Tamsin Wentzel poses at the Olympic Center on May 7. (News photo — Sydney Emerson)

LAKE PLACID — Love makes people do crazy things, the adage goes. For Tamsin Wentzel, the love of hockey led her family of four to move continents in 2018 — from Port Elizabeth, South Africa to Lake Placid.

“(People) thought I was nuts,” Wentzel said about the big move.

She and her daughters first started skating at a rink in a shopping mall in Port Elizabeth.

“Toward the end of the courses, my one daughter got asked if she wanted to learn how to play hockey. I said ‘No way,’ because it’s too violent and they’ve got no teeth,” Wentzel said.

Wentzel soon changed her mind and let her daughter play. After she saw other women playing with her daughter’s team, she decided to pick up a stick, too. After about six months, she started looking for hockey camps in the U.S. and Canada for her daughter and instead found one for herself — Miracle on Ice Fantasy Camp, hosted every spring in Lake Placid

Tamsin Wentzel takes part in the 2018 Miracle on Ice Fantasy Camp. (News photo — Griffin Kelly)

“I knew about John Harrington and Mark Johnson being women’s hockey coaches, so I thought, ‘Well, at least I can network, meet them and see if they’d come coach in South Africa.’ So that was the plan,” she said. “I came and played — well, tried to play — but I had a lot of fun and everyone was really welcoming.”

Wentzel had a unique way of funding the 2017 trip to Lake Placid. Her daughter, before falling under hockey’s spell, was an equestrian. To purchase the plane tickets and camp slots, her daughter agreed to let Wentzel sell her horse. According to Wentzel, the horse brought in enough money for the expensive overseas journey.

She returned for a second round of fantasy camp in 2018 — selling the family’s second horse to do so — and also brought her daughter to the annual CAN/AM Pond Hockey Tournament. It was there that her daughter was offered a spot at Northwood School, the perfect excuse to emigrate to Lake Placid and immerse the whole family in hockey, Wentzel said.

“We used that as leverage to emigrate to the U.S. My husband got a transfer from South Africa, and we came back in September (2018),” she said.

The family has lived in Lake Placid for five years now. After attending two more Miracle on Ice Fantasy Camps as a U.S. resident, Wentzel began working for the state Olympic Regional Development Authority as the women’s locker room team manager and locker room attendant for the fantasy camp. She’s worked at the past two fantasy camps. She also works for ORDA as the corporate and group sales coordinator as part of the Lake Placid legacy adventures team.

Tamsin Wentzel takes part in the 2018 Miracle on Ice Fantasy Camp. (News photo — Griffin Kelly)

“I’ve come full cycle,” she said.

Hockey isn’t a huge sport in South Africa, and Wentzel said that she never could’ve imagined she’d end up falling in love with the sport, let alone uprooting her whole family for it.

“I didn’t even know hockey existed. I’d seen the movie ‘Miracle,’ but it was something that other people did. It wasn’t even on my radar as something to do, ever,” she said.

She said that her favorite part of hockey is the people.

“They’re so genuine and friendly and welcoming,” Wentzel said. “I never felt out of place. This is such an American thing with the 1980 Olympics, and here’s a South African appearing. But I embraced it and they embraced me.”

She’s one of only two international fantasy camp alumni, and holds the record for the longest distance traveled to attend the camp — it takes more than a full day of traveling and three flights to get from Port Elizabeth to Lake Placid. Since Wentzel’s moved to Lake Placid full-time, she’s organized a two-week-long hockey tour to South Africa, with two games in Capetown and two games in Johannesburg.

“That’s my give-back to hockey South Africa: sending some crazy Americans and Canadians to play there,” she said.

Her eldest daughter graduated from Northwood two years ago and is now a pre-med student at the University of Vermont, and her youngest daughter is a member of Northwood’s class of 2024. Wentzel said that the family loves living in the Adirondacks because there are so many recreational opportunities.

“There’s always something going on. I enjoy being part of the different events and learning about different sports, being involved in ski jumping, the bobsled and skeleton events,” she said. “(The area) is small enough that you can get involved with anything and everything if you want to.”