Goalie's Olympic dreams began taking shape in Naperville

Rocky Saganiuk first saw Molly Schaus when she was 6 years old and skating in his pre-hockey camp at Lisle's Seven Bridges Ice Rink.

Within three weeks, the former NHL player said, "I pulled her parents aside and told them she was going to be someone special in the world of hockey. I could see the passion in her eyes that I only see in one of every 100 to 200 kids that come through camp."

That passion still burned Thursday evening when Schaus and her teammates on Team USA faced off against Canada in the Olympic gold medal game in Vancouver.

Going into the game, Schaus, the team's backup goalie, had spent 52 flawless minutes in goal.

That's 52 more Olympic minutes, flawless or not, than most men or women will ever know. Yet it's the flawless part that comes as no surprise to many.

Those who knew Schaus as a girl growing up in Naperville say she worked hard at her sport through middle and high school.

Molly attended Spring Brook Elementary School and then Gregory Middle School - the same middle school Olympic figure-skating gold-medalist Evan Lysacek attended.

Her teammates, including Lauren Mellen of Joliet who played with Schaus on Team Illinois during those years, said it was clear she had an Olympic goal in mind.

"We were all young and naive enough to have Olympic goals and think we were all going to make it," Mellen said. "But Molly was something else, just an incredibly hard worker. She came into the program as the third goalie and worked her way into the top spot pretty quick, like she had something to prove."

Friends say Schaus always had something to prove, growing up with two brothers (Michael and Steven) who were pretty good hockey players in their own right.

Jenny Jansen, a physical education teacher at Spring Brook, remembers Molly and her tales of going toe-to-toe with the boys.

"I definitely remember Molly. She was an all-around good athlete; an adorable, enthusiastic tomboy who just loved sports and life," Jansen said. "Her energy level was contagious and she spoke a lot about hockey and playing with the older boys in her neighborhood."

Stories of her insisting on playing hockey with the boys, whether at the arena or on the frozen pond behind their Naperville home, are local legend.

"She knew that she needed to be on the ice with the boys to compete on the level she needed to succeed," Saganiuk said. "I'm sure more than one boy rolled his eyes at that redheaded, freckled girl... until she shut him out."