Can you imagine driving to Madison multiple times a week to play a sport? And spending most of your weekends at tournaments around the Midwest? For freshman Anissa Flick, life is just that.

At least three times a week, Flick drives down to Madison to play with the Madison Capitals, an all-girls hockey team. She’s on the road a lot.

With all that time spent driving, Flick has to make good use of her time. “Usually on the way there, I do homework,” she said. When she doesn’t have homework to do, she listens to music to pass the time.

Tournaments can be even more time-consuming, so the parents and coaches go out of their way to make sure all of the girls have time to get their homework done. “Usually the moms help us, or we just help each other,” said Flick. To make sure that they are productive, they rent out a room in the hotel specifically for homework and studying.

As one can imagine, traveling that much puts a strain on Flick social life. “Sometimes after school I see friends… but not very often,” she said. Luckily, her team is very tight. “We’re like sisters,” she said, “we share everything.”

The “sisters” have traveled to a lot of places together for tournaments, from Chicago to Connecticut. One thing that Flick especially enjoys about traveling is the bus rides. “I like to go to Detroit and take the team bus and bond,” she said.

She’s pretty passionate about hockey. Flick hopes to play hockey for UW Madison, and maybe even for the Olympics. “Yeah, that’d be really cool,” she said.