Ten women started the second half of the Squamish Women's Hockey season with a regular Sunday night game on Jan. 6 wishing they had a few more skaters. But they, along with a few absentees, are making sure the game isn't lost to women 19 and over with weekly match-ups at Brennan Park Arena.
And unlike your average men's or old timer's league, women's puck isn't necessarily meant to thaw out frozen skills from the glory days. For many, the slap shot started in adulthood.
"Growing up I did figure skating," said Cathy Skain. "Women didn't play very much hockey when I was a kid."
Skain has played in the league for the last seven years and has been president for the last two. She started playing hockey at the university intramural level before hanging up the skates for about a decade. After moving to Squamish, she decided it was time to return to the ice. Skain said many of the women in the league didn't start playing hockey until later in life.
"The women in their late 30s and 40s mostly come to hockey late," said Skain. "They see the interest around the women's team when the Olympics are on and they've decided, hey, hockey's something I want to take up.."
Lack of experience didn't keep the Squamish women's team from coming out on top of their division in the two tournaments they entered last year. They won a fall tournament in Sechelt and a winter Masters Tournament for women 30 years and up in Kamloops (to enter, the average age of the players can't be lower than 35).Both Skain and teammate Kelly Doyle were on the traveling team last year. Doyle, who started playing hockey six years ago, said the yearly tourneys are definitely the highlight of the season.Like Skain, Doyle didn't have much of an opportunity to play when she was growing up.
"I always wanted to play hockey but there was never any hockey available my whole life," she said. There's a wide range of skill levels and the local games aren't officiated. But the more informal game-play allows for the inexperienced players to develop, said Skain. The league's two teams are spread out evenly in terms of skill, with the better players helping out the inexperienced.
After years of struggling for reasonable ice times, the women finally have their regular Sunday ice. Now, they're looking to expand with hopes of adding a couple more teams in the future.
It's still not too late to sign up for the second half of the season. A complete season costs $250 for 30 games but newcomers only pay from when they start. To sign up and start skating email [email protected].
