For Anne Bloomer, putting on her Team USA jersey for the first time is a feeling she’ll never forget. 

The Loyola Academy senior hockey player represented the United States on the U18 Women’s National Hockey Team at the World championships Jan. 6-13, 2018, in Russia.

Bloomer and her teammates swept through the tournament, winning all five of their games, en route to winning a gold medal. That’s the United States’ seventh gold medal in the 11-year history of the tournament; the United States has played in all 11 tournament finals. 

“It was pretty unforgettable,” Bloomer said. “It’s definitely something I’ve always wanted to achieve ever since I was little. It’s a dream come true and everybody wants to play for their country so it was just an honor to represent the U.S.”

Bloomer, who started playing hockey between the age of 3-4, has been in the USA Hockey pipeline for a number of years.

“I’ve been in and out of national camps so I’ve gotten a touch of what USA Hockey is as a whole, but this year is the first year I kind of came to know what USA hockey was all about,” she said.

The Chicago resident knew what the difference between this year and those in the past had been: consistency and hard work.

“You can only control things that you can control,” Bloomer said. “You get selected for these camps but you have control of your attitude and effort and the work you put in but you can’t control what the coaches write down. 

“This year everything clicked, everything worked, which is really nice to see. Hard work pays off and I was really happy to see that this dream of mine finally came true.”

But making that dream come true was a process in itself.

Annually in the spring, there are tryouts in which players take part in within one of 12 districts. The central district, which includes Illinois, is also made up of players from Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. 

Each district has its own tryout, where participants are put on one of 4-8 teams. The team practices once and then competes in a series of games. From there, players get selected to be at a national camp or right to the Select 66 camp. 

Bloomer had always been to a national camp in St. Cloud, Minn. That’s until this year, when she was selected to go straight to the Select 66 camp.

“Select 66 is made up of 66 girls from around country that are 18 and younger, so 2000, 2001 and 2002 birth years,” Bloomer said. “It’s a more elite camp that’s the first stage in selecting the U18 national team.

“You’re broken up into four teams and each team has a coach they work with, a national team player they work with — that was pretty cool to have that experience — my coach was Meghan Duggan, so it was cool to listen to her and her perspective and journey. But at the camp, you practice, you play games, do all types of testing, meetings, video sessions, workouts and throughout the whole camp, not only are you learning things, you’re also being evaluated by the coaches and scouts.”   

From there, 32 players are selected for the August Festival, which is similar to the Select 66 camp, where players are broken up into teams again, but this time only two teams. Players get evaluated and then from the August Festival, the coaches narrow it down to 23 players, which is what is called a series team. 

The series team plays three games against Canada and the summer concludes. Players then return to their club teams or high school teams. 

Throughout the season, the scouts and coaches also evaluate players and then about late November, they make their final decisions.

Bloomer talked about what she was feeling when she got the call.

When Bloomer got “the call,” she was first felt so thankful, then relief. 

“The first feeling I felt was gratitude but really relief because even though you’re not focusing on Team USA throughout your season, you’re more focused on high school or club team, it’s still in the back of your mind,” she said. “You don’t know whether you’re going to get the call or not. It was really exciting.”

Bloomer, who played in all five of Team USA’s games, was excited to represent her country for the first time. Representing the country as a whole felt powerful, making an everlasting impact on her. 

“Coach Johnson from the series team told us ‘cherish the jersey because it might be the last time you wear it.’ That’s something I took to heart and made sure every time I put on that logo, I made it worth it,” Bloomer said.

With the World Championships over, Bloomer returns to Chicago, Loyola and her club team (the Chicago Young Americans), before heading out to Harvard in the fall. 

“Harvard’s academics are second to none and their hockey program is quite established and has a big legacy,” Bloomer said. “I wanted to be a part of that and it’s going to challenge me academically and hockey-wise. I always liked a challenge, competing with my peers as well as my teammates. My dad played hockey there so I’ve been around Harvard since I was young and it was my dream school. I’m lucky it happened.”

In her sophomore season, 2019-20, Bloomer was second om the team in scoring and scored 15 goals.