Season wraps for only all-girl’s novice hockey team in Montreal

When nine-year-old Olivia finished the hockey season last year, she was ready to hang up her skates. Playing the nation’s favourite sport on a mixed boys team was difficult for the novice-level hockey player.

“It wasn’t fun when I played with the boys. All the boys would just play together and I would be alone all the time,” she said.

Not wanting his daughter to give up on the sport she loves so much, Rick Springhetti made phone calls and got enough players to form the only all-girls novice level hockey team on the island.

Now that the season is wrapping up, he thinks the experiment was a success. “Every player has improved. We’ve lost a lot but we’ve kept up with all the teams we played against,” he said. The Lac-St-Louis Elites rank eighth out of eleven teams in the league with four wins, nine losses and five ties. They played their last game against the Saint-Laurent Sonics on Sunday.

For Springhetti, it’s not about rankings. “The girls are still having a blast. I’ve had parents tell me they want their kids to start. I really firmly believe an all-girls team does make a difference.”

Building bonds

For the girls on the team, the determination in their sport is clear from their commitment on the ice, but they’re not only improving as players. Instead of feeling isolated on a mostly boy’s team, Olivia has 17 new girlfriends. “It’s much more fun because all of the girls like to play together and everybody invites everybody to play,” she said. The girls will often come to practice early to exercise and play together, and are friends off the rink.

Nine-year-old Victoria also prefers to be on an all-girls team. “I feel like I’m not shy and I have more friends,” she said.

Emma was also close to quitting after playing on a mixed team, said her mother, Linda Pizzi. “It’s showed her team work. From the boy’s team I don’t think she was getting that. I think she was feeling excluded and wouldn’t speak up. She’s really shy. She never said one word to her coach last year but now she’s just a chatterbox.”

The eight-year-old’s favourite hockey player is Julie Chu on Les Canadiennes. For Olivia, who wants to be a professional hockey player when she grows up, it’s Carly Hill who is on the same team.

“We read Wikipedia pages about female hockey players for reading time,” said Olivia’s father. The girls also went to a Canadiennes game together for one of the player’s birthdays.

Future

The 18 girls come from across the island, including Lachine, TMR, Verdun, Lasalle, Saint-Laurent and DDO and are born in 2007-2008. There are enough girls to make a team next year, and Springhetti hopes that someone will carry the torch for the female novice team. “Everything started from scratch this year so now it’ll be a lot easier.”

Springhetti sees the all-girls team as part of an evolution in gender roles. “It’s a big win [for females in sports]. If you can play, you can play.”