It is possible that Winny could be Minnesota’s most recognizable and important player in its women’s hockey history. She was an undeniable trailblazer at every level. She doesn’t have as may Olympic or World Championship medals as some players, but she has had a huge impact on growing the game in her home state. She has been a constant and visible driving force in the successes of all levels of our state’s women’s hockey for her entire storied career. She has been a player, organizer, and mentor, and an inspiration for generations of girls who could see themselves in her successes.
Importantly, she has not only done it all – but she did it right here at home. She was a youth and high school hockey star in the earliest days of the girls state tournament, and she helped that platform reach the prominence it now enjoys as a staple of winter sports. She led the Roseville Raiders girls squad to an undefeated 1995-96 season and a 1996 state title (only the second one ever awarded). Capping that dream season, Winny won a Ms. Hockey Award (the very first one ever awarded). She then went on to star for 1 year for the New Hampshire Lady Wildcats (winning a National Championship), before coming home and starring for 3 more years for the Lady Gophers, (beginning her term in only the second season of that program). She finished her NCAA career as the Gophers’ record holder among defenders for goals, assists, and points, and helped the Lady Gophers take home their own first (her personal second) National Championship in 2000.
She did play in several tournaments for US National Teams as well, which is no small achievement on its own, but that is not where her biggest impact came. That impact would come with her integral part in the growth and maintenance of women’s professional hockey in the state of Minnesota. Importantly to this part of her story, Winny comes from a family of hockey pioneers. Her father Jack has done close to everything in the Minnesota hockey world, and knows everyone. Her brother and sister were both D1 players and her sister Kerry was the first female hockey coach at St Cloud State. The Brodt family is accurately decribed as the first family in Minnesota women’s hockey history. That leads us to the next phase in her story. While Winny was considering what to do after her college hockey career ended, her father Jack was hatching an idea too. He and (fellow Minnesota and USA women’s hockey legend) Jenny Potter’s father, Dwayne Schmigdall, were considering - and soon followed through on - creating a professional women’s hockey team. The purpose of the team was to create a place close to home where their daughters and the quickly-climbing number of quality players in the state could play after college. It was the obvious next step after the early success and solidification of the women’s hockey High School and college infrastructure.
This team would become the Minnesota Whitecaps and it would play primarily Canadian teams in a league called the Western Women’s Hockey League. Winny’s dad Jack made it more than a hobby and was the GM and Head Coach of the team. The Whitecaps’ players and friends would capitalize on their good relationships in the hockey world and became a place that talented players wanted to play. Besides the ample pool that was forming at the local level, they imported several huge names in USA women’s hockey over the years; Players such as Julie Chu, Angela Ruggiero, Manon Rheaume, and Caroline Ouellette. The championship trophy in the WWHL was the Clarkson Cup and the Whitecaps became the first American team to win it in 2010.
Those times were in the early phase in the women’s professional hockey and turbulence was (as it still is) common. When the Whitecaps faced the challenges of leagues and competing teams folding without much warning, they persisted and stayed busy by playing various exhibition games as well as games against numerous in-region Division 1 college programs. All the while, they stayed competitive and achieved their goal of providing a successful ‘graduate-level’ American women’s hockey club in the Midwest. They played for long stretches without a lot of fans or a home arena and that could have been frustrating if the team were not a labor of love for many. How could an enterprise like this survived to today if not for GM Jack and Captain Winny?
When the NWHL came onto the scene in several Northeastern markets in 2015, and did have some funding, and paid it’s players, and did have success, there grew mutual interest between the Whitecaps and the young league. That interest did not go forgotten and for the 2018-19 season, the Whitecaps did join the NWHL. They began that inaugural season by selling out their building and sweeping a weekend series against the defending league champion Metropolitan Riveters. This was clearly an indication that something special could be happening. They won the NWHL Championship (the Isobel Cup) in that first season and would have had the chance to win back-to-back championships had the championship game (vs. the Boston Pride) not been cancelled due to a mandated COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020. That is the season in which Winny wore this jersey. It is from the first half of the 2019-2020 season.
Winny has been this team’s constant heart and captain since day 1, playing in every Whitecaps season from 2004-current. Whatever the story may be in the history of this club, the answer will always come back to Winny, Jack, or both. Perhaps the road could have been easier, but this is not a bad-looking result.
Winny was there for the birth of Minnesota girl’s high school hockey, the birth of Minnesota D1 Women’s hockey, and then had a huge hand herself in the birth and fortification of Minnesota women’s major professional hockey. There is not much that she has missed, honestly. As mentioned, there are players with more medals, but there is no player that has spent more time playing, winning, and building the sport for girls and women in this state than Winny Brodt-Brown.
Per Wikipedia, here is a list of Winny’s accomplishments:
· Ms. Hockey Award: 1996
· Top 3 finalists for Minnesota Sports Channel 1996 Athlete of the Year award[11]
· Most valuable player: 1998 AWCHA Championship[12]
· WCHA Defensive Player of the Year: 1999–2000
· Top 10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award: 1999–2000
· 1998 AWCHA Tournament Most Outstanding player
· 1999 Patty Berg Academic Award winner
· 2000 AWCHA All-Tournament Team
· 2000 WCHA Defensive Player of the Year
· First-team All-WCHA (2000)
· WCHA All-Academic Team member (2000)
· WCHA All-Tournament pick (2000)
· Peggy MacInnis Bye Scholarship award winner (2000)
· Academic All-Big Ten (2000)
· Patty Berg Academic Award honoree (2000)
· Western Women's Hockey League Defensive Player of the Year, 2006–07
For more of the story, following is a brief history of the Minnesota Whitecaps hockey club:
The Minnesota Whitecaps hockey club was founded in 2004 by two dedicated fathers of elite female hockey players. Jack Brodt (father of Winny Brodt-Brown) and Dwayne Schmidgall (father of Jenny Schmidgall-Potter) wanted to give their daughters a place close to home where they could compete after they had graduated from college. Jack, Dwayne, and their daughters subsequently took a huge step: they created out of thin air a brand new sporting franchise.
The Whitecaps played in the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) from the fall of 2004 until the summer of 2011 when the league folded. In 2010, they had reached the pinnacle of the sport, winning the Clarkson Cup Championship to become the first American team to accomplish that honor.
There were two notable possible league mergers that both fell through, not through any fault of the Whitecaps.
In 2015, a new NWHL was formed in the Northeast United States. The Whitecaps played some exhibition games against a few of that league’s teams in those early seasons, and it would make sense that there would be enough mutual interest between the Whitecaps and the NWHL to work out some type of adoption/acquisition. A league would be the way to grow this section of the sport and to play equal competition on a regular basis. It would make a lot of sense if it were equitable. The league and the Whitecaps test drove what the future in Minnesota could look like when the NWHL All-Star Game and Skills Challenge was played at TRIA Rink in Saint Paul in February of 2018. The league even invited two Whitecaps’ players to compete: Katie Schipper and Sadie Lundquist. In May of 2018, the NWHL brought the Whitacaps into their league. It was thought at the time that the league would acquire the team financially, but it came out later that the NWHL had not signed the sale documents, so the team is still privately owned.
In their inaugural season in the NWHL, Minnesota won the Isobel Cup as league champions. This made them the only club to ever hoist both the Clarkson Cup and the Isobel Cup. In the 2019 championship, they got an overtime goal from former Gopher Lee Stecklein in the TRIA Rink to complete a long road from inception to what we hope is stability. Super hockey dad Jack Brodt is still the General Manager and Co-Head Coach and his daughters Winny and Chelsey still play for the team. Jenny Schmigdall-Potter played for 7 seasons.
The Whitecaps have been home to many players for the US National and Olympic teams, and also some non-US stars. Notable players include:
Angela Ruggiero
Julie Chu
Lisa Chesson
Manon Rheaume
Caroline Ouellette
Jenny Schmigdall-Potter
Karen Thatcher
Caitlin Cahow
Gigi Marvin
Molly Engstrom
Brooke White-Lancette
Renee Curtin
Ronda Curtin
Jinelle Zaugg
Krissy Wendell-Pohl
Natalie Darwitz
Tricia Dunn
Satu Kiipeli
And of course, Winny Brodt-Brown and Chelsey Brodt-Rosenthal
Importantly, she has not only done it all – but she did it right here at home. She was a youth and high school hockey star in the earliest days of the girls state tournament, and she helped that platform reach the prominence it now enjoys as a staple of winter sports. She led the Roseville Raiders girls squad to an undefeated 1995-96 season and a 1996 state title (only the second one ever awarded). Capping that dream season, Winny won a Ms. Hockey Award (the very first one ever awarded). She then went on to star for 1 year for the New Hampshire Lady Wildcats (winning a National Championship), before coming home and starring for 3 more years for the Lady Gophers, (beginning her term in only the second season of that program). She finished her NCAA career as the Gophers’ record holder among defenders for goals, assists, and points, and helped the Lady Gophers take home their own first (her personal second) National Championship in 2000.
She did play in several tournaments for US National Teams as well, which is no small achievement on its own, but that is not where her biggest impact came. That impact would come with her integral part in the growth and maintenance of women’s professional hockey in the state of Minnesota. Importantly to this part of her story, Winny comes from a family of hockey pioneers. Her father Jack has done close to everything in the Minnesota hockey world, and knows everyone. Her brother and sister were both D1 players and her sister Kerry was the first female hockey coach at St Cloud State. The Brodt family is accurately decribed as the first family in Minnesota women’s hockey history. That leads us to the next phase in her story. While Winny was considering what to do after her college hockey career ended, her father Jack was hatching an idea too. He and (fellow Minnesota and USA women’s hockey legend) Jenny Potter’s father, Dwayne Schmigdall, were considering - and soon followed through on - creating a professional women’s hockey team. The purpose of the team was to create a place close to home where their daughters and the quickly-climbing number of quality players in the state could play after college. It was the obvious next step after the early success and solidification of the women’s hockey High School and college infrastructure.
This team would become the Minnesota Whitecaps and it would play primarily Canadian teams in a league called the Western Women’s Hockey League. Winny’s dad Jack made it more than a hobby and was the GM and Head Coach of the team. The Whitecaps’ players and friends would capitalize on their good relationships in the hockey world and became a place that talented players wanted to play. Besides the ample pool that was forming at the local level, they imported several huge names in USA women’s hockey over the years; Players such as Julie Chu, Angela Ruggiero, Manon Rheaume, and Caroline Ouellette. The championship trophy in the WWHL was the Clarkson Cup and the Whitecaps became the first American team to win it in 2010.
Those times were in the early phase in the women’s professional hockey and turbulence was (as it still is) common. When the Whitecaps faced the challenges of leagues and competing teams folding without much warning, they persisted and stayed busy by playing various exhibition games as well as games against numerous in-region Division 1 college programs. All the while, they stayed competitive and achieved their goal of providing a successful ‘graduate-level’ American women’s hockey club in the Midwest. They played for long stretches without a lot of fans or a home arena and that could have been frustrating if the team were not a labor of love for many. How could an enterprise like this survived to today if not for GM Jack and Captain Winny?
When the NWHL came onto the scene in several Northeastern markets in 2015, and did have some funding, and paid it’s players, and did have success, there grew mutual interest between the Whitecaps and the young league. That interest did not go forgotten and for the 2018-19 season, the Whitecaps did join the NWHL. They began that inaugural season by selling out their building and sweeping a weekend series against the defending league champion Metropolitan Riveters. This was clearly an indication that something special could be happening. They won the NWHL Championship (the Isobel Cup) in that first season and would have had the chance to win back-to-back championships had the championship game (vs. the Boston Pride) not been cancelled due to a mandated COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020. That is the season in which Winny wore this jersey. It is from the first half of the 2019-2020 season.
Winny has been this team’s constant heart and captain since day 1, playing in every Whitecaps season from 2004-current. Whatever the story may be in the history of this club, the answer will always come back to Winny, Jack, or both. Perhaps the road could have been easier, but this is not a bad-looking result.
Winny was there for the birth of Minnesota girl’s high school hockey, the birth of Minnesota D1 Women’s hockey, and then had a huge hand herself in the birth and fortification of Minnesota women’s major professional hockey. There is not much that she has missed, honestly. As mentioned, there are players with more medals, but there is no player that has spent more time playing, winning, and building the sport for girls and women in this state than Winny Brodt-Brown.
Per Wikipedia, here is a list of Winny’s accomplishments:
· Ms. Hockey Award: 1996
· Top 3 finalists for Minnesota Sports Channel 1996 Athlete of the Year award[11]
· Most valuable player: 1998 AWCHA Championship[12]
· WCHA Defensive Player of the Year: 1999–2000
· Top 10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award: 1999–2000
· 1998 AWCHA Tournament Most Outstanding player
· 1999 Patty Berg Academic Award winner
· 2000 AWCHA All-Tournament Team
· 2000 WCHA Defensive Player of the Year
· First-team All-WCHA (2000)
· WCHA All-Academic Team member (2000)
· WCHA All-Tournament pick (2000)
· Peggy MacInnis Bye Scholarship award winner (2000)
· Academic All-Big Ten (2000)
· Patty Berg Academic Award honoree (2000)
· Western Women's Hockey League Defensive Player of the Year, 2006–07
For more of the story, following is a brief history of the Minnesota Whitecaps hockey club:
The Minnesota Whitecaps hockey club was founded in 2004 by two dedicated fathers of elite female hockey players. Jack Brodt (father of Winny Brodt-Brown) and Dwayne Schmidgall (father of Jenny Schmidgall-Potter) wanted to give their daughters a place close to home where they could compete after they had graduated from college. Jack, Dwayne, and their daughters subsequently took a huge step: they created out of thin air a brand new sporting franchise.
The Whitecaps played in the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) from the fall of 2004 until the summer of 2011 when the league folded. In 2010, they had reached the pinnacle of the sport, winning the Clarkson Cup Championship to become the first American team to accomplish that honor.
There were two notable possible league mergers that both fell through, not through any fault of the Whitecaps.
- In 2007, the first league known by the name ‘NWHL’ folded…as did their plans to bring the Whitecaps into their league.
- In 2011, the CWHL essentially cherrypicked several of the WWHL teams and brought them in to their league. They would have taken all of the teams, but there were problems with the transaction. The CWHL was accused of unfair treatment toward the Whitecaps and the Manitoba Maple Leafs regarding the terms of their inclusion. The other teams did leave the league for the CWHL and the Whitecaps and Maple Leafs were left with a league of their own, which did not survive. The two teams played some exhibition games and tried to add more teams to preserve the league, but it did eventually fold.
In 2015, a new NWHL was formed in the Northeast United States. The Whitecaps played some exhibition games against a few of that league’s teams in those early seasons, and it would make sense that there would be enough mutual interest between the Whitecaps and the NWHL to work out some type of adoption/acquisition. A league would be the way to grow this section of the sport and to play equal competition on a regular basis. It would make a lot of sense if it were equitable. The league and the Whitecaps test drove what the future in Minnesota could look like when the NWHL All-Star Game and Skills Challenge was played at TRIA Rink in Saint Paul in February of 2018. The league even invited two Whitecaps’ players to compete: Katie Schipper and Sadie Lundquist. In May of 2018, the NWHL brought the Whitacaps into their league. It was thought at the time that the league would acquire the team financially, but it came out later that the NWHL had not signed the sale documents, so the team is still privately owned.
In their inaugural season in the NWHL, Minnesota won the Isobel Cup as league champions. This made them the only club to ever hoist both the Clarkson Cup and the Isobel Cup. In the 2019 championship, they got an overtime goal from former Gopher Lee Stecklein in the TRIA Rink to complete a long road from inception to what we hope is stability. Super hockey dad Jack Brodt is still the General Manager and Co-Head Coach and his daughters Winny and Chelsey still play for the team. Jenny Schmigdall-Potter played for 7 seasons.
The Whitecaps have been home to many players for the US National and Olympic teams, and also some non-US stars. Notable players include:
Angela Ruggiero
Julie Chu
Lisa Chesson
Manon Rheaume
Caroline Ouellette
Jenny Schmigdall-Potter
Karen Thatcher
Caitlin Cahow
Gigi Marvin
Molly Engstrom
Brooke White-Lancette
Renee Curtin
Ronda Curtin
Jinelle Zaugg
Krissy Wendell-Pohl
Natalie Darwitz
Tricia Dunn
Satu Kiipeli
And of course, Winny Brodt-Brown and Chelsey Brodt-Rosenthal
