One daughter was a pretty good figure skater, and tall and strong, and decided to try hockey. She was on her high school hockey team for one year. She was a bad hockey player, but had fun and got to meet the other players.
The captain of the hockey team was a pretty good student and a very, very good hockey player. She was quite impressive on the ice. She ended up getting a full athletic scholarship to a university that she felt was a good fit for her. Her best friend was one year younger and also a very good hockey player. One year later this friend got a full hockey scholarship and I think it was to the same school that the captain had gone to.
This was all from a normal suburban public high school.
One other issue: A few of the members of the hockey team were not from my daughter’s high school, but instead from a nearby high school that did not have its own hockey team. Apparently this is sometimes allowed.
In terms of becoming a veterinarian, perhaps two things come to mind.
One is that UVM is very good for hockey, and also very good for pre-vet students. They do not have a DVM program, but they do have quite a few students who get their bachelor’s at UVM and then go on to get a DVM somewhere else. They also have a good CREAM program (approximately dairy management) which a student can take over the summer (you have to apply and get accepted, but the criteria for getting accepted to CREAM overlap a great deal with the criteria that are likely to eventually help a student get into a DVM program). I would expect that there are other universities which are also good for both hockey and pre-vet.
The other thing that comes to mind is that becoming a veterinarian is a very long and challenging path. You have to be drawn to it. Students who start on this path may have to put some other things that they love on hold temporarily while they focus on things related to veterinary science and academics and animals.