USA Hockey Magazine

At the camp's opening meeting, coaches and staff explained why the athletes are there. "The first thing we tell them is they earned that opportunity to be here based on their resume and their play," said David Lassonde, USA Hockey 's national goaltending coach. While the camp included on-ice training, skill development, team building and video analysis, there's also a big focus on the mental side of the game, especially for goalies. Participants got the chance to work with Julia Allain, a mental skills coach with the New York Rangers. "She does a really nice job just pre- paring them for what playing hockey in front of the world is like and some of the pressures that come with that," said Steve Thompson, manager of player development – goaltending for USA Hockey. "Some of our goalies have experienced that already." Thompson mentioned McNaughton in her recent championships this sea- son as a goalie was "very used to the bright lights and having to perform under them," Thompson said. He added that there are also young- er goalies at the camp who are dream- ing of getting such an opportunity. Either way, Allain is there to help all the athletes with that mental health component. "The players here have a lot of access to her both collectively, and if they choose to do it, individually," Lassonde said. "We encourage them to meet with her, just to talk about their process a little bit and some of the areas from a mental performance standpoint, strategies that can help them in those situations where there's a little bit of pressure, there's a little bit of anxiety." Fetterolf said the mental piece of the game is often overlooked, espe- cially when it comes to the amount of preparation needed before a practice. "That's really what separates profes- sionals from people who aren't always willing to put in all the work," Fetterolf said. "That's really important. We've had so many meetings here. It's been pretty cool to see all these presen- tations and take away all these little parts from each presentation we can add into our game." All the extra things that make goal- tenders stand out or reach their poten- tial have to do with the mental side of the game, or other off-ice aspects, like nutrition, sleep habits, according to Alli Altmann, goaltending coach for the U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team. Learning those things now for camp attendees ahead of college or in col- lege is good preparation for handling higher levels of competition. "It's all these things that you don't even think about," Altmann said. "All these other things help with that and give you an advantage." For anyone who receives an invita- tion to a camp like this, Fetterolf rec- ommends pouncing on such a great opportunity to wear the USA colors and work with "unreal coaches" while competing against other elite athletes around the same age. "It's a big honor to be able to wear the USA jersey, even just in a camp," he said. "I've been looking forward to this camp for a while, so I'm super honored to be here, and it's been a great experience." P JUNE 2026 // THE GOALIE ISSUE // 31 Princeton goalie Uma Corniea participated in camp this year. "IT'S A BIG HONOR TO BE ABLE TO WEAR THE USA JERSEY, EVEN JUST IN A CAMP." –RYDER FETTEROLF

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