Photos by Noah Clooten
Veronica “Ronnie” Asquith fell in love with the state of Minnesota when she was 15 years old. Hailing from Canada, she traveled there for her first ever hockey tournament in the United States.
“And while I was down there, I decided right then and there that the States is where I wanted to live,” she said.
Now, as an elite goal scorer in the ACHA Division II, she’s made it happen. Asquith has used an opportunity at Lake Region State College to catapult into not only a great hockey player — but one of the top women’s hockey recruits in the country.
“I’m honestly kind of shocked by it myself,” Asquith said.
She recently capped a sophomore year where she scored 69 points, behind only Sam Sitterly’s 70 among W2 players. She was a finalist for Player of the Year. And she’s starting to gather interest from some of the best hockey programs in the U.S.
“Pride is an understatement,” LRSC head coach Sawyer Diseth said.
Manitoba roots
Asquith didn’t grow up with extraordinary riches in the small town of Gimli, Manitoba.
Hockey was a popular sport up there. But hockey is also one of the most expensive sports to play — from all the gear that’s required to paying to join travel teams. Her family did the best they could with what they had.
“It took a while for her to open up with me about…her not coming from a stable background, or not having supportive adults. Mentors,” Diseth said. “Not just family; she has family that loves her. But they’ve given everything they have to give, too. It wasn’t that they neglected her; the family doesn’t have a ton of resources. That limited her in Canada.”
Asquith now helps out Diseth at the hockey camps he runs in the summer. Diseth recalled a day when Asquith had just gotten off the ice, and she was kicking around a soccer ball with some of the camp kids.
“I’m like, ‘Damn, dude. She’s good at soccer, too. She’s dicing these kids up,’” Diseth recalled. “And then, naively, I asked her, ‘Hey Ron, you got two-color cleats. Is one a kicking cleat and is one a something’ — you know, like I don’t know shit about soccer. And she’s like, ‘No, I had a house fire, and this one I was able to save, because the other one got melted and this other one I found.’
“And you’re kind of like, ‘Holy shit.’ Well, that’s not what I was thinking the answer was gonna be. But it brings a tear to your eye.”
Up through age 15, Asquith exclusively played on the boys’ hockey team in her town. But even then, instead of being overshadowed by all of the bigger and stronger boys around her, she stood out with her raw talent.
“I was always told when I was really young that I had something special,” Asquith said. “So many other parents of my teammates would come up to me and say, ‘Wow, you’ve really got a talent.’”
She finally got to join a girls’ hockey team when she was 16. It was then that it really set in for her that she was a good hockey player, and that she had a chance to play at the next level. The experience she had playing among boys gave her a competitive advantage right away.
So she started talking to coaches in the U.S. She was determined to take her talents to the States. One of the recruiters she corresponded with was Dean Rebeck, a respected figure in the Manitoba hockey scene. Rebeck had heard through the grapevine about a brand new hockey program opening up at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake, North Dakota, about a four-hour drive southwest from Gimli.
Rebeck connected her with LRSC’s original head coach, Logan Kraft. The opportunity seemed like one worth taking to set things in motion. And so off Asquith went to start her collegiate hockey career, staying relatively close to home but still taking the daunting step of moving to a new country.
Settling into LRSC
Before she broke out as a star, or even put on a Royals jersey, Asquith came to Devils Lake with a gracious perspective about her. She was ready to work hard.
“She’s very understanding of what people can’t have,” Diseth said. “So she’s thankful for that.”
Asquith described her first impression of living in Devils Lake as overwhelming but fun.
“Honestly, the first two days, I was really overwhelmed. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness,’” she said. “But then I realized, honestly, it’s just a little bit bigger than my hometown. Kind of the same thing. Ice fishing is huge. Sports are huge. High school sports are huge, just like back in Gimli, Manitoba. So I actually transitioned pretty smoothly here.”
Asquith was part of the very first LRSC women’s hockey team, with its official addition to the ACHA Division II. The Royals had a small roster of 10 players, all of whom were freshmen from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana or Canada. They went 7-12 under Kraft.
It was an adjustment for Asquith, playing collegiate hockey for the first time on a team with no track record. But it was also an opportunity for growth.
“I tried not to put too much pressure on myself, but I also knew that this was the time to be really serious and lock in,” she said.
Asquith went on to score 20 points in a more-than-respectable first season. That ranked second on the team. Her 12 goals led the team. She was nominated for Defenseman of the Year, something she took pride in.
“It worked pretty well my first season,” Asquith said.
But she wasn’t satisfied.
Rapid growth as a sophomore
Change befell the LRSC women’s hockey program in 2024.
The Royals replaced Kraft with Diseth — both Devils Lake natives — in the head coaching position. Diseth had previously been an assistant coach on the Devils Lake High School boys’ hockey team.
When he took over the program, he held individual meetings with each player.
“Ron’s a pretty quiet individual right when you get to meet her — probably for a good reason,” Diseth said. “But honestly, once we got to know each other, Ron is just a wonderful human being. She cares about the team.”
He said it took some time to really understand the depth of her work ethic. As just one example, she’s taking around 20 credits this semester — something Diseth didn’t even know until weeks in. She was simply grinding, going about her business and never complaining.
“Her great determination for everything — it took me a while to know that it was in every walk of her life, and not just like, ‘Holy cow, she’s a really good hockey player and really determined hockey player,’” he said. “She’s that way in every single thing she does.”
When Diseth is giving instructions or going over systems with the team, Asquith is usually near the back of the huddle. She’ll be moving around, not necessarily making eye contact, and it’ll sometimes be unclear to Diseth whether she’s listening.
“But she’s always, always, always listening,” he said. “And that’s not evident until she does it right every single time coming out. ‘Is she paying attention?’ That’s what you’re wondering.
“Always,” he added matter-of-factly.
Diseth described Asquith as a humble person whose confidence on the ice skyrocketed this season. He knew coming in that she was talented, and so did the other girls on the team. So, for her sophomore season, he allowed her to take a little more leadership.
“He also gave me a lot of freedom on the ice,” Asquith said. “He wasn’t too — I wouldn’t say controlling with me, but he definitely gave me roam and creative freedom to do what I need to do to get things done, and that definitely helped me out.”
He also switched her position. The former Defenseman of the Year nominee became a forward, allowing her more opportunities near the net. That way, she wasn’t having to navigate the puck the entire length of the ice.
“It took a little while for her to build, and for us as a team, to build that trust,” Diseth said. “But man, once it did, she was lighting it up.”
The team still had a small roster this year, with only nine players. Some numbers issues affected their early-season performance, even having to forfeit a game they’d traveled to Canada for. They won their first two games of the season, before losing five in a row and then winning two in a row again.
But what Diseth noticed is that week in and week out, Asquith was the best player on the ice.
“That took some realization for me, probably more than it should have,” Diseth said. “She had some points last year, and the team saw her as probably the most skilled player. Like, ‘We’re gonna have to work our offense through her.’”
And so, with a new position and some newfound confidence, Asquith exploded onto the scene.
“My head coach, Sawyer, he definitely had a lot of confidence in me,” she said. “And my development just popped off this season underneath him.”
She was able to have sustained success, Diseth said, in large part because of the way he taught her to conserve energy. With Asquith being the team’s best player, it was only natural that her teammates wanted to go to her.
But Diseth realized that she was almost trying too hard; she was trying to do too much on each individual play.
“I had to remind her, like, ‘Hey, you don’t have to conquer the world every shift. You don’t have to win the game this shift,” Diseth said. “‘We just have to put shifts together. And work on solving the problem like a Rubik’s Cube, and don’t get frustrated at the result of your last shift. Just be input-orientated.’”
The adjustment in approach prevented her from getting burnt out.
And not only did it help her become the best version of herself as a player, but it benefitted her teammates, too.
“If we’re eating — if we’re killing — everybody’s eating,” Diseth said. “To get that mentality, and it took a lot to do that. But man, once everybody realized, it was like ‘Holy shit.’ And they were all feasting on it.”
Following a Nov. 14 overtime loss to Augustana — which was around the time Diseth said it really set in as to how good Asquith was — the Royals obliterated the University of Nebraska in a two-game series. They won 16-2 and 19-3 on back-to-back days. Asquith scored 18 of the 35 LRSC goals in those two games, leading an unrelenting and multifaceted attack.
The Royals went on to win four of the five games they played in January.
Asquith led all of the ACHA Division II with 48 goals, eight more than anyone else. Her 21 assists gave her 69 points overall. The W2 Player of the Year winner, Sitterly, had 70 points on 31 goals and 39 assists. In any case, Asquith was one of the most dominant players in the entire league, which stretches nationwide.
“I’m just really proud of coming into that new position and being able to perform the way I did this season,” she said.
Future aspirations
Asquith has already made true on some of her childhood wishes. She’s a high-level college hockey player, living in the U.S. and planning to stay there beyond her playing days.
“She loves being in the States,” Diseth said. “She loves the idea of being an American. That if you work hard, and you put your mind to something, you can have it.”
The Royals, though, lost their last five games of the season. They finished 8-14, not too different from their 7-12 campaign. Asquith was left, at what could have been the end of her LRSC career, feeling like there was a lot left in the tank.
She continued to pursue some higher opportunities anyway. Numerous NCAA schools reached out to her, including a few at the Division I level. Her jump up the leaderboards earned her some attention from in-state schools and beyond.
However, there was no obligation to leave just yet. The ACHA operates differently from the NJCAA, which is what basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball are part of. ACHA athletes technically have up to five years of eligibility.
So, if a player wanted to, they could spend their whole college hockey career at LRSC. But Diseth isn’t a fan of that system.
“I hate the thought of that,” he said, “because I want this college to be something that you transcend.”
Asquith had conversations with in-state NCAA schools like Minot State, Jamestown, etc. Diseth also said, with assurance, that if he were to call up any ACHA D-I school right now, they would take her.
The thing holding her back, though, was the commitment she’d have to give one of these schools. In all reality, if she were to accept an offer from, say, D-II Minot State, that might be the last stop in the road of her college career.
“I don’t blame any of those coaches or programs that if they were to get Ronnie — I’d want to keep Ronnie, too, right?” Diseth said.
As Diseth and Asquith worked on getting her name out there as much as possible, they took a leap of faith by emailing Dan Koch, the associate head coach of the University of Wisconsin — the team that won the most recent NCAA national championship in women’s hockey.
To Diseth’s admitted surprise, Koch responded almost immediately.
“I think sometimes that comes down to chance of ‘Oh, he’s at his computer at the time,’” Diseth said with a chuckle.
It was a very two-way conversation from the outset, Diseth recalled. Koch’s interest seemed genuine. But they were a little late on Wisconsin’s radar. The national-champion Badgers are constantly working to build their pipeline and secure commitments early on, and in the end, Asquith was one of the final cuts in a long weeding-out process.
But one of Diseth’s biggest pieces of advice to kids going through the recruiting process is to be persistent. The line of communication with Wisconsin is far from over.
“If there wasn’t any opportunity, like never, we would have talked about that by now,” Diseth said. “We wouldn’t be wasting each other’s time.”
Asquith got some other offers. But she said it wasn’t the right timing with any of the schools she talked to. One of her priorities is to get a full-ride scholarship, along with playing hockey at the highest level.
“I love that tenacity about her,” Diseth said. “That she’s not satisfied with something that she doesn’t think is adequate… [D-I]’s the pinnacle. I love that that’s where she’s setting the bar.”
So, after much thought, time and consideration, Asquith and Diseth came to a mutual agreement that she’d return to LRSC for another year.
“Girls are so orientated. They want to know what they’re doing,” Diseth said. “They want to have it solidified and have a schedule and an itinerary for the next 10 years of their life. And their recruiting process is not like that.”
So, Asquith’s story in Royals blue is not yet over. After 69 points this season, she’s already set a lofty goal of more than 100 next season.
And maybe that’ll be enough to convince Wisconsin to take her.
“That is definitely where my head is at, and where I want to be at one day,” she said. “So I’m gonna grind this season and keep that door open the best I can.”
Asquith is also focused on the team aspect. Her return is huge for an emerging LRSC women’s hockey program, most obviously for her on-ice production, but also because of the increased incentive for other girls to join.
Asquith said she wants to win more games next year with a “better team structure.” She’s been helping Diseth recruit some tough prospects out of Manitoba, along with helping fellow Royals like Sierra Raatz and Julia Lone find future opportunities.
“You start at a junior college; if that’s where you want the story to end, so be it. You can play two years of hockey here and never play hockey anywhere else,” Diseth said. “But that’s not what we work towards.”
With the recruits he’s already brought in, Diseth expects next year’s roster to have some more names on it. He said he likes the talent of the current roster, but he didn’t feel like they had the necessary core around Asquith. He doesn’t want her to feel like she has to do all the work next year.
The team is already planning on getting together over the summer and bonding in anticipation for the season ahead.
“It’s crazy. I didn’t know I would be this passionate about putting a team of women’s hockey players together,” Diseth said. “They’re super excited, too. It was a long season, but if our next season started next month, the girls would be on board.”
For Asquith, the expectations might look a little different. This year was her breakout; now it’s her chance to build on what she’s already achieved. She wants to win more games, have another dominant season, then go somewhere bigger and use that as a springboard towards professional hockey.
“Pro hockey is obviously everybody’s dream,” she said.
Long-term, she’s hoping to become an American citizen. Her goal beyond hockey is to become a U.S. police officer — whether in North Dakota, or somewhere else around the Northern Plains or Midwest.
“I’m honestly pretty hooked on Minnesota right now. I’ve fallen in love with the state. The hockey there, every time I go for tournaments there, it’s just amazing. I definitely have the most fun there,” Asquith said. “But Montana, it’s a pretty beautiful state. We had a couple trips there last season and this season, and I fell in love with that state, too. So definitely keeping my eyes on those two.”
Ultimately, Asquith is a kid with a dream. A dream that LRSC gave her a chance to pursue when she was just an unknown kid from a town of 2,000 people in Manitoba. And now she’s inches from reaping the massive rewards that come from the commitment she put forth. The opportunity has set her up hockey-wise, and for life beyond the sport.
