Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey captain and senior Aleah Bienek made it official as she signed a National Letter of Intent to play hockey at Trine University, an NCAA Division III school located in Angola, Indiana. Bienek verbally committed to Trine back in August and made it official after school today.
Bienek is the daughter of Jean Ann and Dacian Bienek.
Aleah is currently third on the team in scoring with three goals and six assists. Last year, she was sixth on the team in scoring with two goals in five assists in 19 games.
Portions of the story below are from when Aleah verbally committed in October.
Bienek has played varsity since her eighth-grade year and said playing college hockey has been a dream since that season. Angola is in its fifth year of offering women’s hockey and Bienek said when she visited the campus this summer she knew it was where she wanted to go. “It was a beautiful campus with great facilities, a great coach with Coach Hoffman who was honest about the program,” said Bienek. “It is a new program in their fifth year and the arena is only like a year old and it is amazing, the locker rooms and weight room at the arena really impressed me.”
Bienek said she plans on majoring in exercise science and minoring in business and she has godparents that live two hours away from campus.
Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey Coach Emily Meyer said it was exciting to see a player going to the next level to play hockey. “I am very happy for Aleah because she deserves it,” said Meyer. “She brings leadership qualities to the team, she is the perfect role model for the younger players and is the first one to show up and the last one to leave.”
Meyer added that Bienek is the one that will give girls rides to practice or weights. “I am expecting her to leave the program better than when she started,” said Coach Meyer. “It makes me so proud because it has been a while for a Crookston hockey player to commit to play college so this will help a lot of her teammates.”
Coach Meyer said Bienek had a lot of interest from college coaches. “There was a ton of interest,” said Meyer. “A lot of coaches reached out to see how great of a kid she is and it makes me happy that a kid like Aleah gets to play at the next level. She is a coach’s dream because she is coachable and will do whatever is needed and is a great teammate.”