Junior forward Aubrey Beskid is one of only four upperclassmen on a youthful Arizona State Women’s Hockey team. She is also currently the only junior on the roster.
Her journey to collegiate hockey first began across the country where she grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Hershey is also where the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League play. For Beskid, having the team in her own city was the reason she gravitated towards the sport of hockey.
“I grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania and I got involved because we have an AHL team and my Dad took me to a Hershey Bears game and then I fell in love with the sports and started playing since,” Beskid said.
While growing up, Beskid didn’t idolize any NHL players like most young hockey players do. Instead, two former Hershey Bears players were who Beskid enjoyed watching on the ice.
“My first favorite player was Andrew Gordon, he played in the AHL and Casey Wellman is also another AHL player,” she said. “I grew up watching them and I’m not a big person who likes to watch hockey on TV, it’s just not my thing.”
Not only does Hershey love their Bears, but the city as a whole embraces the hockey culture as well.
“I’d say with the Bears they definitely do because everyone’s Bears fans there and there’s a lot of high school hockey and then youth hockey, so there’s a lot of hockey there for sure,” Beskid said.
Before joining the Sun Devils, Beskid had only played for one organization, the Hershey Jr. Bears. She was the alternate captain for years and wanted to leave her mark by being a leader on the team.
“I felt like I was a pretty big leader there because I also wanted to win, always doing the best I could towards hockey,” Beskid said.
The decision to join ASU in the early stages of the program only made sense for Beskid as she was wanted to carry her talents to a new environment away from Hershey.
“I knew that I wanted to player college hockey and it’s warm here and I also wanted a new experience and go away from home,” she said. “It was the perfect fit and the perfect level of hockey.”
Beskid has a total of five points this season, tallying two goals and three assists. Her best offense performance came against Concordia University in the Missouri Showcase when she put up a goal and three assists.
Now she is looking to build off her four-point game and help the team the rest of the way.
“It was definitely exciting, so I’m looking to keep looking for that excitement and just help the team and put more points up for everyone,” Beskid said.
The Sun Devils record stands at 8-1, which is the best start in the program’s short history. Beskid, who’s been with the team since the second year of the program’s existence, said one of the key pieces to the team’s early season success not only comes from the chemistry inside the locker room, but the new faces as well.
“It’s just a new group of girls and that’s obviously going to change anything when you have a new group of girls, we had a lot of people leave, we had a lot of people come in,” she said. “So, I think that we are just really excited, we really love the team and love one another and it’s just a great chemistry between all of us and we’re all friends.”
