A Unique Naming Convention

If there's one thing that seems to happen quite often in university women's hockey on both sides of the border, it's the recruitment of sisters by the same school. In general, it's easy to land the younger sister in these cases as the older sister has already gone through some of the growing pains in adjusting to university life. Twin sisters provide a support system for both girls, so they often are recruited at the same time as well. What most of us forget, though, is that people may not know them well enough to identify them on the ice. This means that teams have to come up with some unique ways to tell them apart.

Personally, I find this practice to be unnecessary as the sister combinations arlready are forced to wear different numbers. That's unique enough in my books. If Maurice and Henri Richard didn't have to differentiate themselves with a unique naming convention on their respective jereys, the rest of hockey can follow suit. However, with the introduction of names on the backs of jerseys, this is an annual problem for teams when it comes to applying namebars in cities and towns across the world.

That brings us to the two women seen in the lede photo as the Wisconsin Badgers recruited Brooke Ammerman before inviting Brittany Ammerman to join them two seasons later. Brooke, seen on the left, was in her junior year when Brittany started her freshman campaign, so that meant that the Badgers had a couple of seasons where the Ammerman sisters would be on the roster, forcing them to come up with a name solution.

Brooke, who wore #20, just used her last name as everyone else did when she was the lone Ammerman on the roster. In her two seasons skating without her sister on the roster, Brooke made an impact as she scored 47 goals and 92 points for the Badgers as she became a household name in and around Madison, Wisconsin. For her efforts in leading the team in scoring with 38 points in 2010, she was named as the Badgers' offensive player of the year with the Badgers preparing for a second Ammerman to join the squad in 2010-11 after recruiting Brittany from the North American Hockey Academy where Brooke had played.

Brittany, who wore #10, played her final two seasons in Madison with the Badgers without Brooke who had used up her eligibility, and it's easy to see that her name reverted to "Ammerman" on the back of her jersey as she was the lone Ammerman left on the roster. Brittany left her own mark on the program at Wisconsin as well as she was named the 2015 Hockey Humanitarian Award Winner after raising over $38,000 for the Nikumbuke Women's Soccer League, a league she started in Africa. Forget all stats - that's simply awesome work by Brittany!

In knowing that the Wisconsin Badgers respect how names appear on the jerseys, what happened during those two seasons where the Badgers had the Ammerman sisters flying down the ice?

I noticed the Ammermans' naming convention as TSN's intermission coverage of the U18 Women's World Championship saw Kenzie Lalonde and Cheryl Pounder chatting with former Badgers forward and Team USA superstar Brianna Decker. Decker played on those Badgers teams with both Ammerman sisters, and they flashed an image across the screen of Decker and her teammates that showed their names on the back of their jerseys.

With both Brooke and Brittany having a "B" starting their names, there would have to be some additional letter added. Because both Brooke and Brittany start with "BR", that naming convention would logically be out, so perhaps we'd see a "BK Ammerman" and a "BT Ammerman", right? Instead, the Badgers went three letters!

As you can see "Bri" and "Bro" patrolled the ice for the Badgers during those two seasons in Madison in which they won an NCAA National Championship together in 2011 and made the final in 2012 before falling to their rivals in the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Jersey naming conventions aside, it seems the Ammermans were important parts of the Badgers' success in those two seasons!

It's the first time that I've seen three letters used to differentiate a player in women's hockey. Men's hockey has use the entire first name of players such as Rich and Ron Sutter (Blues and Flyers) and by Neal and Aaron Broten (University of Minnesota), but I can't recall a three-letter differentiation between two players anywhere else other than with the Ammermans. If you know of one and have photographic evidence, throw it in the comments below!

It should be noted that Brooke Ammerman is now Brooke Reimer after she married German netminder Jochen Reimer. You may recall her married name as Brooke Reimer wrote her name into the hockey history books when she scored the first goal in the history of the NWHL's New York Riveters. She's retired from the game now, but, if we stick with the U18 and Madison themes, Brooke also won a 2008 IIHF U18 Women's World Championship gold medal for Team USA in Calgary.

Brittany Ammerman has kept herself busy as well as she's been hands-on with the Nikumbuke Women's Soccer League since its inception while continuing her education. She earned her Masters Degree in Biomedical Sciences from Rutgers University in 2017, and followed that up by enrolling at the Penn State College of Medicine where she focused on Orthopaedic Surgery and is currently in her residency for that practice! Like Brooke, Brittany had a pile of success at the U18 level where she won gold at the 2009 IIHF U18 Women's World Championships in 2009 and a silver medal at the 2010 event.

A rose by another name may still be a rose, but an Ammerman sister named Brooke, Brittany, "Bro", or "Bri" will always be a champion!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!