Courtsey of Brian Beard

Meghan Britt ’28, a forward on the women’s hockey team (12–1–0; 6–0–0 NESCAC), achieved NESCAC Women’s Hockey Player of the Week honors for her performance against the University of Massachusetts Boston (7–10–0) and Suffolk University (7–8–0) over the January break. Britt currently leads the team in assists (9) and sits at third on the team in goals with five.

Britt explained that hockey was a part of her life from an early age.

“I started playing hockey when I was four or five. Both my siblings, my brother and my sister, play hockey as well. They inspired me to try it out…. My dad would build a backyard rink out of wood and a liner and the hose. [With] my siblings and my friends, [I] would just go out there and fool around,” Britt said.

Britt’s sister, Allison Britt ’23, a former member of the Bowdoin women’s hockey team, helped her realize she wanted to be part of a close group of teammates like those at Bowdoin.

“I had always dreamt of playing college hockey. Seeing my sister’s experience here, it made me want to go to a NESCAC, but more specifically [one] like Bowdoin. It’s a dream come true,” Britt said.

Since the team spends much of winter break on campus training, Britt said that the time offered a period to connect with teammates without assignments and social obligations outside of the athletic sphere.

“No one else is [on campus] besides a few other winter sports teams. I feel like we got a lot closer because you’re spending your days together. We’re lifting, and we’re on the ice, but there’s no school work…. We just did a bunch of fun activities that I feel contributed more to how close we are with one another, which will just definitely translate on the ice for the rest of the season,” Britt said.

Britt shared that her pre-game ritual consists of playing games with her teammates.

“As a team, we always play soccer before we warm up, and we juggle with each other. We’re not always successful. Then we’ll play taps, the game where you throw a ball at each other. Those [activities] get me pumped up. And we’re always pumping each other up before the game, getting each other ready,” Britt said.

Another large part of the team’s game rituals revolves around music.

“As a team, we listen to a lot of remixes. We dance. We have a ‘win song’ after we play. It’s called ‘Shout.’ Once we get back to the locker room, we’ll start playing it, and everyone will be up and dancing,” Britt said.

Britt admitted that she had no expectations when joining the team, as she was focused on adjusting to her new lifestyle at Bowdoin.

“I didn’t really have any expectations for myself….  I knew that we were gonna do well, because we have such a great team, but I think that the season has definitely exceeded my expectations,” Britt said.

Britt said winter break training gave the team confidence heading into the rest of the season.

“I feel like we have a very special team this year. I think the more success we have, the more it proves to us that we can be this really competitive and really good team. I think that our confidence has gotten a lot bigger. We have just proven to ourselves that we can do anything, and we can beat these hard teams, and that we are at the top of the NESCAC,” Britt said.