South Lake Tahoe's Leah Marino youngest women's hockey player to be drafted

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Wanting to keep up with her big brother, Leah Marino stepped on the ice as a hockey player at the age of 5, and now 15 years later, she is the youngest person to be drafted in the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL).

On Tuesday night, Leah went in the third round of the draft and will don a Toronto Six uniform when the season starts this fall.

The 20-year-old Marino was born and raised on the South Shore and attended the Lake Tahoe Environmental Science Magnet School, South Tahoe Middle School, and South Tahoe High School.

When her brother A.J. started playing for the Tahoe Grizzlies, she did the same.

"I always wanted to do what he did," said Leah of her older brother.

She played for the Grizzlies until she turned 14-years-old, then she started playing in San Jose, Parents Jim and Lori Marino then drove her back and forth every weekend for hockey.

She played awhile in Seattle, then at 16, went to Vermont to play at the North American Hockey Academy, and was then picked up by Robert Morris University, a Division 1 school in Pittsburgh, Penn. She had just wrapped up her junior year of college there when the school decided to drop its hockey program one month ago.

Timing is everything, and after learning the news about her college, the Toronto Six called and said they wanted to draft her.

"I never thought I'd be here," said Leah.

When she started playing at age 5 there was no NWHL and her goal was playing Division 1 hockey. When the professional league formed in 2015 it became a reality that there was still another level to strive for.

Leah will head to Toronto after summer, but in the meantime, she has accelerated her senior of college so she can graduate before hitting the ice as a pro. Her degree will be in Marketing. She will attend graduate school online this fall, working on her MBA.

There are six teams in the NWHL. Besides Toronto, there are the Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whales, Metropolitan Riveters, and the Minnesota Whitecaps. Toronto Six lead the regular season last year with a 6-4-1 record.