Rentmeester proving to be one of Wisconsin hockey’s rising stars

Wrightstown’s Grace Rentmeester is second on the Fox Cities Stars in points this season and third in the Eastern Shores Conference, compiling 11 goals and 11 assists in just six games.

This coming from a freshman in her first action at the varsity level.

Add to that impressive stat line Rentmeester’s 13 total points playing for Team Wisconsin on this past fall’s 16U squad, which was good for second on the team. Rentmeester was 14 years old on that 16U team. She turned 15 last week on Dec. 16.

Rentmeester is the youngest of three siblings. Her oldest brother, Josh, starred as a defensive lineman for the Wrightstown football team as a senior this past fall, and her brother Isaac, also an avid hockey player, transferred to Notre Dame Academy and also plays hockey year-round. Isaac has been to US Hockey training camps and has future goals of playing at the Division 1 level in college.

Grace’s father, Pete, said she got on the ice at three years old and started playing with both of her older brothers. She’s also dabbled in volleyball, soccer and golf growing up, but from that first time she put on skates, hockey has been No. 1. She said she loves the team aspect of the sport and the relationships she’s able to build with teammates along her journey.

“It’s very much a team sport, there’s a lot of passing involved,” she explained. “You hang out with the team a lot, by the end of the season it’s like the team’s a whole family.”

Grace has always been one of her team’s best players, even going back to the lower youth levels. Because her birthday is at the end of the year, she is able to play multiple seasons at each level. This past fall, for example, she was 14 putting up numbers for her Team Wisconsin 16U squad. In fall 2021, she will be 15 and one of the team’s leaders before moving on to the 19U team in 2022, when she will turn 16.

That kind of experience is almost the ideal path for development.

“(That first year) is kind of like her confidence year,” Pete explained.

“I always prefer being one of the younger girls, you get more competition playing against (teams). But with the younger kids you’re more of a leader and I love that too,” Grace said of her time at each level.

“Skill-wise I would say we’re all the same. I don’t ever really think of me being the younger one.”

Pete said he always knew Grace had talent, but he said he didn’t know his daughter would be working her way toward being one of the better girls’ hockey players in the state by the time she was 15.

“No, I did not expect (this) at all,” he said. “I knew someday she would be good, but they’re youth, they’re kids, everyone develops differently. So I didn’t know what to expect from it. Especially as a freshman (on the Stars).”

Along with her natural talent, Grace plays hockey almost year round. She plays with Team Wisconsin in fall and spring, and in between is her high school season with Fox Cities. With Team Wisconsin she travels all around the country; for example, this past fall alone, played in Minnesota and Michigan. The team played in Minnesota Sept. 12 – Oct. 18 (Minneapolis, Stillwater, back to Minneapolis, Lakeville, back to Minneapolis) and then Michigan the final weekend of the year.

It’s also worth noting that Grace’s Team Wisconsin squad plays at the AAA level. AAA is the highest level possible, similar to minor league baseball, where players work their way up from A to AA to AAA.

Also helping Grace’s development this winter is playing alongside McKayla Zilisch, a junior from Appleton North. The two played on Team Wisconsin for the first time during the fall and Grace now starts alongside Zilisch as a forward for the Stars. Knowing Zilisch and playing with her before meant Grace was “stepping into the perfect scenario,” Pete said.

“(McKayla) is one of the better players on the team and the two have hit it off,” he said. “They know where each other are going, they’ve been playing well together.”

Zilisch was Team Wisconsin’s captain last fall and is in the same position with Grace and Fox Cities this winter. The two also coach peewee hockey together.

“She’s always there for me, she always gives me rides when I need them, if we have any open ice time she’ll let me know, she’ll say ‘hey do you want to go skate with me’ or something,” Grace explained. “She’s like my mentor but she’s also more of my friend, we’ve gotten really close over the past few months through hockey.”

Grace also said that playing against her brothers her entire childhood didn’t hurt either, helping her prepare for the physicality of playing with older girls.

“(It reminds me of that) quite a bit,” she said. “Right now, the age group I’m playing with, they’re technically the age of my brother (Isaac), so it’s kind of fun. I’ve always gone against him at home.

“I think it helped me quite a bit (playing with Isaac). Sometimes he says he lets me win, but sometimes I’m not so sure.”

“She’s been chasing her brothers for years. And if you’ve ever seen Josh, you understand why she’s doing so well with the girls because she’s not scared of anybody,” Pete added.

(Josh was listed at 6-foot-2, 300 lbs on this year’s football roster).

Grace said playing at the D1 level in college is definitely a goal, but she wasn’t afraid to set her sights a little higher.

Wisconsin’s Brianna Decker played for the Badgers before moving on to play professionally. Decker also won gold at the World Women’s U18 Championships and was then named to the roster for the US Women’s National Team. Decker was one of the top five scorers at the 2011 IIHF Women’s World Championships and was part of the team that won again in 2017.

Decker comes back home to speak to the Team Wisconsin girls, and Grace said she provides inspiration for what may be coming down the line in her own career.

“It would be my main goal or achievement to go to the Olympics and eventually win gold, that would be so cool,” Grace said. “I think it would be really cool if I could do that same thing (as Decker).”

For now, she will have to settle for working her way up the state ranks and seeing where that takes her. But the work never stops for Grace, Pete said.

“I have two hockey nets in my front yard. They’re always shooting pucks, we have a shooting station in the basement,” he said. “Any time they can be outside and play the game, they are.”