From Jersey to the Olympics | FEATURE

From Montclair to the Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

Local native Jacquie Pierri, 35, went from playing youth hockey in Montclair, New Jersey to playing on the national stage and at the highest level at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games for Team Italy.

And in between, she received an induction into the New Jersey Hockey Hall of Fame, played NCAA Division I college hockey at Brown University and won a Clarkson Cup with Calgary in the CWHL.

“So many of these things didn’t even exist to dream about when I was a kid so it’s really cool,” Pierri said. “The Olympics, I still can’t believe it happened.”

But it all began in a little suburb in New Jersey. That’s where a little girl was born. A passion was born. A dream was born. An Olympian was born.

IT'S A GIRL'S WORLD

Pierri’s love of hockey was borne out of a sibling rivalry. Her older brother, Mike, went on a school field trip to skate in Montclair in his youth and got hooked on the game. When he started to play the sport, his younger sister, who simply copied everything that he did, quickly followed suit.

“He decided he wanted to play hockey. They put me in figure skating, and that lasted not very long before I wanted to play hockey,” Pierri laughed. “I just fell in love with it really fast.”

Pierri played locally in Montclair during her youth, mostly on boys’ teams because girls hockey wasn’t as established or strong at that time. Her talents, skill and grit allowed her to play against stiffer competition. Eventually, she would even play for Montclair High School – the boys’ team.

“There was starting to be girls’ hockey when I was a kid, but the level wasn’t that strong yet,” Pierri said. “It wasn’t a level to keep getting better. And I really enjoyed the violence of boys’ hockey. So, I played with boys growing up and it just made sense (to play for the boys in high school).

“For me, it was a no-brainer. It didn’t really make sense to not.”

As far as that sibling rivalry, Pierri would face her older brother of two years for two seasons during her freshman and sophomore campaigns as he played at rival high school MKA (Montclair Kimberley Academy).

“I remember my dad being like, ‘I want everyone to just have fun,’” she laughed.

But playing boys hockey as a female in the mid-00s also came with its challenges.

“My first few years, I had a coach that wasn’t super keen on a girl playing for the team, so it was a bit of a struggle my first three years,” she said. “Then my fourth year, we got a new coach, Pat Verney, and he was much more open-minded. He gave me a chance, and we had a really good season that year. So, it was really fun.”

While it took a coaching change for Pierri, who was named an alternate captain for the team her senior year under Verney, to finally get an opportunity, her teammates didn’t view her any differently than the rest of the players on the team.

“I was always super, super lucky with my teammates,” she said. “I think because we grew up playing together, no one really looked at me any differently. For the most part, I only had problems with other teams’ parents more than anything.”

Pierri, a right-shot defenseman, went up against players that had significant size and reach advantages. It was a challenge she welcomed and embraced.

“I could hold my own physically,” she said. “I wasn’t afraid or anything. I think that made a big difference, too. If you go in afraid, you’re more likely to get hurt. But I loved the challenge of it. I enjoyed going into corner battles with people twice my size.”

She added with a laugh: “For whatever psycho reason, I enjoyed it at the time.”

Whatever her psycho reasoning, Pierri’s play in high school speaks for itself. In fact, she was inducted into the New Jersey High School Hockey Hall of Fame for the Class of 2026.

“I’m pretty excited,” she beamed. “There’s a lot of big names (in the Hall). I saw Johnny Gaudreau is in there and other players I played with. So, I’m really excited and it’s a cool honor.

“It’s nice to get recognition.”

COLLEGE TO CUP

After high school, Pierri continued her hockey career in college. Except now she joined the women’s team, playing for Brown in Hockey East.

Oddly enough, playing women’s hockey was a bit of an adjustment for Pierri, who would play four seasons with the Bears.

“I really had trouble adjusting to the different checking rules,” she admitted. “You watch the PWHL now, it’s basically full check. But at that time, in 2009, basically if someone ran into me and I didn’t fall down, I got a penalty.”

Pierri appeared in 116 collegiate contests of Division I hockey, totaling four goals and 14 points. But she did lead the ECAC in penalty minutes one season.

“I had no penalties in high school, so it was pretty funny,” she said. “The (women’s college) game was very different. My first two years was a really difficult transition. It took a lot for me to adjust. I had more trouble than I expected. But eventually I got the hang of it.”

After graduating, Pierri followed her college roommate to Calgary to play for the Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL).

“I remember the first couple practices lining up with Canadian national team players with their gold medals,” she gushed. “It was a really cool experience, validating on some level to see that I could keep up with them and play with them. But also, just a bit star struck. It was very cool.”

Pierri more than held her own. She helped the Inferno play in back-to-back Clarkson Cup Finals in 2016 and ‘17, winning the coveted chalice in 2016 against Montreal.

“Montreal had been dominant in women’s hockey for a very long time,” Pierri said. “To face them in the Final was really excited. Arguably the best player in the world, Marie-Philip Poulin, played for them and we beat her in a championship game. That just doesn’t happen. So that was really cool.”

Pierri, who was also named to the CWHL All-Star Game, would play five seasons with Calgary from 2013-18. The CWHL would eventually give way to the PWHL and women’s hockey has continued to make strides in terms of elevation and participation.

“For my generation, all us (women) were like, ‘I want to be the first girl in the NHL,’” she said. “Now there’s actual role models that girls can look up to and say, ‘Okay, there’s an actual path to get to this career that I want to have.’ It’s incredible to watch.

“In Montreal, training for the Olympics, we went to watch a Victoire game. Everyone’s wearing a jersey of a woman player. The fans are totally engaged. It’s just a completely different ballgame from when I left (in 2018).”

And what about the girls that want to be the next Poulin or Hillary Knight or Jacquie Pierri?

“For younger girls, I would say talent matters, but consistency and grit matter even more,” Pierri advised.

After 2018, Pierri took her talent, consistency and grit over seasons, starting with two seasons in Sweden with SDE HF of the SDHL (Women’s). She’s played the last five seasons with EV Brozen Eagles of the Italian league and EWHL.

For Pierri, Italy was a perfect landing spot. Her father was born in the country and his sister, her aunt, still lives in Milan. The family would visit Italy every summer while Pierri was growing up.

“I was finishing my second season in the Swedish League, and I didn’t really know what I was going to do next,” she said. “I thought I would move closer to family because I wanted to stay in Europe.”

Pierri didn’t just move to Italy to play hockey. She also received her Italian citizenship. And that led to the opportunity of a lifetime.

OLYMPIAN

While Pierri was growing up, there was no PWHL. There wasn’t even a CWHL.

The pinnacle of women’s hockey was the Winter Olympic Games.

“When I was a kid, the only thing you dreamt about was the Olympics,” she said.

During her youth, Pierri witness the United States Women’s Olympic team win a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games and a silver medal in 2002. As her career took her from high school to college to the pros, she still never gave up on that dream – as unrealistic as it may have seemed.

But in 2020, a twist of fate changed everything. It was announced that Italy would be hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics. As the host country, they were guaranteed to have their team in competition play.

With Pierri’s citizenship and residence in Italy, it meant she had a chance to play for Team Italy.

In Italy.

In the Olympics.

Pierri would still have to earn her spot on the roster. While playing five seasons of professional hockey in Italy, she worked on her game, kept her skills sharp and would eventually be named to the roster.

“It was something I was directly dreaming about for six years, probably my whole life, but directly for six years,” she beamed. “It was really a unique opportunity.”

Pierri played five games of Olympic competition, including a finale against the United States.

“You can’t really put (the experience) into words. It was really incredible,” Pierri said. “It was more amazing than I even thought it would be.

“It was so cool to have 14,000 people cheering Italia. And after some games they played some music while we were thanking the fans and everyone was singing along. It was just really, really cool.”

And what about that game against the United States?

“For that game, I was 100-percent Italian,” she laughed. “Like, no question in my heart at all.”

Despite losing, 6-0, to the Americans, Pierri felt that her team walked away with their heads held high.

“I was just really proud of the way we played,” she said. “Obviously, the talent level is not even comparable. But we didn’t get completely blown out, and I was really proud of the way our team played.”

But the appearance in the Olympics didn’t just happen. Pierri earned it with over two decades worth of hard work, dedication and grit. She faced a lot of obstacles – particularly in the years leading up to the Olympic Games – but she overcame it all to reach the pinnacle.

“It was such a grind to be eligible and then to make the team. More than five years singularly working towards only that goal,” she admitted. “The last year had so much uncertainty – it really feels like a miracle the way it played out.”

MADE IN JERSEY

Like any good New Jersey native, Pierri grew up a Devils fan. In fact, she was present at Continental Airlines Arena when Jason Arnott scored his famous Stanley Cup-clinching goal in double overtime against Dallas in 2000 in the late evening hours.

“I was basically asleep because I was so young,” said Pierri, who was 10 years old at the time. “I still remember it, and it was really cool.”

Through a connection to the team, Pierri and her family managed to see (and touch!) the Stanley Cup.

“We got up at 4 a.m. to go see the Cup,” she said. “The Cup is huge, it’s heavy. Everyone is like, ‘don’t touch it. You might win it someday.’ But I was like, ‘I’m going to touch it! I don’t care!’ It was very generous of (them) to bring it to the local skate shop.”

From Montclair to the Winter Olympic Games in Italy. In between, an induction into the New Jersey Hockey Hall of Fame, a stop in NCAA Division I college hockey at Brown University and winning a Clarkson Cup with Calgary in the CWHL. Pierri has found success at every level she in which has played.

“So much of my hockey career taught me lessons that only experience and adversity can teach,” she said. “I loved the sport and some of my teammates so much along the way.”

Pierri has just about done it all in the sport of hockey. But she’ll never forget her roots, where she’s from and where it all began. After all, no matter where life takes her, in hockey and in her career, she’ll always be made in Jersey.  

“I had 30 people from New Jersey fly out to watch the Olympics. I think that is just a great example of the community of Jersey and the amazing hockey community in New Jersey especially,” she said. “I think it’s also cool that there’s such an immigrant population. My dad is Italian American, grew up in the metro area, and held onto his roots because there’s such a strong Italian community in New Jersey. And I think that’s really unique and cool.”

She added: “I do really miss the bagels and pizza.”