Wisconsin native Karyn Bye Dietz was one of 12 individuals inducted into the 2020 National Federation of State High School Associations’ Hall of Fame during the induction ceremony held in Orlando, Fla., last week.

Bye Dietz was a trailblazer for girls hockey and a stellar three-sport athlete at River Falls High School in the late 1980s, which is more than a decade before the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) would begin sponsoring ice hockey as a sport for girls. 

Not to be deterred, her skills and competitiveness were evident as a three-year letterwinner on the boys hockey team. She was a three-time All-Middle Border Conference selection, served as team captain her senior season and was among the team’s scoring leaders her junior and senior years.

Bye Dietz attended the University of New Hampshire on a women’s hockey scholarship. She paced the Wildcats in scoring all four years of participation and still ranks fourth on the school’s career goals scored list and 10th on the career points list. She helped lead New Hampshire to Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference titles in 1990 and in 1991.

Following graduation from the University of New Hampshire in 1993 with a degree in physical education, she played three seasons of hockey and received numerous awards at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, from 1993-’95. She earned her master’s degree in sports administration in 1995.

Inspired in her childhood by the 1980 USA men’s Olympic hockey team’s gold medal dubbed the “Miracle on Ice,” Bye Dietz accomplished her goal of becoming an Olympic hockey player and helping USA win the gold medal at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. She was also a member of the team that won the silver medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games.

Bye Dietz may have inspired young female hockey players like Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej of Eagle River, who played for the Northland Pines High School boys hockey team, the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team and finally the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team that played in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and won a Silver medal.

During her illustrious career on the ice, Bye

Dietz amassed numerous honors including inductions into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, becoming just the fifth woman to be enshrined; the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame as an individual in 2014 and as a 1998 team member in 2009; the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019 as a member of the 1998 team; the University of New Hampshire Hall of Fame in 1998; and the Concordia University-Montreal Hall of Fame in 2002.

She becomes the 13th individual from Wisconsin to be inducted into the NFHS Hall of Fame.