Coaches often give motivation and inspire their athletes, but Harvard Women's ice hockey coach Katey Stone is finding that it's also working the other way around.
The determination of the three women from her team who are competing in the Olympic Games in Torino this month is inspiring Stone.
Those three women -- Sarah Vaillancourt, Julie Chu and Caitlin Cahow -- won't be the only Ivy League athletes in Italy, however.
There is an impressive number of current Ancient Eight athletes and alumni competing this year. The total of 29 athletes -- concentrated in skiing and hockey -- breaks the record of 22 Ivy participants set at the 2002 games in Salt Lake City.
None of these athletes are from Penn, however.
Director of Athletic Communications Mike Mahoney said that this is not a major concern and that Penn's location plays a big factor.
"While we would love to have our athletes at the Olympics, Penn isn't conducive to winter events," Mahoney said.
Being the southernmost Ivy, Penn is not near many ski trails and does not support a varsity hockey team.
But this may just be an off year for Penn. Quaker athletes have competed at the recent games in Salt Lake City in 2002 and Athens in 2004.
Columbia is the only other Ivy without representation -- and, perhaps not coincidentally, the only other one without a varsity ice hockey team.
In Italy, 14 of 29 Ivy League contenders will come from Hanover, N.H.
Many of the Big Green will be participating in skiing events, even though most of them have not skied collegiately for Dartmouth.
Alpine skier Libby Ludlow is one. She is making her Olympic debut after winning a gold medal at the 2004 National Championships.
"It's a personal choice," Dartmouth spokesman Rick Adams said, "If you're able to, you want to compete on the [Olympic] level."
Ancient Eight women will be a big presence on the US Ice Hockey Team. On the 20 member roster, 13 are either currently enrolled or alumni of the Ivy League.
There are also a number of Ivy women on the teams of other countries.These include Vaillancourt, a sophomore, who is competing for her native Canada.
Stone describes her -- as well as the other two women from her squad -- as "competitors who want to be the best in everything they do."
But participating in the Olympics takes these athletes away from school. Many Olympic participants either took the year off from school to prepare or only attend one semester a year, like Ludlow.
This also means that the athletes are not playing for their school's team while training for the Winter Games. However, Stone said it is only a "temporary change in direction" and that "overall, it's all positive.
"They love to play for Harvard," she said. "All of them come back and finish out their years of eligibility."
Yale women's ice hockey coach Hilary Witt said the experience the athletes bring back is important, and the other team members value it.
"They are really mature and know how to train really hard," Witt said.
The reputation of sending hockey players to the Olympics helps in recruiting athletes because it shows prospects the strength of the programs.
One hockey player on her way to Turin has not even matriculated into college yet, but she's participating in the games. Denise Soesilo -- who committed to Yale earlier this year -- will be playing for her native Germany.
You might not hear much about the Ivy League in March Madness next month, but for the next two weeks of February, Ivy League athletes will have the chance to be in the global spotlight.
