The Eisenschmid family has four siblings who are all connected to ice hockey: Markus, Tanja and Nicola play themselves, the eldest brother Michael plays street hockey.
The Eisenschmid sisters, Nicola (19) and Tanja (22), both made it back to the top division with Germany at the 2016 IIHF Women's Ice Hockey World Championship Div.I and will be back against the best teams next year in Plymouth, USA compete in the world.
For both of them, this step was the icing on the cake of their sister ice hockey careers so far and both know how special it is to be able to celebrate winning a gold medal with their sister on the ice.
“It's fun to win a tournament alone, but it's even nicer to share it with your sisters,” says Tanja with a smile to her sister, who agrees.
When the sisters were younger and trained together, they never thought about winning a gold medal together. The sisters and their brothers tried many sports, but hockey was what ultimately fascinated them and stuck with them.
“My sister and brother both skated and I just did the same. We also tried sports like judo and athletics, but ice hockey was the one we stuck with,” says Nicola.
In Germany it is not uncommon for girls to play ice hockey with boys. Tanja had the opportunity to play together for a year and Nicola for two years with her brother Marcus, who now plays in the AHL for the St.John's IceCaps and represented Germany at two Junior World Championships.
As the eldest sister, Tanja has decided to leave Germany and take up the challenge in North Dakota (NCAA). The time and her playing there quickly increased her quality of play and gave her the opportunity to represent the women's national team at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Tanja herself attributes her development to the ice hockey program at the University of North Dakota and would miss the experience and time there: “The development opportunities that girls get there are really great. You can't get something like that anywhere else," says Tanja and continues, "The professors help you a lot and that also helps you enormously in terms of the development of ice hockey. School and sport are really well coordinated there. That’s something you can’t compare to here.”
Nicola, who is two years younger, follows in her big sister's footsteps. First she played with the boys until the U16 level, then she switched to the women. Since she started playing in the ECDC Memmingen women's team, she has made great progress; She was able to score 2015 goals and 16 assists in the 20/20 season, which made her the sixth-best player in the league (third-best German).
“We had a good team with Memmingen this year and I also had a very good season,” says Nicola. And Tanja adds: “I think she has developed really well this year! Before she always played with the boys and this year she played more with the women. You can see that she is developing well because she is scoring more and more points.”
The logical path for Nicola would be to follow that of her brother Markus and her sister Tanja and go to North America, but there is one little thing that Nicola has to take into account first: “I would really like to go over, but first I have to think about it here Finish high school and then I’ll see what happens next.”
Markus Eisenschmid also made a career in North America. Like his sisters, he also has the DNL for the age group ESV Kaufbeuren played, then moved to the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers near Calgary.
Markus impressed in his second season (2014/15) with the Tigers with 19 goals and 25 assists in 50 games. This gave him the opportunity to prove himself at the summer development camp for the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens signed him and he played in the AHL for the St. John's IceCaps last year. After a year marked by injuries, scouts will hopefully continue to pay close attention to him because of his consistently good performance despite the absences.
The future certainly holds exciting experiences for the young siblings. There is no doubt that her desire and passion for this sport can take her to goals that she could never have imagined.
“We have always had a special passion for ice hockey and that makes us strive to get better,” explains Tanja. “Most of the time when we sit at the table in the evening we talk about ice hockey. Everyone knows what it's like when you lose a game or win a very special one. We just know how to deal with it.”
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