MONROE — First she was just a young girl learning to skate alongside her brother at SLICE in Monroe. Then she got a stick in her hand playing youth hockey with the Monroe Avalanche. A decade later, she was spending the winter months in Massachusetts playing prep hockey. Then came a scholarship to Penn State, smashing program records and a No. 4 national ranking. 

What’s next for Tessa Janecke? The Olympics.

Janecke, an Orangeville graduate and senior at Penn State, was officially placed on the Team USA Women’s Hockey Olympic roster on January 2.

“It’s obviously super exciting,” Janecke said at SLICE in Monroe over the recent holiday break, watching her young brother Beau play for the Monroe co-op high school team.

Being back in the arena where it all started was nice, even if it was just for a brief moment, she said.

“It’s obviously pretty cool coming from such a small town,” Janecke said. “To be able to come back here (SLICE) is pretty cool, too. You see a lot of people who recognize you and show their support.”

After “graduating” from the Monroe Youth Hockey Association teams, she went on to play for Team Wisconsin’s 14U squad, then for North American Hockey Academy in Wellesley, Mass.

Janecke first began getting national team recognition as a teenager, playing for the U-18 national squad. She’s won two golds and a silver with Team USA the past three seasons in the Women’s World Championship tournaments. This past year, she cemented herself not just as a member of the team — but as a forward on the first line. Less than eight months ago, she scored the game-winning overtime goal to beat Canada in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women’s World Championship gold-medal game. In all, she has played in 38 games with the U.S. national team, scoring 13 goals with 15 assists.

Part of that growth comes from being a student of the game. She said she tries to learn whatever she can from players and coaches that she comes across. One of her linemates, Hilary Knight, is among the best women to ever play the sport — now holding a record 10 career international gold medals and entering her fifth Olympics. Kendall Coyne Schofield is making her fourth Olympic appearance. In fact, 11 of the 23 skaters for Team USA have played in the Olympics before. And while Janecke is the first Penn State player to ever make the roster, her teammates include six current or former Wisconsin Badgers: Knight, Kirsten Simms, Ava McNaughton, Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey and Britta Curl-Salemme.

“Her professionalism on and off the ice, how she holds herself. It’s pretty cool to see your captain in that space of women’s hockey by itself,” Janecke said.

While the accolades and accomplishments she’s achieved are great in the general sense, Janecke has long been one to challenge herself to go the extra step. She eyes a lasting legacy as more than just goals and assists.

“I feel like that’s just kind of who I am. It’s just another reason why I chose Penn State — I wanted the challenge. I want to challenge myself so I can become the best player that I can be,” she said. 

She had college offers from the teams typically at the top on a year-to-year basis. As a high school freshman, she chose Penn State. 

“I know those other teams are going to be good — Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota — but, it’s like, what can you take from a program that wasn’t really much, what can you leave when you leave, and what can you help bring to the program?” she said. “That’s more important to me.”

She said the goal with her college teammates is still the same as it would be at any other school — winning a national championship. However, the Penn State program had a much higher mountain to climb than the other schools already fighting at the top. The season the Nittany Lions offered her a scholarship, they finished under .500 at 13-14-9 overall and 6-9-5 in conference. The next year they had nearly the same overall record, but with 15 losses. The year before she got there, PSU finished 18-10-5, showing the program was in fact on the rise.

In her four years at Penn State, Janecke has taken the program to new levels.

●  2022-23: 27-9-2 overall, 14-1-1 in conference — including a win over Wisconsin in the season opener. The Badgers would go on to win the national title that season.

●  2023-24: 22-13-3, 14-4-2 in conference

●  2024-25: 31-6-1, 19-1 in conference, including a win over No. 3 Minnesota.

●  So far in 2024-25: 18-3, 12-0 in conference

“Being there for four years, we struggled to move up in the past. But it feels good seeing us in No. 4 (ranked) spot now. It’s what it’s all about,” she said.

In her college career, Janecke has scored 75 goals and assisted 106 others. As a junior she set the career scoring record at the school for both men’s and women’s hockey, and has only added onto it this season with 12 goals and 16 assists in 19 games.

As added incentive, at the end of the college season, the Frozen Four and National Championship will be played on Penn State’s home ice.

“Obviously we want to win a national title, but that means a lot more and says a lot more about a player of a program that can go from the bottom and working their way up to be nationally ranked at No. 4,” Janecke said.

However, in February she will leave her team when the time comes to jet across the ocean to play for gold in front of the world on television. She said she’d be able to switch gears when that time comes.

“I’ve kind of been doing that all year, just with traveling and trying out for this team. I feel like whatever space I am in at the time, and my coaches all understand that we’re in the middle of a college season,” Janecke said.

She said the rivalry she has with her Team USA teammates isn’t toxic like movies have made previous teams look in years past.

“It’s more fun playing with them than against them. Playing against them, it’s pretty tough at times, but getting to play with them is fun — you get to see the way that they play the game, the way that they think about playing it,” she said.

Team USA opens their Olympic competition schedule at 9:40 a.m. Central on February 5 against Czechia. Finland, Canada and Switzerland will also compete in Group A in hopes of reaching the medal rounds. Dating back over the past seven Olympic games since 1998, only two countries have won gold: Canada (5) and USA (2).

“All you can do is control what you can and hope for the best. Either way, we are going to have a good group to go over there,” she said.

When the season ends later this year for both the Olympics and Penn State, Janecke said she will likely announce her decision to enter the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) draft. She said she wants to play the game as long as she can, and that she’s grateful for the talented players that came before her that have helped make the PWHL an option.

“It’s cool to see how much the women’s game has grown — even just women’s sports in general,” she said. “How much we’ve had to work and the dedication we’ve had to put in when no one is watching, so then when people are watching, it’s pretty cool to see the people recognize that this is worthwhile and this is worth investing in.

“To be able to get that opportunity (playing professionally) comes from all the older girls and the way they have put women’s hockey on their back and the way they have grown. They used to have to get dressed in referee rooms, and now they can have a whole city behind them. We’re grateful for them.”