University of Delaware Athletics
From Norway to Newark: Ida Haave’s Journey to Becoming a Blue Hen
11/6/2025 3:36:00 PM | Ice Hockey
NEWARK, Del. – The University of Delaware ice hockey team has 22 newcomers on its inaugural roster, including a nation-leading 17-member freshman class. There are Fightin' Blue Hens on the roster from as far away as Arizona and Utah and the freshman class includes seven international students with six Canadians coming from as far as British Columbia. However, no one on the roster had to travel as far as Ida Haave, who is currently living 3,987 miles away from her hometown of Kristiansand, Norway.
Haave never visited Delaware's campus during the recruiting process before committing to play for head coach Allison Coomey and the Blue Hens. In fact, she had never stepped foot inside the United States. The only time she had visited North America was three years ago when she traveled to Canada for a hockey tournament.
Like most of her teammates, Haave is having to navigate the challenges of college life for the first time while balancing the endless schedule of being a student-athlete. However, one advantage that Haave holds over her 16 classmates is that she knows how to live away from home. During her freshman year of high school, she moved away from her small hometown of Kristiansand on the southern tip of Norway and enrolled at Norges Toppidrettsgymnas Lillehammer, a high school with a better hockey program located in the city that hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics. Haave lived approximately six to seven hours from her family for the final two and a half years of high school (Norway's education system requires three years of high school).
"I moved to Lillehammer where I finished high school, so I had two and a half years there," Haave said. "I obviously had to move away from home and we lived in normal apartments. So, I lived alone all of the three years with some of my teammates. We had our own rooms and we had a kitchen so we didn't eat at a dining hall, we made our own food and all of that stuff."
The move to Lillehammer paid off as Haave earned a spot on the Norwegian National Team. Norway has competed in every one of IIHF Women's World Championships since 1990 but has been relegated to the second level since 1999 and has been competing for a promotion back to the top division ever since. In 2024, Haave made her national team debut at the IIHF Women's World Championships Division I – Group A in Austria. She helped lead Norway to a perfect 5-0 record, including three overtime victories, to earn a promotion to the main division in 2025.
At the 2025 IIHF Women's World Championships in Czechia, Norway was competing with the top teams for the first time since the 1997 games. Haave appeared in all four of the team's pool play games, playing on the team's top line alongside her childhood idol – Andrea Dalen. Haave registered an assist in Norway's first game against Japan and helped lead her squad to a 1-3 record in pool play, including a 3-0 victory over Austria.
Two of Haave's Norwegian teammates – Thea Jorgensen and Silje Gundersen – played their collegiate hockey at Atlantic Hockey America foe Lindenwood. Gundersen, who is in her sophomore season this year for the Lions, is also Haave's hometown of Kristiansand. When Haave was looking to make her own college decision, she looked to her teammates for assistance.
"They were very helpful," Haave said. "I honestly didn't really know anything. I knew what college was, but there's so many things you don't think about until you're here. They helped me and I could ask them about what to pack, and what to pack in. Just like all of those things."
Almost everything has been new during her first couple of months on campus. Coming from Norway where college athletics is almost non-existent except for at the club level, the biggest surprise for Haave is the scope of college athletics.
"Sports are big in Norway, but here almost all of the sports are big," Haave said. "In Norway, we have like one or two sports that people actually care about. I feel like the biggest thing we have is soccer and all of those sports but we don't have football. It's just crazy to me how it's such a big thing and it's kind of fun because I love when there's like a lot of energy when watching games."
One thing that hasn't changed for Haave is the hockey. She has brought her experience from playing in the world championships to the Blue Hen where she has been a key member of the lineup. She has played on both of the top two offensive lines and is a regular on both the power play and penalty kill units. It hasn't always been easy for Delaware, but Haave knows the mentality needed for a young team playing at a high level.
"When we attended the worlds with Norway, we were kind of in a position where we wanted to prove our spot," Haave said. "I think we all felt that pressure to show that we're meant to be here and it wasn't just like a one-hit wonder. That feeling is kind of relatable to what we're doing now with Delaware."
