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Cambridge-Isanti girls' goalie perseveres through five surgeries, hard work

By David La Vaque, Star Tribune, 12/04/16, 1:50AM CST

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Through five surgeries and lots of work, Claire Belkholm is playing goalie better than ever.


Claire Belkholm, Cambridge-Isanti goaltender, in a game on Nov. 15 vs. Duluth. Please credit photo to: Bill Stickels III, Isanti-Chisago County Star

 

After her fifth knee surgery in two years, Claire Belkholm ignored her doctor’s advice to stop playing goalie and got serious about her hockey future.

She increased her skills, lost weight and transformed from an afterthought on the JV roster to Cambridge-Isanti’s varsity starter. Colleges took notice, too. Belkholm, a senior, recently committed to the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, a remarkable accomplishment for a player never really tabbed for success in her own high school program.

“I proved to myself that all the hard work would pay off,” Belkholm said.

She plans to study exercise physiology and become a physical therapist, an area where she owns plenty of real-world experience.

Doctors diagnosed her right knee pain in eighth grade as a sprain. But the pain never receded. An MRI revealed no ligament tears but exploratory surgery showed a discoid meniscus, a birth defect. Most affected people don’t notice pain. Hockey goalies aren’t so lucky considering that twisting motions, pivoting or making rapid changes in direction can cause pain.

A University of Minnesota specialist repaired Belkholm’s right knee — her second surgery — and gave her low odds for similar trouble in her left knee. When a familiar pain started, however, she again got diagnosed with a discoid meniscus. Surgery No. 3 solved the issue in her left knee.

Her right knee wasn’t done causing problems, however.

Twisting to stop the puck amid a scramble in the goal crease, Belkholm tore the meniscus in her right knee and required a fourth surgery. And she wasn’t done.

A leisurely game of kickball turned for the worse. Torn meniscus. Right knee. Surgery No. 5. Doctors said playing goalie meant a 10 percent higher risk for future injury.

As youth hockey players, Belkholm and her fellow puck chasers were required to try each position at some point during the season. Belkholm found her love, regardless of the sometime ill-fitting, team-provided pads. As a 9-year-old, she got to play up with the 10-year-olds as their goalie.

“That was my favorite season by far,” she said.

She stayed with it, even as playing time dwindled on future teams. That’s why she felt reluctant to leave the pipes even after her fifth knee surgery. But she tried skating out — and hated every minute.

“I wasn’t good, and it was like torture going to practice,” Belkholm said. “Maybe a month into it, I told my dad, ‘If I’m not playing goalie, then I’m not playing hockey.’ ”

Never dedicated to rehabilitating previous knee surgeries, Belkholm threw herself into healing. She got a personal trainer at her local Anytime Fitness and dug in for six months of strength training.

A goalie trainer came next. Belkholm drove an hour each way to Blaine to work with former Gopher Noora Raty, a three-time Olympian and two-time NCAA champion, with the Minnesota Elite Goalie Academy. She also trained with the Minnesota Advancement Program, improving her footwork and speed.

Good choices followed. Belkholm stopped consuming unhealthy snacks, replaced sandwiches and chips with salads and yogurt for school lunch, drank more water and lost 30 pounds.

And she relied on her faith. Belkholm’s family attends Lewis Lake Covenant Church in Ogilvie, Minn. She’s made mission trips to Jamaica with Project Increase, a nonprofit organization.

Her body changed and her confidence brimming, Belkholm set bigger goals for her junior hockey season.

“If I was going to play, I was going to be all-in,” Belkholm said. “I wasn’t going to be a JV bench warmer. I wanted to come to tryouts and blow everyone away, like, ‘Holy cow, who is this goalie?’ ”

It worked. Belkholm said that in tryouts, teammate Alyson Niebur skated by and said, “You’re going to be on varsity this year.”

Belkholm unseated a senior incumbent and anchored the Bluejackets’ defense. She finished 9-12-2 with a 3.05 goals-against average and an .899 save percentage.

Belkholm’s play helped Cambridge-Isanti improve on a 2-23-1 record the previous season.

This season Belkholm is one of three captains for the Bluejackets, who started 2-2.

“I’m excited about this team because we believe we can go far,” Belkholm said.

She certainly has. Hockey was fun for Belkholm from the days she learned to skate while pushing a chair on the rink in the front yard of her family’s Mora home.

Reflecting on her journey, however, she noted greater intrinsic motivation.

“When I was a backup JV goalie I didn’t want it enough,” she said. “I thought I wanted to be a college goalie someday, but I didn’t have the drive that it took.”

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