Ponytails And Pucks Growing Interest In Ice Hockey For Girls Leads To Creation Of League, Traveling Team
The table overlooks the ice rink but it could be in the heart of a high school cafeteria at the peak of lunch hour.
Teenage girls are squished together on a wooden bench, huddled in conversation, giggling, rolling their eyes, fidgeting with their long hair.
Their coach reminds them of the time and they quickly disappear into a dressing room. Fifteen minutes later, they emerge, their adolescent smiles covered by plastic mouth guards and ponytails tucked into helmets.
“When they sit around here, and you hear them talk, they’re the nicest, sweetest kids. But put a hockey stick in their hands - especially against boys - and you wouldn’t know they’re the same kids,” said Pete Leonetti, coach of the Spokane American Youth Hockey Association’s girls rep team.
Yes, hockey is becoming a sport played by girls who are trading sequins for shoulder pads, satin ribbons for face masks and figure skates for hockey blades.
And Spokane is embracing the sport with enthusiasm. It already has a league of its own, be it a little league.
There are 27 girls who play recreational hockey, ranging in ages from 13 to 18. They are divided into two house teams and from that, one rep team, or traveling team, has been formed.
“There always was a handful of girls here who played hockey,” said Leonetti, who spent most of his life coaching boys until all-girls teams were formed last year.
The difference between young boys and girls, he explains, is girls are more serious and mature.
More mature, perhaps, but lagging behind in physical strength and stick handling. Many of the girls have played for less than three years.
“My brothers played and I didn’t like figure skating,” said Brandi Barnes, a 15-year-old sophomore at Riverside High School. “I just thought hockey would be more fun.”
Barnes is one of a few veterans, introduced to skating at age 2. The left wing used to play on boys teams. She also commuted to Seattle with a handful of girls who competed against other girls in the state.
Currently, she is on one of the house-league teams plus the rep team, both of which play and practice at Eagles Ice-A-Rena, Riverfront Park or the Arena.
The house teams play 15 games a season while the rep team plays close to 20 with travel dates in the British Columbia towns of Trail, Cranbrook, Castlegar and Penticton.
Spokane’s rep team will play in an all-girls tournament in Penticton on Jan. 20-21 and will host an invitational at the Ice-A-Rena Feb. 9-11.
However, most of the competition is closer to home against boys from the local hockey association.
The general sentiment is that they prefer playing against boys.
“The boys are just more competitive,” said Gonzaga Prep freshman Melissa Erkel, 15, who used to play on boys teams.
“Part of the fun of it is getting hurt,” added Erkel, whose father, Tim, along with Monica Morrow, also coaches the rep team.
And another part of the fun has been seeing the progress.
Earlier this month, the girls house team No. 2 defeated a Pee Wee boys team (ages 11-13). Just a few days later, the rep team downed another Pee Wee boys team.
“Sizewise, the girls pretty much dominate,” Leonetti explained. “And it’s still a fact that the boys dominate hockey, but it’s going to change. It is changing.”
Changing, and always welcoming newcomers.
Until hockey came along, Megan Frison devoted a lot of her time to barrel racing, where her success has been outstanding. Frison, a 15-year-old Central Valley High School sophomore, has since become a two-sport athlete.
“She’s real aggressive in everything she undertakes,” said Megan’s mother Susan, while watching her daughter’s rigorous rep team workout at Eagles. “And they’ve really formed a bond.”
The league is open to girls, ages 12-19. For those interested, contact the association at 327-7383.
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