Women鈥檚 hockey has gone from a once-every-four-years thing at the Winter Olympics, culminating in a sa国际传媒-U.S. final, to more of a regular feature on the sporting calendar.
The female version of the sport, however, lost a valuable opportunity at exposure this week when the playoffs of the fledgling pro National Women鈥檚 Hockey League in Lake Placid, New York 鈥� which would have been broadcast on NBC 鈥� were cancelled due to the pandemic for the second consecutive year.
But women鈥檚 hockey continues to grow despite that setback. Young girls have been inspired by that growth and in turn are fuelling it. The Capital Region Female Minor Hockey Association, whose teams are nicknamed the Reign, was established as the first all-girls鈥� local league in 2019.
But there is one glaring gap in the broadening of the female game, especially at the youth level. Almost all the girls鈥� youth teams are coached by men. A lot more girls are playing the game but the coaching ranks haven鈥檛 reflected that.
In an effort to rectify that situation, sa国际传媒 Hockey will be conducting the We Are Coaches clinic Feb. 12 via Zoom from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It is a female-coaches only seminar facilitated by female coaches. It will be hosted by player pioneer and former national team assistant coach Nancy Wilson, the first female inducted into the sa国际传媒 Hockey Hall of Fame when she joined Paul Kariya and Mark Recchi in the Class of 2013, and Program of Excellence female coordinator/instructor Whitney Juszkiewicz. The contact is [email protected].
鈥淭he growth of the girls game has been one of the good news stories in hockey,鈥� said sa国际传媒 Hockey CEO Cam Hope of Victoria.
鈥淭he lag has been in female officials and coaches. We need more female coaches moving up the ladder. We are in the early generation of high participation in girls鈥� and women鈥檚 hockey. It might take another generation for women鈥檚 coaching participation [to catch up]. We need to get traction.鈥�
Among those bringing the change is Amelia De Melo, assistant coach of the Victoria Reign U-13 C1 girls鈥� team.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very important for girls to have female coaches, for the role-model aspect alone,鈥� said De Melo, a 21-year-old Camosun criminology student.
Like most female players of her generation, De Melo came up in youth hockey playing on boys鈥� teams in the Juan de Fuca organization. So did Canadian national team blue-liner Micah Zandee-Hart with Peninsula boys鈥� teams.
Rep-level girls later had the female Triple-A Seals and Double-A Royals programs developed for them on the Island, or they joined academy programs, but there was little for house-league female players. Now, girls-only leagues are sprouting across the country for all levels and abilities.
Despite that, De Melo said she still sees mostly males coaching girls in hockey, which is fine, but more of a female presence is also required because it is something to which the players can relate.
鈥淭here is nothing wrong with dads coaching. That鈥檚 OK. But there鈥檚 no harm, in fact there is value, in multiple coaching approaches to girls鈥� hockey [in terms of gender],鈥� said De Melo.
She added she is witnessing a subtle change but it needs to be accelerated.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great to see some females, who graduate from playing hockey return to the game as coaches, but more are needed,鈥� said De Melo, who plans to continue in her coaching development.
Hope concurs.
鈥淭here are women coaches in the system but we need more,鈥� he said.
