COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Following a 5-year profession with the U.S. Ladies’s Nationwide Crew and greater than 11 years throughout the ladies’s program, Linnea Gonzales (Bel Air, Md.) has formally introduced her retirement from the crew. The 27-year-old competed in 58 worldwide matches for Crew USA.
A Bel Air, Md. native, Gonzales began taking part in the game in third grade. Though initially a soccer participant, her older sister began taking part in, and like many, she additionally wished to present it a attempt to ultimately fell in love with it.
Gonzales was devoted to growing as she performed for the membership H2O, was a student-athlete at Patterson Mill Excessive College and took part and made her approach by way of the ranks of the Futures (now Nexus) program (2010-2014). Her junior yr as a Huskie, she helped the squad attain the state closing and that very same yr was named the 2013 Baltimore Solar All-Metro Participant of the 12 months, Baltimore Solar All-Metro Crew, All-State Crew and All-County. She additionally obtained the accolade of First-Crew All-American earlier than transferring on to play collegiately on the College of Maryland.
Within the Olympic Growth Pathway program, she was chosen for 5 Nationwide Futures Championships or Futures Elite Championships, three AAU Junior Olympic Video games and 7 consecutive Junior Nationwide Camps (JNC). In 2013 and 2014, she was a member of the U.S. U-17 Ladies’s Nationwide Crew.
Previous to her faculty freshman yr in 2015, Gonzales participated within the annual summer-long Excessive Efficiency Heart and was named to compete within the Younger Ladies’s Nationwide Championship (YWNC). That yr she was named to the U-21 USWNT.
As a Terrapin, Gonzales made a right away impression and picked up a mess of accolades from 2015 to 2018. She was a four-time recipient of Large Ten Preseason Honors, four-time NFHCA All Mid-Atlantic Area Crew, three-time All-Large Ten Crew and two-time NFHCA All-American. She helped Maryland to 3 Large Ten Common Season titles (2015, 2016, 2018), two Large Ten Championships (2015, 2018) and two-NCAA runner up finishes (2017, 2018). In 2015, she was named the Large Ten Freshman of the 12 months.
Gonzales had a standout senior yr in 2018 and swept convention honors being named to the All-Large Ten Event Crew, Large Ten Event MVP, All-Large Ten First Crew and Large Ten Participant of the 12 months. This continued nationally as she was named to the NCAA All-Event Crew, NFHCA First Crew All Mid-Atlantic Area, NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Area Participant of the 12 months, NFHCA First-Crew All-American and NFHCA Nationwide Participant of the 12 months. Throughout her time at Maryland, she began each recreation in her profession, whereas gathering 43 objectives on 263 pictures with 14 assists.
Gonzales continued to make an impression throughout the USA system whereas taking part in collegiately. In 2016, she was renamed to the U-21 USWNT and took part within the FIH Ladies’s Hockey Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile later that yr. She went on to be named to the U-21 squad for one more yr, earlier than growing older out and being chosen for the U.S. Ladies’s Growth Crew in 2018.
In January 2019, Gonzales was named to the U.S. Ladies’s Nationwide Crew and on January 27 she recorded her first cap towards Chile. All through that spring and summer time, she received her first style of senior competitors whereas touring and taking part in in all of USA’s matches within the inaugural season of the FIH Hockey Professional League. That July, she was on the squad that helped the pink, white and blue to a bronze medal on the Pan American Video games in Santiago, Chile. A number of months later, in November, she participated within the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier towards No. 9 India, the place USA fell simply in need of qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Video games.
Gonzales notes that the second recreation in the course of the 2019 FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier as certainly one of her favourite profession highlights. “The power earlier than the match and the power after we hit the sector, it was electrical and like nothing I’ve ever felt earlier than. It was loopy. That feeling of togetherness was highly effective. I’ll always remember that squad or that have.”
In her profession she went on to compete in three extra seasons of the FIH Hockey Professional League (2020-21, 2022-23, 2023-24) and in a number of check collection.
“Nay will likely be missed as a competitor, crew mate and real one that cared about her crew mates and efficiency of the crew,” mentioned David Passmore, USWNT Head Coach. “This was exemplified by her touring to India for the Olympic Qualifier purely in case we received an harm/sickness pre match. As soon as the match had began she couldn’t be swapped in but did every part she might to assist the crew and particularly our younger forwards. Nay was a bodily and versatile participant who performed many positions throughout her lengthy interval throughout the crew and would little doubt have performed many extra matches however for an unfortunate string of accidents. We want her effectively for the long run and I personally will miss our espresso conversations.”
In 2023, Gonzales dove into a brand new sanctioned format of the sport with Hockey5s. She was the captain of ladies crew’s on the Hockey5s Pan American Cup in June in Kingston, Jamaica. She helped USA to a gold medal end after an exhilarating closing that went right into a shootout. Gonzales was additionally named the match’s Most Worthwhile Participant.
“I’ll always remember the tour to Jamaica in 2023 for the Hockey5s Pan American Cup,” recalled Gonzales. “That was probably the most enjoyable tour I’ve ever been on as a result of all the women and coaches on that tour have been so optimistic, constructive, light-hearted, hard-working, and caring. All of us simply embraced the expertise for what it was. We laughed lots, we danced lots, we embraced lots, labored exhausting, and ended up getting the match win too.”
In October Gonzales shifted again to the senior squad the place she was named to the Pan American Video games roster. In Santiago, Chile, she helped the United Eagles advance to the ultimate match, however USA’s late push fell brief as they claimed silver.
This yr, she was named the touring reserve for the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier in Ranchi, India. In late January, she competed within the first-ever FIH Hockey5s World Cup in Muscat, Oman, the place she captained the crew to a ninth place end and the Challengers Trophy.
Gonzales retires having competed in 58 worldwide senior matches. She has many feelings about her time representing Crew USA however sums it up with, “A dream come true. After I was little, I at all times dreamed of taking part in and competing for USA. I grew up watching gamers in this system like Katie O’Donnell, Jill Witmer, Rachel Dawson, and Michelle Vittese. I bear in mind watching them play and feeling impressed and believed that I could possibly be there sometime too. This crew and program has helped me develop not solely as a participant however extra importantly as a human. By way of the adversity, the challenges, and the varied experiences and other people I’ve had the privilege of being alongside throughout this journey. It has all been a blessing and dream come true.”
Gonzales has an extended listing of people she wish to thank, all who’ve impacted her by way of the years as an athlete, particular person and teammate. “I thank God for giving me the power to pursue and obtain my dream of competing for Crew USA. I need to thank my household for at all times caring, permitting me to be me, and selflessly selecting to assist me on this journey. I need to thank USA Area Hockey, which incorporates present and former coaches who’ve helped get me to the place I’m as we speak, supported me in good and difficult instances, and at all times believed in me. I need to thank all my teammates from over time for educating me issues simply by being themselves, our friendships, and shared (generally loopy) experiences we’ve had collectively. I need to thank my highschool, membership, Futures, and faculty coaches for serving to and supporting me on this journey too. And I need to thank David Passmore, for being a lightweight in my life, nice coach and a good higher human.”
Gonzales is seeking to get her esthetician license and begin constructing a profession in that realm. She needs to look to proceed teaching and assist youthful athletes wherever she will.
