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John Marchand would come home from a long day of work and look straight to his backyard. He always knew where to find his daughter. Everyday, Syracuse’s Sarah Marchand trained in the ice rink he created in the backyard, working on her stick skills.

As soon as Marchand started playing hockey, she was hooked. Two practices per week and local skates weren’t enough for her — whenever Marchand was free, she was out in the backyard. Growing up outside of Detroit, Marchand didn’t live in a super cold climate like Syracuse, so she used her time wisely, practicing as much as possible during the winter months to put herself above other girls in the area.

Marchand played on an all-boys travel team for seven years and often called her teammates to practice.

“She was always the one making the call,” said Kevin Beuglet, Marchand’s former travel coach. “She had that kind of drive… always bugging the boys…it didn’t take much for them to come over.”

At first, it took her a while to get the hang of how to skate, struggling to stop herself and mark sharp cuts. But when it clicked, she started playing in local “house leagues” and practicing for an hour on weekend mornings. Her dad also took her to open skates at the rink on Sunday afternoons.

But it still wasn’t enough for Marchand. After a year, Marchand started playing travel hockey, and that’s when John thought of making the rinks that currently reside in his backyard. Every December, he began construction, preferencing the backyard since temperatures weren’t cold enough to rely on lakes to completely freeze.

The process started by buying tarps and using wood to build boards to create a perimeter. Then, he filled the inside with water. If they were lucky, a cold spell would hit and the water would freeze. Starting out as a smaller 10-by-20 foot area, it was “basic,” John said.

Courtesy of John Marchand

As Marchand practiced more, the rinks grew. Instead of using tarps, John bought big plastic sheets and 4-by-8 foot pieces of plywood for the boards. With Marchand’s help, her dad drove wood pilings into the ground, keeping the boards upright. The whole process took around six hours, but the finished product was a 35-by-55 foot hockey rink. But by March, the rinks would melt.

“It meant a lot to me, and I always made sure to tell him that,” Marchand said. “He always asked me to come outside… he gave a lot to me and cares a lot about hockey, so I’m glad I had him around.”

After school, Marchand usually went right to the rink for around an hour before finishing her homework. Once she finished, Marchand went back out before dinner. On nights when she didn’t have practice, it wasn’t uncommon to see her back out on the ice after eating. Even when it was dark, Marchand practiced using two 500 watt lights that John bought for her. When Marchand got older, she said she practiced before school as well.

In the rink, Marchand refined her stick-handling and close control. John built little wooden stick figures that she used as obstacles for shooting drills. Marchand also put 10 pucks down in a line, weaving in and out. When she got to the last one, she grabbed it, repeating the process until all were gone. If Marchand hit one of them, she restarted.

“Her stick handling at a very young age, and her ability to skate with her head up and just flow through the ice around people, was very good,” Beuglet said.

Beuglet also noted that Marchand’s shooting ability was significantly better than other girls her age. She could raise the puck consistently, while others’ shots skidded across the ice. She sometimes even shot “bar down,” Beuglet said.

Her first year playing, Marchand’s coach set a 5,000 puck challenge by the end of the season. Before the rink in the backyard, Marchand used her driveway. There, she shot a couple hundred pucks a few times per week.

After games or practices on weekends, Marchand invited her teammates, playing seven-game series against each other that would last all day. Beuglet said that around six of them would usually be out in the cold, sometimes for nearly eight hours at a time.

“We’d have so many games out there,” Marchand said. “It helped me a lot to be able to get my skills up and just hang out with my friends… playing in the backyard was some of the most fun I’ve had playing hockey.”

John recalled bundling up to watch the backyard battles. Despite the freezing temperature, Marchand and the boys typically wore just one layer. They were moving so fast that it didn’t affect them.

The games got so competitive that the group would sometimes lose track of time, staying outside until midnight, Marchand said. Beuglet remembers his son, Karson, sleeping in Marchand’s basement with some of the other boys after a long night.

Marchand and her friends never outgrew the rink, playing in her backyard all the way up until she left for college. The opportunity she had to put in extra work on the DIY rink prepared her for the collegiate level.

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“The rink was so much smaller… you didn’t have a lot of time and space,” Marchand said. “You had to be able to stick handle well and make those tight-area plays, so that helped me develop my stick skills.”

Marchand started showing signs of Division-I talent at around 12 years old, Beuglet said. Based on her hockey IQ and offensive abilities, Beuglet knew Marchand would play collegiately in Canada or the United States. After graduating from the boys’ league, Marchand played for the Chatham Outlaws and Cambridge Rivulettes — both all-girls teams — during her last three years of youth hockey.

Marchand’s transition to the college game was seamless. As a freshman, she finished second on the team in points with 25, scoring a second-best 10 goals while leading the team with 15 assists. In year two, Marchand’s numbers dipped a bit, along with the team’s success, but she’s been a big piece for head coach Britni Smith in her first season. The sophomore is sixth on the team in points with 16 — eight goals and eight assists — including a two-goal performance in SU’s 4-3 win over Lindenwood on Nov. 5.

“She’s a player that can make a difference every shift,” Smith said. “We look for her to be the player that, when you need one, it’s on her stick.”

Published on February 22, 2023 at 10:54 pm

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