Growing up, Kylee Dyni always wanted to be different than older brother Caylen. The two siblings both played hockey since they could lace up skates, but Kylee had to do things her own way. Caylen was a forward. Kylee had to be a defenseman. Caylen shot left-handed. Kylee needed to be a righty. “I always wanted to be better than him,” Kylee said. Where the siblings converged is the success on the ice the two have had. Caylen had an excellent career for the Fond du Lac boys hockey team, graduating this past spring. Meanwhile, Kylee, in her senior season for the Fond du Lac co-op girls hockey team, has done the same as her time as a prep hockey player winds down. As a four-year varsity player for the Warbirds, Dyni has developed into an indispensable defenseman on a squad that has hopes of a state championship this season.
Last year, Dyni was a second team All-Eastern Shores Conference player as well as an honorable mention on the Wisconsin Girls Hockey Coaches Association all-state team despite missing the playoffs because of a broken wrist. With her rock-solid defensive skills and ability to make offensive contributions (20 points last year, 10 points so far this season), Dyni is a player Fond du Lac co-op relies on game in and game out. “She’s just a great leader in general,” Warbirds coach Duane Woeshnick said. “She’s played on Team Wisconsin (traveling hockey program) for I believe three or four years. I’ve had her for all four of my years (as coach). She’s been playing a lot since she’s been a freshman. She’s been growing as a player. We need her senior leadership back on defense.”
Dyni credits much of her success as a defenseman to the vision she has on the ice. “I see the ice pretty well,” Dyni said. “I generally know where everybody is at any point in the game. I’m pretty good at picking the play in front of me and keeping girls on the outside.” It all began for Dyni back when she was just old enough to skate. Her father, who didn’t play high school hockey but had a love for the sport, pushed Kylee and Caylen into the game and the two of them soon developed that same passion. “We both started skating around the age of three and we’ve been playing ever since then,” she said. “Our dad puts up a rink in our backyard every year, so we always go out in the backyard. … My whole family really likes hockey and we’re super involved in it. Probably my youngest memories are playing hockey. It’s been my whole life.”
Coming up through the ranks, Dyni actually played primarily for youth boys hockey teams instead of girls squads. Competing against bigger and more physical players for the majority of her life, Dyni thinks her experience playing with boys made the transition to high school varsity girls hockey a seamless one. “The level of play from Bantams, eighth-grade boys, to girls high school is relatively equal, but U14 girls to high school, there’s a big jump,” she said. “It was pretty easy to make the transition.”
Dyni got significant playing time for the Warbirds right out of the chute her freshman year and has been an integral part of the team ever since. While Dyni had the physical skills to compete at a high level right away, she’s become much more intelligent since stepping onto the ice for the first time as a freshman. “I’d definitely say I’ve gotten smarter as a player,” she said. “I think more quickly. The game is just easier the more you play, I guess.”
Dyni is hoping to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor next year and try out for the women’s club hockey team there, but has a lot to accomplish as a Warbird prior to then.
This season, Fond du Lac co-op has goals of advancing to the WIAA state tournament in Madison, which would be the co-op’s first state appearance since 2009. Not only that, but the Warbirds want to come back to Fond du Lac with a gold ball in tow. Through seven games, Fond du Lac co-op is 5-2 and has posted four shutouts — some of which is the direct result of Dyni’s defensive play. By the end of the season, Dyni wants to be playing at the level she was at last year before a broken wrist forced her to miss the Warbirds’ postseason. She wouldn’t a mind a state title either. “I definitely want to be an all-state hockey player again,” she said. “We want to go to state. It would be nice to win state.”