32 | FEBRUARY 22 • 2024 J
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lle Hartje is one of the 
best women’s college 
hockey players in the 
country.
A star at Yale University for 
four years, the senior forward 
from Bloomfield Hills set the 
team record for assists in a 
season with 39 last year and is 
the team leader in career assists. 
She had 106 helpers as of Feb. 9.
She’s a two-time All-ECAC 
First Team selection and she 
was named a CCM/American 
Hockey Coaches Association 
Second Team All-American last 
year.
In the classroom, the political 
science major has a 3.92 grade-
point average, highest on the 

Yale team. She’s a three-time 
AHCA Scholar All-American 
and ECAC All-Academic Team 
member.
Then there’s Hartje’s commu-
nity service at Yale. She’s been 
dedicated to it during her time 
in New Haven, Connecticut.
The combination of Hartje’s 
on- and off-ice accomplish-
ments and work in the commu-
nity earned her ECAC Hockey’s 
prestigious Mandi Schwartz 
Scholar-Athlete of the Year 
Award. 
The 12-team women’s hockey 
league made that announce-
ment Feb. 9. The award is 
named for a former Yale wom-
en’s hockey player and 2010 

graduate who died from acute 
myeloid leukemia in 2011.
Yale women’s hockey coach 
Mark Bolding speaks in super-
latives about Hartje.
“Elle will go down as one of 
top players who has ever been 
on our team,
” he said. 
“I’ve been fortunate to have 
coached hundreds of stu-
dent-athletes in my career, but 
few can compare to the overall 
talent, hockey IQ and academic 
aptitude that Elle possesses. 
She’s simply amazing on and off 
the ice.
”
Hartje has been passionate 
about doing community service 
at Yale.
“You have a platform as a 
athlete, and as a Yale athlete, 
and the ability to help. I want 
the players on our team to be 
known as not just great hockey 
players,
” she said.
Yale women’s hockey players 
did volunteer work at the Yale 
Community Kitchen last fall, 
preparing and serving meals at 
the student-run soup kitchen. 
Hartje organized the effort.
The team holds a bone mar-
row drive named for Schwartz 
each spring. Hartje has been 
heavily involved in that event.
Hartje is a member of the 

Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at 
Yale. 
She’s helped organize the 
sorority’s annual Carnival for 
CASA, a spring fundraiser 
for Court Appointed Special 
Advocates, a national organi-
zation that supports court-ap-
pointed volunteer advocates for 
abused and neglected children. 
Hartje was a member of 
Yale’s Student-Athlete Advisory 
Committee and the Yale 
Women’s Athletic Council for 
two years. 
Each college has a SAAC, 
which gives student-athletes 
input into the rules and regula-
tions that affect their lives. 
The Yale Women’s Athletic 
Council unites the female 
athletic community at the 
university through positive 
conversations, a community of 
acceptance, and the opportunity 
to empower, according to its 
website.
The daughter of Tod and 
Nicole Hartje, Elle was named 
a Jewish News High School 
Athlete of the Year in 2019 after 
an outstanding career at Detroit 
Country Day, where she was 
a four-time state champion in 
tennis and a four-time All-State 
soccer player. 
Her family attends Temple 
Shir Shalom. 

Send sports news to stevestein502004@

yahoo.com.

 ‘Simply 
 Amazing’

Yale University women’s hockey 
star Elle Hartje earns league award 
for on- and off-ice excellence and 
community service.

Elle Hartje takes a selfie with 
her Yale women’s hockey 
teammates last fall at the 
Yale Community Kitchen.

PHOTOS BY ELLE HARTJE

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

SPORTS

Underneath the Yale Bulldogs getup 
is Elle Hartje, with Yale women’s 
hockey teammate Anna Bargman, 
last spring at the team’s Mandi 
Schwartz bone marrow drive.

