Mia Biotti’s hockey ability has earned her trips to places much farther away than Minnesota, but it was one game in that state 3½ years ago that confirmed her future was bright.
Biotti (Cambridge, Mass.) had joined the team at Buckingham Browne & Nichols as an eighth-grader and was with her older teammates when they stepped onto the ice at the University of Minnesota’s Ridder Arena to face powerful Shattuck-St. Mary’s.
“They were big and they were good,” recalled Biotti, now a rising senior at BB&N with international gold on her résumé. “I was a little bit nervous to be out on the ice.”
Biotti’s ability was on display even then. BB&N coach Ed Bourget recognized it when he shortened his bench and kept putting her on the ice paired with a senior, Nell Fusco.
“As the game went along, I found myself in the moment always calling for Mia to play on defense,” he said. “She played more than 20 minutes and it wasn’t like she was out of place.”
Biotti remembers the game well.
“It definitely helped me feel more confident in my ability,” she said. “I knew I had room to grow, but I also knew I could keep up.”
Her star has only ascended from there. After getting invited after her sophomore year to USA Hockey’s Top 70 Camp — the pool of players from which the Under-18 Women’s National Team would be chosen — she went the distance and made the team last year.
At the Under-18 Women’s World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia, Dec. 26-Jan. 2, she helped the American team win four of five games, including a 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in the gold-medal game, cementing her status as one of the best teenage players in the country.
“Honestly, it was unreal,” she said, “all of hard work and how far we came as a team.”
At 5-foot-11 with good footwork, Biotti covers all kinds of ice in the back end. Playing for the East Coast Wizards since she was 7, she’s also gotten better about joining the attack instead of just making a simple pass out.
“She’s very tall and long, and she has very good feet for someone her size, so she covers a lot of ground out there,” said Wizards president/owner Scott Fusco (Burlington, Mass.), who coaches her on the U-19 team. “She can dominate a game from the back end.”
While BB&N doesn’t win as much as ISL powers like Nobles and Tabor — the Knights qualified for a NEPSAC tournament her freshman and junior seasons, losing in the quarterfinals both times — it has a proven track record of sending players on to college.
Seventeen alums will be playing college hockey next season, and three players were involved in the U-18 worlds — Biotti; goalie Rei Halloran (Boston, Mass.), who played for Japan; and defenseman Aimee Seppenwolde, who skated for the Netherlands.
When Biotti, who is committed to Harvard, learned in 2018 that she would not be among the 30 or so players headed to Lake Placid for the next round of Under-18 team cuts, she made footwork and jumping into the rush points of emphasis.
“We were always working with her to work on her footwork,” said Fusco. “Like a lot of tall players, she’s very good in space. When they can be vulnerable is against those smaller, quicker players in tight.”
She tried out again last July and was selected as one of the 33 players chosen to take part in a one-week tryout in Lake Placid in August. From there, she was picked to be one of 22 players who would play a three-game series against Canada. In November, she got the call that she’d be part of the team headed to Slovakia.
“I just remember being super-excited,” she said. “Obviously, I couldn’t make the decision for them, but I was super-happy I was able to be on the team.”
The U-18 team, coached by Minnesota-Duluth coach Maura Crowell (Mansfield, Mass.), had a heavy Minnesota and Michigan flavor. Biotti, who played in all five games and assisted on a goal during the 3-0 semifinal win over Russia, and defenseman Caroline Harvey (Pelham, N.H.) were the only New Englanders.
Committed to Harvard since her freshman year, Biotti can look forward to years of competing at the highest level of collegiate women’s hockey. Influences include her father, Jon, a player himself; and coaches Bourget with BB&N, and Fusco and Kevin Harrington with the Wizards.
“That program has helped my development a ton,” she said. “It’s been a huge chunk of my life.”
Next up, a birthday (she’ll turn 18 on July 24). Then, a senior year at BB&N that she’s preparing for by skating and working out at Edge Performance, and a year her coach wants to see her enjoy.
“Two things,” said Bourget. “One, I want to see her embrace the moment of the senior year and just have fun with it. I’ve watched her be super-serious and super-determined, and always take things so hard.
“And I want to see her develop into that ultimate team leader. Not that it’s ever been a problem, but recognizing how to lead and talk to different age kids. … That could help her in her future career, whether it’s business or whatever.”
For all the players who earned it, the U-18 gold medal teases the Olympic possibilities that await them down the road. Nothing is promised, but Biotti is a player who’s never taken things for granted.
“She’s a very down-to-earth kid who works hard,” said Fusco. “She knows what she wants to be and what she wants to do.”
@MikeZhe603
mzhe@hockeyjournal.com
