Morley makes her mark

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By DAVID BOSSICK david.bossick@lee.net
Thursday, February 28, 2008 8:40 AM CST

Rachele Morley is back where she belongs.

It’s not that she’s one cog in the Chi-Hi/McDonell girls hockey machine on its way back to the state tournament.

Getting to the state tournament is a privilege, not a right.

No, Morley returned to her natural position prior to this season and she’s more than happy to be there.

“Except for my first two years, I played on defense,” she said. “And then last year, coach moved me to forward, but besides that (I’ve been on defense).

“I think it’s good to play most positions, also, but I like to play on defense a lot more.”

Unlike some of the girls on the Cardinals roster, Morley didn’t get her start in hockey at Chippewa Area Ice Arena. Rather, Morley and her family were living in Webster.

“I started playing when I was nine years old,” she said. When she moved here “everyone was a lot more advanced. It was a big change.”

She was on the Bantam team in Webster before the move and she was the only girl on the team.

“I loved it. I think if I hadn’t played with them, I probably wouldn’t have gotten this good except I was living in a small town,” she said.

Her freshman year, Morley moved to Chippewa Falls and began her career with the boys junior varsity team and on the travel team through the Chippewa Youth Hockey Association.

“Moving here, they weren’t used to having new people so it was hard to get to know people,” she said. “It was good, too. It was a lot harder work.”

As the community began to mull the idea of starting high school varsity hockey, Morley was amongst those who helped bring the program to its start.

“I was really involved. I was excited because it gave me an extra team to play for the rest of my high school,” she said. “I was really bummed when I moved here and there wasn’t a high school team yet.”

Morley is one of the top defenseman for Chi-Hi/McDonell. Although forwards and centers typically get a lot of the points, she is the fifth best scorer on the Cardinals with 15 points. She has 12 assists and three goals this season.

When it comes to the power play, which the Cardinals are lethal with, she’s often paired with the team’s other top defenseman, Megan White.

“We work really good together. We know where each other is and we talk with each other,” Morley said.

Morley is one of two seniors on the roster — forward Katrina Cigan is the other — that are heading to Madison with experience from last season. The Cardinals reached the state final a year ago only to lose to Appleton United.

“It’s amazing. You go from starting a team one year and people not thinking you’re going any where to making to state in the first year,” she said. “We had to work really hard just to get down there.

“Everybody thought we were going to go undefeated this year. We had some big expectations.”

Those expectations saw some adjustment after the St. Croix Valley Fusion swept the Cardinals in the regular season. But as Morley pointed out, Chi-Hi/McDonell won the game that counted the most: the sectional final.

“We’re looking forward to it and we have to try to stay focused,” she said about the upcoming game Friday. “We know we have it in us to win.”

Just getting to state, and beyond the practices and the stress on focus, the team does things together off the ice and Morley said that’s proven to be important as well.

“We went to Action City and we get together,” Morley said. “Over the summer, we all get together and work out.“

With Morley being a senior, though, she knows that her time is limited to at most two games. She said she’ll probably miss playing the game the most once the state tournament is over.

“I don’t know what’s going to come up after this,” she said. “I know I can get on a pick-up team, but I don’t know about college yet.”

Even if those on-ice plans are still unsettled, she would like to help out the Cardinals in the future.