Upper St. Clair female garners ice hockey scholarship
Mary Katherine Gialames leads better than follows. It’s a strategy she developed at a young age and has enabled her to travel a path few other females have ventured. See, the Upper St. Clair senior plays ice hockey and she will continue her career at Mercyhurst University, which offers a Division I program.
At age 4, she decided to play roller hockey like her older brother, Alex. The following year, she picked up ice hockey.
“I wanted to be just like him but I didn’t want to copy him,” Gialames said of Alex. “When I thought about playing hockey, he followed in my footsteps.”
The 18-year-old daughter of Peter and Kathy Gialames added she loved the sport for two reasons.
“I can go as fast as I want and if anybody gets in your way, they get knocked down.”
Gialames has seldom gotten knocked down.
For six years, she excelled playing at the youth level with males, even helping the Mt. Lebanon Hornets captured “a couple” of banners. At 14, she started playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite, Pennsylvania’s Premier AAA Amateur Hockey Organization, which offers teams for females.
Gialames cited the reasons for the switch.
“My mom worried about the checking but I didn’t,” she said. “Plus, I had a skating coach (Barb Benedetti) that explained to me that in order to get good I had to do girls’ (hockey) because that was what I’d be doing in college.”
Gialames, indeed, will play in college. Though Syracuse, Providence and Robert Morris recruited her, Gialames selected Mercyhurst for a number of reasons. The Lakers placed 12th last year out of 34 teams and have participated in the Frozen Four in the past.
Gialames wanted a small school, close to home, that offered a solid educational program, where she could obtain her elementary school teaching certification. Though only three of the team’s seven defensemen will graduate, she also has an opportunity to contribute significantly as a freshman.
“The recruiting process is very stressful especially for those that don’t know what they want to do in the future but I did and their coach talked me through the process because she said she knew that freshmen get upset and worried about being able to play. She assured me that if you work hard, they want to play you because first years are just as important as anybody else on the team.
Gialames intends on making a contribution.
“My goal is to be the best defenseman I can possibly be. I hope to improve my skills to a great extent being in the college environment and working out with the team from October through March will help. My hope is to go to a Frozen Four and win a national title.”
Gialames also entertains Olympic thoughts.
“That’s the ultimate dream.”
With the exception of indulging her cravings for brownies, Gialames says she’s eating right and getting enough rest because having a goal of playing for the USA requires a “complete” lifestyle change.
Gialames is accustomed to changes. For her first three years of high school, she competed for Shady Side Academy. She is attending USC her senior year and playing defense for the Panthers.
“I went to Shady Side because it had a great program and a high school team. It was a great experience and they had a great schedule but I was a commuter so there was always the worry about the drive, the weather and waking up so early in the cold temperatures.
“It was tough but not a hard transition because, though times have changed, the people I go to school with now are still the friends I’ve had in middle school. When they first heard I was back and heard I would be on the team, my friends were excited but some people were confused. They wondered who this girl is and where did she come from.”
Gialames’ resumé indicates she came from good stock. She helped SSA capture three consecutive WIHLMA championships. Plus, she plays for the Pens Elite Tier One U19 team. Those squads finished second at nationals twice. She practices Tuesday nights at SSA and all day Sundays at the Penguins’ facility in Cranberry. Plus, she practices twice a week for the USC team in addition to playing defense for the Panthers during the regular season. Gialames also has worked summers with the youth during NHL players’ camp, of which Sidney Crosby and Marc Andre Fleury have attended.
Admittedly she said that while she was just a volunteer helping at the camps, “It is a big deal when you are standing next to an NHL player on the same ice.”
For Gialames, it’s also a big deal to be back on the ice playing for USC. She skates on the third line as a defenseman.
“I understand that I’m a girl but I am not a waste of ice time. I can play and I’m here because I love the sport as much as anybody else,” she said. “I really like playing defense because you can really quarterback the play. The offense relies on you to get the puck out of the zone and be the last man back when a mistake is made.”
Who is she? Upper St. Clair High School senior that earned an ice hockey scholarship to Mercyhurst University.
Age: 18
Birthdate: Jan. 24
Parents: Peter and Kathy
Siblings: Alex, 20; Andrew, 13; Aaron, 10
Sports: Ice hockey, ultimate frisbee
Hobbies: Photography and poetry writing
Recruited by: Mercyhurst, Syracuse, Providence and Robert Morris
Major: Elementary education
Career choice: Teacher
Color: Green. “Because nature is mostly green and I like to be outside.”
Food: Steak
TV show: The Office
Music: “I listen to rock a lot and my favorite group is blink-182.
Restaurant: Texas Roadhouse. “It’s a hard choice picking a favorite but my family likes to go there.”
Book: Pride & Prejudice.
Dream Destination: New Zealand. “That is where Lord of Rings was filmed and that’s one of my favorite movies. So to go there would be amazing to see.”
Favorite athlete: Pascual Dupuis.
Hero: My grandfather, Ronald Balta. “He grew up and was a carpenter. That was how he made his money to go to school. Now he works for a company that builds submarines for the Navy. He’s always full of stories. He’s so intelligent and he always knows what to say.
People might be surprised to know this about you? “I paint my own nails. I’m very picky. So I want to make sure they look very nice. Normally if they are acrylic they won’t break. The natural ones do break. But, I try to forget abut them when I play.”
Who you would like to have dinner with? Elvis Pressley. Because growing up mom and granny love him and I learned listened to him. He was a such a fantastic artist that I wrote a paper my junior year on him and got an A. The most amazing thing I discovered about him was he was close to Richard Nixon. Crazy but true.”
In 15 years, I will be…”Hopefully teaching second grade and coaching high school hockey.”