EAST LONGMEADOW - Late in the morning and late in the summer, Kelli Stack was stretching in a mostly empty room, beginning a workout that made her nearly two-hour round trip to the gym worthwhile.
Stack, a 2011 Boston College graduate, won silver with the U.S. Olympic women's hockey team in 2010 and 2014, and aims to play in the 2018 Winter Games. That wasn't always a certainty: after the 2014 Sochi Games, she took a year off from hockey, unsure of her next step.
After a life spent on the ice, though, walking away at 26 proved too difficult. Last year, she returned with the Connecticut Whale of the fledgling National Women's Hockey League. In the meantime, though, Stack and her boyfriend had moved west from the Boston area to Blandford, at the edge of the Berkshires.
Living in a town of fewer than 2,000 people has its benefits - as she refocuses on a healthy diet, Stack grows her own vegetables in a backyard garden she couldn't have maintained in Boston - but a gym that meets professional athletes' needs is not one of them.
DC Strength and Fitness, in East Longmeadow, wasn't the nearest gym. It was, however, partnered with Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, the renowned facility where Stack had worked out in Woburn, and that was more than enough to recommend it.
"It was a no-brainer that this was obviously the best gym in the area," Stack said. "And it is a drive for me - it's about 50 to 55 minutes to get here. But I'd rather drive here than drive to a local gym that's shorter but not really getting as much out of the workout."
The trip to East Longmeadow is nothing compared to the one Stack made regularly to skate for the Whale last season. With the team playing its inaugural season in Stamford, Conn., she drove two hours each way to the rink.
This year, the Whale will play in Northford - still about a 90-minute drive each way from Blandford, but an improvement. With the NWHL entering its second season, Stack hopes things will run more smoothly. She will again be one of the league's highest-paid players, making $26,000 on a one-year contract.
"It's kind of a completely different team from last year," Stack said. "Just a different vibe about it. I think everything is way more organized now. The first year, you were expecting some hiccups, and so in the second year, I think we have a really good group and it's going to be a lot of fun. And the drive for me is a little bit closer."
Over the summer, Stack was one of more than a dozen elite hockey players training regularly at DC. That list includes East Longmeadow native Frank Vatrano, preparing for his second season as a Boston Bruin.
It also includes several younger Western Mass. natives committed to Division I colleges, like John Leonard (UMass), Keith and D.J. Petruzzelli (Quinnipiac) Dan Petrick (Northeastern) and Jake Ryczek (Providence). Some are already playing in college, like Pete Crinella (Holy Cross).
By early September, the rest of the athletes had dispersed, off to school or to the junior teams preparing them for college hockey. During the summer break, though, they were a formidable group - and a friendly one, ready to welcome a newcomer from Boston.
"You have a little group to skate with, which is nice because whether it's girls or boys, you're still getting out on the ice, so it's fun," Stack said. "It's a good group, and I didn't know anyone when I first came here, so as I started coming here more, everyone was super open and very welcoming, so that was nice."
Both Stack and Vatrano began training at DC in the summer of 2015. DC's owner, Donna Chalfant, has enjoyed watching both players set an example for younger athletes.
"It's really motivating and inspirational for everybody, and I laugh because especially (Stack) - she's working out with guys and picking up heavier weights, because she's ridiculously strong," Chalfant said. "So it's just really motivating, I think, for all of us to see their work ethic and see their discipline, and everybody works harder when they're around, which is great."
That work ethic was crucial when Stack resumed training for hockey early in 2015. After a year off, she quickly found that nothing came easily.
"Whether it's bench press, chin-ups we usually do with 25 or 35 pounds on a weight belt, split squats, hang clean, and then just conditioning in general - I would be tired from running on a treadmill for 15 seconds for five reps when I first started," Stack said.
"So yeah, it definitely took the full five months for me to get all my strength back and to lean out a little bit, because I was the same weight as I was when I was playing hockey, but I wasn't working out. So I should have lost probably 10 pounds of muscle, and I didn't."
Now, on the cusp of her second NWHL season and another shot at the Olympics, the 28-year-old Stack is back in fighting form. With high school and college athletes away, late Friday mornings are quiet times at DC - which only magnifies the sound of the medicine ball Stack launches against the far wall over and over at the start of her workout.
"She's one in a million. No one works out as hard as her, I'll tell you that much right now," DC trainer Jason Miano said. "Come back in two hours. She'll still be here."