"Everything teaches transition, transference, metamorphosis: therein is human power, in transference, not in creation; and therein is human destiny, not in longevity but in removal. We dive and reappear in new places." Ralph Waldo Emerson (Journais 1820-1824)

In Season One, forward Breann Frykas wore uniform #1 for a couple of games for our Pod. Signing on with Harry Rosenholtz under the NWHL’s Practice Player designation, a fairly common, but loosely defined convention in the first couple of seasons of the league. The story of how Bree became a pro hockey player and where she’s gone since, contain the essence of Emerson’s quote above. We recently had a chance to chat with Bree about this and find out how transference of herself and her skills have shaped her life.

Breann is a Canadian, and we spoke with her on Canada Day, And with the restrictions and protocols of the pandemic, international travel is difficult. We wondered how Breann was dealing with that, and and how and where she was dealing with pandemic in general she informed us

“I live up in Branford , CT, and for the most part I can’t go see my family. So I was lucky enough to get my TN 1 Visa renewed with my company about a week before Covid started. So I was very fortunate to have that happen, because my visa expired at the end of May. I was granted an additional three years with Boston Scientific (my employer). That was awesome, super thankful for that. Super thankful I have a job, work has actually been crazier than ever. The only part that kind of stinks is, I have a house now and it’s the first summer I’m in my house so it would have been nice for my parents to come down, but obviously the border’s closed. I probably won’t be seeing them in the immediate future. You can go home to Canada, as a Canadian, but you have to stay there for fourteen days. With my job, being in and out of the hospitals, it’s just not an option right now. It could be worse, and I’m just thankful I’m safe and have a house. I’m not stuck in an apartment like I used to be in, which is nice. I always try to look at it from the positive side. My Dad sent me a picture of a beach up in Winnipeg, and it looks like a bar, people just stacked everywhere! It doesn’t look so great. It’ll be interesting to see what the numbers are with COVID after this weekend if people aren’t smart.” 

Breann continued "I work for the Endoscopy Division of Boston Scientific. We are one of the largest medical device companies in the world. In Endoscopy globally, we’re the market leaders. What we essentially do, is treat a lot of cancer patients, we create med devices that help cancer patients avoid going to surgery, or are less invasive, if they are not a surgical candidate. Cancers like pancreatic, colon, esophageal, and gastric. In my old job, before I got my new role in April, I was actually the one in the cases, kind of teaching the doctors what to do with the new modalities that they would offer patients. But now I just got my new role so I’m not doing that as much anymore. It was tough because a lot of the elective procedures got paused because of Covid. Obviously, cancer patients are immunocompromised, so we were doing that virtually through different platforms and support like FaceTime. Now I’m Regional Development Manager so I have my own team of six District Managers (my old position) who do that in the hospital. So fortunately I don’t actually have to be the one inside the hospital anymore. My team is deployed in the hospitals and we’ve given them the PPE to go into the cases. That’s important, because a lot of the time the doctor’s can’t complete the cases unless they’re there, sowe are considered essential staff. So I’ll be home for the foreseeable future. I am up at Bristol Hospital next week, but I am dealing more with the budget owners, or head of supply chain, I’ll go visit the main doctor’s at Yale, I’m actually having dinner with them tomorrow night, just trying to be strategic about how we can connect with them outside the hospital environment. But for the most part my team is in the hospitals now, and I’m managing that. Which is kind of nice based on the timing, and everything that hit. It will be interesting, I’ll be covering all of Boston, Rhode Island, Springfield, Hartford, and obviously southern Connecticut as well. I’ll definitely be traveling once things open up to see how my team is doing in the different hospitals during the week. But right now I’m trying to enjoy the time at home while I can, there’s no need to have an extra person in there if you don’t need to right now."

Breann comes from the Winnipeg area inManitoba, about ninety minutes above the US border in North Dakota. We asked her to tell us a little about her home and what it’s like looking back to where it all started for her. She replied

“I was born and raised in Winnipeg, and my family moved to East Saint Paul, Manitoba when I was thirteen, and everyone is there still. I left when I was sixteen to move to Detroit to play for Little Caesar’s, and haven’t lived back home since. I’ve lived in the states now for thirteen years. It’s kind of crazy when you look back and think of how long it’s been. In my career, I sometimes even forget hockey was a part of my life sometimes. It seems so long ago, I’m like a female in a business world that is predominantly male, and I’m so focused with my career and so busy, that sometimes someone will say: Oh, you played hockey? And I say I did and they look me up and say: Oh, you we’re actually decent at the time! But you forget about it, you kind of forget about that part of your life sometimes, because you get focused on the next goal or accomplishment. But then when you remind yourself of it, you’re like: Wow, that was a great time in my life! There are a lot of transferable skills that make you successful not just in sports, but in your career or in your life based off the experiences and people you’ve been around. “

Bree added: “I love where I grew up, it’s part of who I am. But at the same time, through hockey, I’ve gotten so many different experiences. New York City was a place that when I grew up we dreamed of from watching TV. It wasn’t a place I ever thought about really going to. And now I can go there every weekend, and sometimes when a I’m on the train thinking when I was a little girl this was something I could hardly dream of and now I can just go there. It’s kind of crazy to think about those little things that you take for granted sometimes. And to just realize how far you've come, in terms of the experience and the perspective. It’s definitely a different lifestyle living in New York. In Winnipeg the are great but there’s not a lot around Winnipeg, so sometimes you get stuck in a bubble, or a way of life. Everything is more slow paced than the East Coast, where things go at a lot faster speed than even the rest of the United States!”

So Cetacean Nation was curious how hockey came into the picture, and Bree enlightened us with some unusual aspects of that!

“It’s just something you grow up doing, you’re starting at four, five, or six years old. My Dad was a hockey player, and my little brother was two years younger than me. So my Dad started out having us skate, and I ended up being a decent skater. But the only reason he put me into hockey was so that my little brother could get started! If you had an older sibling on the team, you could start a year earlier. So he was four and I was six, and Dad kind of put me in as the guinea pig so my little brother could start at four instead of five. And I ended up scoring something like sixry goals that first season. So my Dad was like: Let’s kind of stick with this. I was a decent skater, and that’s kind of how it started, playing for the the Oak Bluff Blues on the same team with my little brother. My Dad was super passionate about it. Obviously my uncle (Barry Trotz) played for Regina Pass and he coaches for the Islanders now, so it’s kind of inate. My cousins played for the Selkirk Steelers, so it’s just kind of a big culture of our family as well. So, that’s kind of how it started or me”

Immersed in all that hockey at an early age, we wondered if she tried her hand at any other sports. Bree enthusiastically replied

“Everything! That’s one of the things I kind of hate about sports these days, I kind of think it’s gotten to be so competitive. That like you have to keep playing your one sport all the way through the year, to where don’t have time for the other sports. That’s why what I always did, play hockey, but, also every other sport. I played baseball with the boys until I was thirteen, played competitive softball until I was fifteen, and my life guarding came from my swimming team. I played on the middle school and high school volleyball team, the basketball team, badminton, and track. Sports was my thing. I was never the most fit athlete, but coordination was more my thing. I pitched for a little bit in softball, and I still play slo pitch, and actually volleyball. Volleyball pretty competitively right now. My parents were big believers (in multi sports) and I wish it was more like that now. You need a break sometimes. I didn’t always make hockey the priority, there are a lot of great sports out there and sometimes it’s good give yourself a rest and reset. There are different coordination things that are cross trained as well. Transferable. So I definitely played everything growing up and I wish that I did even more, but there ‘s just not enough time. And to be really good at one you have to dedicate your time to it, one versus the other eventually, once you get to a certain age.”

But as we know, Bree’s career on the ice did not exactly end, and she is part of the history of women’s sports that is the NWHL and the Connecticut Whale. So two years after her last game as a Quinnipiac Bobcat, Cetacean Nation wondered how Bree came to the Pod, and what that was like. She reflected and said

“So I was playing for a weekend team, Team Connecticut which was kind of a senior women’s league after college for a little bit. And when the NWHL and the Whale started up, I was working retail at the time before I started my new job. And Harry Rosenholtz was involved with Quinnipiac and the NWHL at the time. Harry had helped recruit me to QU. I had talked to him before, when he was over at Yale, as well. So he brought me on board with the Whale, and honestly, if I had stuck with it and been more dedicated I could have played regularly. But really, when they approached me to come play, I had already started to transition into my career. I told them since I was working eighty hours a week, I could only be a practice player. I’d skate once or twice a week. The practices were all the way in Stamford, it was something to do to get back in shape at a high level at practice, versus just going to the gym. Not to necessarily play the games. But when it came to the games, they’d ask if I could come to some, but after I’ve been working with cancer patients all week, the last thing I want to do is get on an eight hour bus ride to Buffalo! I appreciate the people that can do it, and there was a time and place in my life for that. But my career was now my focus. I am very thankful for the experience with the Whale, it was super cool to be a part of hockey history, that was new. And I am very glad that I stayed involved. There were also a lot of changes with coaching, some of the hiccups of the league, trying to get it to a well oiled machine. There was a lot of unknown, for example there was some difficulty with the girl’s visas. But ultimately, you put a group of girls together who played college hockey, and we’re going to be pretty good. It’s going to a good time, it’s going to make you better, that’s why we do it , the whole experience of it.”

 She added “Super thankful I got to be a part of it. It it wasn’t for my career being so demanding, I would have loved to be more involved in it. But I just had to make the mature decision, and figure out long term, what was more important to me. I played a few home games, mostly in the beginning, helping out here and there. All home games, I didn’t go to any of the away games. But it was cool! All the little girls there, that was awesome! I never had that when I was little. So just to see the development of the game over a period of time is pretty neat. And, there were other players I'd known, like Kaleigh Fratkin, who had played at Little Caesars with myself and Madison Packer a little bit. There were different people who we all had been connected to at some point in our careers. Molly Engstrom went to Wisconsin, Kelli Stack was on the National Team and I knew her through Brianna Decker at Wisconsin. There were so many different networks of people, which made the experience really neat. It’s so cool, because it’s all about those people. You learn so much from each other, and the whole experience of it. In my career now, I hire D-1 athletes, I have a Cornell lacrosse player on my team, I have a Women's softball D-1 player on my team. We just did an event about how sports skills transfer. There are so many skills, and that grit mentality, that becomes part of your life. Those experiences of bringing those people together is the one thing I miss right now. Having all of my friends in one place. This week we were going to have a little bit of a Quinnipiac alumni get together and have it at my house. But with Covid, that’s on the back burner. But that’s what makes it so neat, that people piece of it. Overall, a great experience, forever and super thankful for it.” 

“You know, I played boys hockey my whole early career and never got hurt. Sophomore year of college I was intending to get labrum surgery post graduation. It wasn’t something that was life threatening. but over time needed to be repaired. I’m playing men’s league twice a week now in Shelton, and I’m probably better than I was when I was playing for the Whale, because I’m on the ice more:) I hadn’t played in awhile and I just threw on skates maybe a month before. I’m in better shape now, but you’re never the same. I think my knee is a lot better but with my shoulder, I still can’t do a full push up. You graduate, and they don’t pay for your recovery. I don’t need to do it anymore, there’s no reason to push it to the point where I’m going to hurt myself more, either. That was the other thing . To play with the Whale, all it takes is a weird run into the boards, and I have to pay for a $50,000 surgery that previously was paid for while I was a college athlete.”

Breann also has some thoughts about staying involved in hockey in another, unique way. She revealed

"I know Babs (Kelly Babstock) and Shiann (Darkangelo) are in Toronto, and I actually did a Quinnipiac alumni weekend in Toronto with Emma Greco last year. It’ll be nice for them to start up there in the East, because the travel line from Buffalo, Connecticut, New York makes sense from a cost standpoint and a travel schedule schedule. That’s a good sign. And one thing I have been talking about with Cass Turner, was I wish there was a better women’s alumni network with colleges. A cool part is you bring alumni together they are more prone to give resources back and be educated about what’s new and how they can help. It’s good for the community. I would like to get involved at some point, because I feel there are so many female athletes that graduate college these days. And there are two different groups that need help. One is the group of girls that are looking to go to college. I wish when I was 16 years old that there was someone that I could have talked to, my parents didn’t know what college was. To be able to help look at the different colleges, and the pros and cons, and find the best fit. And the other group are players dealing with things like work visas. Katie Tabin, she played at Quinnipiac, she just called me the other day, and she is fighting the visa process in the US now. As a Canadian it isn’t easy, the networking to get the visa. I’ve been fortunate enough to get with a company that pays for the visa process, but it’s not easy if you don’t know the right people or route to get there. So two things that I’m passionate about are bridging those gaps. I may not be a pro athlete anymore (or never was depending on who you ask:), but would like to be able to help those people who have taken their career to the extent they have. And give what advice I can to help make themselves successful. Because I feel a lot of people get into that rut of being not really sure of what’s next for them. So providing them insight and direction, that would be so helpful. “

We concluded our conversation with Breann by remarking how we have always felt even if they never pulled on a pair of skates, the women who have played for the Pod would be great role models in their off ice careers as well. Bree agreed, and offered

“I appreciate that because sometimes I feel I’m looked down upon, because I didn’t go as far in my hockey career as planned. But in my job I’m the first ever regional manager before the age of thirty. There’s only two females across the whole US that are at that trajectory level. So for me, my goal now isn’t to be a pro or Olympic Athlete, but to be the VP of the largest medical device company in the world. It ‘s different, but it is kind of cool that people might look at that,. Because sometimes I think it gets lost, if you are not a doctor or lawyer they don’t really understand other industries and what that means or where they’re at. I went to business school, and I never thought in a million years I’d be in the medical device industries teaching doctors what to do, and how those two career paths end up meeting at some point. I was lucky to just have it fall in my lap, and I’m like: Do people actually schedule this to happen in their life? I didn’t even know about it. In my procedures I’m thinking: I’m a hockey player who finished college, why am I telling doctors what to do? But then, you’ve gone to mini-med school, learned the stuff, worked hard and it continues. If you set goals and work hard, it will pay off in one way or another. Learning that work ethic is the best part of sports. I think anyone who has the opportunity to play in a team environment should. Even in my slo pitch softball league, we have such a great time, and great team camaraderie. Those people become your family. I know for me, my friends are my family because my family isn’t that close:) So it’s cool! And Cetacean Nation thinks our former #1, OW Breann Frykas and her message of transference is pretty cool too! We thank Breann for her unique and compelling content, and know that she will always be wearing a hockey sweater under her business suit. Fins Up Forever Breann!