By Don Descoteau
News staff

Sep 05 2007

 

New divisions will see girls train together at a younger age

It’s pre-season hockey skills camp time at Archie Browning Sports Centre and clusters of pre-teen players are gathered on the ice and in the upstairs lounge.

While these days it’s difficult to tell a player’s gender, even if long hair is spilling from their helmet, it’s clear there are more than a few young girls here.

That’s by design, according to Victoria Minor Hockey Association president Annalyn Richardson. While some of the girls may suit up and hit the ice on integrated teams mainly stocked with boys their age, others will be playing on girls-only teams.

Victoria Minor is the first Lower Island association to introduce girls-only hockey in the initiation (age 5-6) and novice (age 7-8) divisions. There’s only one team in each division, but as Richardson pointed out, the goal is not so much to have games to play.

“The hockey is kind of a secondary skill. It’s the team thing and the skating (that are stressed),” she said.

In expanding from five to eight female-only teams, the association is grooming more young players to be ready for the transition to competitive hockey, if they choose to try out for such teams when they’re older, she added.

“We’re going after girls who would never have thought of playing hockey,” Richardson said, noting that some girls simply would rather play with their peers than boys.

Third-year player Olivia Alexander, 9, isn’t necessarily one of them.

“I play lacrosse and I was the only girl all the time,” she said.

Richardson’s daughter Kiki, 9, played on the Victoria Breakers Pee Wee (age 11-12) competitive team last season as an eight year old, but also played Novice with the boys. This year she’s trying out for an Atom boys A team to increase her challenge, but admitted she enjoyed being on an all-girls team.

“We had much more in common. Last year Olivia and me were the only girls on our team,” Kiki said.

During practices it was a frequent sight to see the two girls off in the corner passing back and forth, Richardson said.

While Victoria is the lone association of seven on the South Island with an all-girls program in the youngest two age groups, other associations have teams in Atom (age 9-10), Pee Wee and Bantam (age 13-14) to give the Victoria girls some local competition.

Previously, girls around the region were funnelled into an 8-12 age group.

Giving young girls more opportunities to play hockey together was proven to be a winning idea after Victoria Minor this summer hosted the Dreams Come True camp, a program targeted at children whose families might not have the wherewithal to put them into hockey.

Of the 15 girls who participated, 13 signed up for the upcoming season, numbers that helped beef up the female section of the association.

With more chances for girls to play together at a younger age are offered – her hope is more associations will make the same move soon – and access to quality coaching is ensured, there may well be some hidden gems emerge in the realm of girls hockey.