BIDDEFORD — The Harold Alfond Forum is home to the University of New England’s hockey teams, but the arena has also become a “home away from home” for USA Women’s Hockey over the last few years.
USA Hockey, which has also held its Girls Under-18 Select Player Development Camp at UNE, brought the 2018 women’s national team to Biddeford last week for an evaluation camp.
The camp ran from Thursday until Monday on the UNE campus and featured an autograph session with members of the team who won gold medals at the Olympics this past winter.
“It’s awesome to be back and great to be able to share the gold medals here with the community,” said Reagan Carey, who is USA Hockey’s director of women’s hockey.

Carey, who played her college hockey at Colby, is hoping to keep the relationship with UNE and the southern Maine community going.
“We are always planning and evaluating, but everybody is so great here and so welcoming … it feels like a home away from home, so hopefully we can continue doing that each year with our U-18 Select camps,” said Carey.
Hundreds of fans showed up on Saturday for a scrimmage and the autograph session — including a large number of young girls hockey players who were thrilled to see some of their heroes.
“It’s very inspiring to meet such great hockey players,” said Brynn McKenney of Scarborough. “They’re Olympians and I’m just an 11-year-old hockey player … it’s so inspiring to see them.”
Kennebunkport resident Mark McFarlane brought his daughter Frankie and one of her friends to the event to meet the Olympians.
“Anytime you can see the top level athletes perform and knowing that they won a gold medal gives them something to strive for. We wouldn’t have missed it today,” said McFarlane, whose daughter plays for Casco Bay’s U10 team. “We live in a pretty isolated part of the country and to have the world’s best in our back yard, you know you can’t miss an opportunity like that.”

While it was a special moment for some of Maine’s young hockey players, it was also something the gold medalists were looking forward to.
“It’s the coolest thing ever to know that we inspire the little girls coming up underneath us. Everything that we do is for them, so I think it’s really special that they get to come and watch us and we get to be role models for them,” said Team USA defenseman Kali Flanagan, who is from Hudson, New Hampshire and has spent some vacations in Ogunquit.
The current members of Team USA understand how important it is to keep young hockey players involved in the sport.
“It’s always an opportunity to inspire the next generation. There’s a ton of little girls out there who are excited to meet us, so anything we can do to keep growing the game, I’m happy to do it,” said Team USA forward Amanda Kessel.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.