Jenna knows hockey.
She knows ice hockey and she knows field hockey.
In fact, Jenna Buglioni knows them so well she’ll be at a U18 Team BC ice hockey tryout camp at the end of this month, and she’s already helped her provincial field hockey team win a U15 national championship this past summer.
Buglioni, 15, has been playing ice hockey since she was four years old. She started playing the field game a year later. The seasons run concurrently, so that’s made the Port Moody teen’s life… complicated. And extremely busy.
“Everything for me goes year-round,” said Buglioni, who also plays field hockey for her school, Gleneagle secondary. When she can. “Luckily I have really great coaches.”
Buglioni said while the only similarity between the two hockeys is the name, they are complementary. Running up and down the big field helps her cardio fitness and endurance at the rink and the speed of ice hockey develops her hand-eye coordination and ability to see plays in field hockey.
“Both games are definitely super fast,” Buglioni said. “I’ve been able to get stronger as both sports are so leg-dominant.”
Buglioni played ice hockey in a girls’ league when she was a tyke, but moved to boys’ hockey for five years after that because she thought it would push her to improve.
“I learned from the boys,” she said. “It made me more aggressive and not afraid to get into the dirty areas.”
That served her well when she went back to girls’ hockey in the Port Coquitlam system and started moving up the competitive tiers.
“I feel like I play big,” Buglioni said.
At the upcoming tryout camp for 26 players shortlisted for selection to the U18 provincial team, she’ll also be up against older girls.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” Buglioni said, adding she often attends hockey camps with players older then her already. “I’m going in prepared.”
If Buglioni performs well enough in exhibition games against the UBC women’s team to make the cut to 20, she’ll travel to the national championships in Quebec in November.
It wouldn’t be her first taste of national competition.
After Buglioni helped her U15 provincial team win the field hockey nationals in Surrey in August, she was invited to the national junior development squad.
But as the competitive demands and time commitment of her two beloved sports grow, Buglioni knows she’ll eventually have to make a choice. Scouts are keeping an eye on her. Universities have made preliminary enquiries.
Buglioni, who’s just started Grade 10, said it’s always been her dream to play ice hockey in the NCAA. But she’s not closing the gate on field hockey, even if she just ends up playing it recreationally.
“I love both sports,” Buglioni said. “Both just come naturally to me.”
