A TRAILBLAZER ON ICE

Eight years ago, Chelsey Goldberg dreamed of starting a women’s ice hockey team in Israel.

Her dream has come true.

Goldberg, 29, an Agoura High graduate, will suit up for the Israeli women’s national ice hockey team during the Maccabiah Games this summer. The competition runs from July 12 to 26 in Jerusalem.

The Maccabiah Games is an Olympic-like multisport athletic competition that takes place every four years. The games will welcome Jewish athletes from 80 countries to Israel, while women’s ice hockey teams for the United States, Canada and Israel will compete in a double round-robin tournament at Pais Arena.

In 2013, Chelsey’s twin brother, Chad, was recruited to play on the Israeli men’s ice hockey team in the Maccabiah Games. There was no women’s team, however.

Though she was always able to compete at the same level as her brother, Goldberg was rejected when she asked if she could try out for the men’s team.

She didn’t mope. She threw down her gloves for a fight.

ICE BREAKER—Chelsey Goldberg, a 2011 Agoura High graduate, will play on the first Israeli women’s ice hockey team during the Maccabiah Games in Jerusalem later this month. Goldberg played college hockey at Northeastern University in Boston. Photos courtesy of Chelsey Goldberg

Goldberg began lobbying for the creation of a women’s team. After fighting for eight years, she now gets to lace up her skates for the long-anticipated debut of women’s ice hockey this summer.

Devra Schorr Pulley, co-chair of Maccabiah USA Ice Hockey, praised Goldberg’s efforts.

“She worked so hard to make this happen,” Pulley said. “She’s a leader and role model on and off of the ice.”

Goldberg, who graduated from Agoura High in 2011, found her stride in skates at an early age. Into her teens, she excelled in her brother’s hockey clubs.

Her skills were evident, and she quickly gained the attention of the Olympic Development Program and national youth teams.

Goldberg knew she would not be able to fulfill her potential at home, however. The former Charger spent her final two years of high school shuffling between Agoura and the North American Hockey Academy in Stowe, Vermont.

“I knew I needed to get out of California to get where I wanted to go,” she said. “It was a hard decision at that age, but I wouldn’t change it at all.”

The decision paid off: Goldberg earned a scholarship to Northeastern University in Boston, one of the best hockey programs in the…