ANATOMY OF SERENDIPITY
ROB RASSMUSSEN
ROB RASSMUSSEN
Danielle and her sister , Whitney , with Bobby Orr at r . k Miles i n Manchester . Danielle at the Bruins Development Camp .
Danielle ’ s love for Hockey started early !
rink was our landing pad , and we ’ d do that all the way up to high school . It was the best place to grow up .”
Grow up she did , strong and athletic . And , as the middle-born of the three gifted sports-playing daughters of Gary and Susan Marmer , she was also extremely competitive .
“ Danielle had a voracious appetite for sports ,” Gary says . “ And she excelled at everything she did .” Though she played other sports ( she was a softball catcher whose hero was Red Sox Hall of Famer Jason Varitek ), at Burr and Burton she shined on the ice . Her sister Whitney was a senior when Danielle was a freshman and some of Danielle ’ s fondest hockey memories are from that year , which culminated in Danielle and Whitney playing for the team that won the state championship .
After that experience , Danielle got even more serious about hockey and the
Marmer family decided to give Danielle her best shot at national exposure , so she started boarding school at Loomis Chaffee in Connecticut . While there , Danielle also played on a weekend club team called the Connecticut Polar Bears , where she got her first tournament exposure and went to the nationals . When it was time to choose a college she was an “ on the bubble ” player who was able to play Division I hockey , but at DI recruiting interviews , she recalls coaches cautioning her that it could be a battle for her to get playing time . But her competitive nature wouldn ’ t let her hear it .
“ My attitude was that I ’ ve figured it out everywhere I ’ ve been , I ’ ll figure it out there , too . And then after a year or so , I ’ ll naturally become better and they ’ re gonna want to play me all the time . I really believed that . Not in an arrogant way …”
After flirting with a couple of other schools and coming close to choosing
Middlebury , she eventually committed to Quinnipiac University , a school that made no secret of how much they wanted her . The decision eventually turned out to be a good one , but in the beginning Danielle questioned her choice . She found herself facing some adversity for the first time , and her confidence was shaken .
“ For a few reasons , I think I just wasn ’ t prepared for it . I was this big fish in a small pond and was seeing a lot of success , and I didn ’ t have people around me who had experienced college hockey . So , I didn ’ t know what I didn ’ t know . I didn ’ t know how much harder it was going to be once I got there . No one told me how much better everyone was going to be . I ’ m suddenly competing against Canadians and Europeans — and on top of that — our head coach liked to motivate by fear . I had the hardest time relating to him , trusting him , or feeling like we had any kind of relationship . He had these old school ways that don ’ t work anymore .”
54 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine . com