sea parts as she goes up the ice." "The most terrifying experience was when I played forward against her in my first practice in college," said 2006 Olympic defenseman Caitlin Cahow who was a freshman at Harvard when Ruggiero was a senior captain "It was a one-on-one and I didn't realize who I was going against until I got into the corner. I had no time to slow down. I skated as hard as I could right into her, went straight into the air, helicopter-ed, and landed pretty soundly. I just wanted to cry so badly, but I couldn't because I had to look tough and make a good first impression. I remember being so utterly demoralized and intimidated all at once." At 5-9, 185 pounds, Ruggiero is one of the stronger, bigger players, and calls herself "lucky" because she thinks it has enabled her to play without significant injury through all nine world championships since 1997, three Olympics, and 222 games for the US national team - more than any other US women's hockey player, past or present. - "She is very aware of her size," Cahow said. "In college, she had to back off a bit because people just weren't as strong as she was and it went against her as far as officiating. But she's a very clean, tactical player." "I want to keep getting better," Ruggiero said. "That's one of my goals going into Vancouver. Not to be just hanging on." As one of the last two players remaining from the 1998 U.S. Olympic team (along with Jenny Potter), Ruggiero has one other mission. "In 1998, I learned what it feels like to win the elusive gold medal that I've been chasing since," she said. "The team going into Vancouver is very similar to that 1998 team [which was just named to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.] I haven't felt chemistry like that until now. We've had a taste of gold at the World Championship level, but I'd love everyone on my team to have that opportunity [to feel what it's like to be an Olympic champion]. Besides Jenny and I, no one's had that. It would be a perfect way to end my career." And after 2010? "I'm not exactly sure what direction I'll go," Ruggiero said, "but I'd like to think I still have options." Aimee Berg is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.

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