Frattinger rejigs travel plans for school

Avery Frattinger once dreamed of travelling after she finished high school. As it turns out, her journey will be less than 200 kilometres.

The 17-year-old farm kid from the Kirkella area has shelved her travel plans for now and will instead play hockey and volleyball with the Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberjacks next winter.

“Honestly, it’s a huge relief,” Frattinger said. “The more Bottineau opened up as an option, it honestly stressed me out a little bit more because it was ‘Oh my goodness, I’m going to have to make this big decision. I have to decide to go to school or make this big plan to travel.’

“That was stressful, I’m not going to lie. It was so much to think about, but now that I have made that decision and I feel good in that decision, it’s such a relief to plan around one thing.”

The current recruiting class also includes Kendra Grift of rural Brandon, Mya McDonald of Strathclair, Alyshia McKinnon and Brooke Facey of Hamiota, Shelby Brown of Nesbitt and Aubrey Skelton of Hartney. Kirkella is located southeast of where the Trans-Canada Highway exits Manitoba for Saskatchewan.

Frattinger goes to school in Elkhorn, and has played volleyball and badminton and done track and field, with the one limiter being they don’t have teams in every sport because of the school size.

She even went to Moosomin last year so she could play football, something she says will be her first and last year in that sport, even though she had a lot of fun.

She also played rugby in Souris when she was younger, and tried football because she missed that aggressive edge.

“The point of it is to push around and get pushed around, and that’s all just fun and games for me,” Frattinger said. “Playing football was like that.”

She played softball for a few years but didn’t love the sport, and decided she would rather use her summer for other things.

Hockey was different.

While she took to the ice very young, she didn’t have a stick in her hand.

“I did figure skating for a couple of years because hockey was too cold for me,” Frattinger said. “I probably started figure skating when I was four and started playing hockey when I was five or six.”

Avery is the youngest in a family that also includes father Trever, mother Terri and siblings Mikayla, Brady and Shaylee.

Her older brother Brady, who graduated out of the Brandon Wheat Kings U18 AAA program after the 2019-20 season, spent three campaigns with the Superior International Junior Hockey League’s Dryden Ice Dogs and now plays senior hockey in Saskatchewan.

“I think my parents have been super supportive over the years, especially when all four of us were at home playing hockey, rugby, softball in the summer,” Frattinger said. “We’ve played all the sports there are between the four of us and I think my parents have done a really good job of making sure they’re home from work or sending grandparents over.

“We also do lots of carpooling with surrounding people who are kind of in the same situation.”

Avery is skating this season with the Rural Manitoba Female Hockey League’s under-18 Birtle Bruiskies, where the five-foot-two defender has eight goals and two assists with 10 penalty minutes in 17 games this season. Those eight goals are second best on the team, behind only Noelle Hunter’s nine.

The Bruiskies are currently eighth in the Rural Manitoba Female Hockey League’s 10-team under-18 division with a record of 8-10-2.

Dakota College at Bottineau’s head scout, Neil Franklin of Brandon — via Deloraine and Melita — said Frattinger has a positive attitude and has accepted more responsibility this season as an alternate captain.

“I have noticed she is very versatile, and is dominant at both ends of the ice,” Franklin said. “Her competitiveness is great and although not overly tall, she makes that up with her intensity and her willingness to do what is necessary to secure a win. She’s a welcome addition to our defensive depth.”

One of the nice things the right-handed shot offers is versatility. She mainly plays defence with Bruiskies, but has also moved up front as needed.

“I can play wherever and I’ve been moved around (on the ice) from team to team,” Frattinger said. “The game changes as you get older so being able to go back and forth really lets you know where your teammates are going to be or should be. I like to rush the puck when I play defence so even if I’m stuck, I still move around and a forward covers.”

Frattinger tries to jump into the rush and be involved in the offence, but noted any blue-liner needs to have some situational awareness. If her team is up 5-1, the Bruiskies need her to defend her net, not to pop in another goal.

“I like to play fast for the most part, hustle into their end and hustle back,” Frattinger said. “I think back checking is the most important part of hockey for everybody on the ice. You want to score goals and keep it in their end, but when that puck doesn’t come out, I think it’s super important to get back so there the odds aren’t in their favour against your goalie.

“As a defence, I see my main priority as protecting my goalie.”

NEXT STEP

She began to think seriously of post-secondary hockey after the first time she spoke to Franklin. As she got a sense of what they offered, she began to explore a different journey than the one she originally planned.

“Bottineau looks for really good values in their players and staff,” Frattinger said. “It’s a good environment. Honestly, having Neil as one of their scouts and representatives is such a good choice.

“He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever spoken to, and when we had that conversation, he was really open to answering questions. It opened my mind up to exploring more.”

Franklin and the school’s website answered their questions, and after a tour of campus showed her a number of features including smaller class sizes, she decided to head 193 kilometres southeast to Bottineau.

“The package of all it together with hockey and volleyball and psychology, it was such a good package to put together,” Frattinger said. “That’s not something I can really return to in two years. If I want to play sports for longer, I have to do it now.”

You read that correctly. She is also on the Lumberjacks volleyball team even though Elkhorn wasn’t able to field a team this year, and trying to play club volleyball and hockey at the same time is almost impossible due to scheduling.

Although she wasn’t actually playing this winter, she was coaching Grade 7 and 8 students so she stayed involved.

She has played everywhere on the court, although at five-foot-two at the university level, she’s unlikely to line up at her favourite position, outside hitter.

“That’s been tough for me because I’m so short,” Frattinger said. “I do have a pretty good jump but it has been tough to compete with taller girls. I did enjoy setting. Mentally, it’s a hard position because you have to set up everything to be executed. It is so much fun when the ball connects with that hitter.

“I also enjoy defence, passing and diving, but overall hitting is my favourite. Nothing beats the thrill of hitting a ball and seeing it touch the court on the other side.”

Bottineau, a community of about 2,200, is located 147 kilometres southwest of Brandon, tucked just over the border south of Deloraine. The school had an enrolment of 1,242 students last fall.

Because it’s close, her parents will continue to be able her play.

“I honestly can’t remember the last time at least one of my parents wasn’t at a game,” Frattinger said. “I’m so grateful for all the running around they’ve done.”

Since Bottineau is a two-year school, she thinks it will provide a great first step when it’s time to transition to a bigger school. And for the would-be world traveller, the journey begins in August when she heads down.

“I’m pretty excited,” Frattinger said. “I get to go down a little bit early to start volleyball and so I’ll have time to settle in. I feel like I’m a fairly independent person so moving into my own space and being away from home is going to be a really cool experience. I won’t be too far, so if I have an off weekend I can come home.

“… The new journey I’m going on will hopefully take me to even greater places.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com