Vancouver, BC

Girls Ice Hockey was on the list of winter sports when I entered grade 8. However, that year there was no sponsor and no ice time. We persisted and in grade 9 ice hockey once again became a reality - that was four years ago. I have been a member of the team since that initial call for interested girls to meet, and I vividly remember the first day we received our "equipment" and how excited I was! I walked home with well-used skates, shoulder pads and the works all stuffed into a Glad garbage bag which in the end, was not as tough as the ads lead you to believe. My slivered stick was my pride and joy for two years running until my friends bought me a new one for my birthday.
Equipment trials and tribulations aside (for John Oliver has many), hockey has been a wonderful sport. Although I, like many of my teammates, have participated on a variety of athletic teams each school year, hockey is the best. Upon reflection, it was a new challenge - a huge challenge since I could barely skate and had minimal skill level that first season. Being out on the ice with everyone while our first coach spent endless hours teaching us how to fall, how to get up and finally how to handle the puck, we emerged as a team. Believe it or not, we earned the silver medal for Vancouver city that year. More importantly we learned that with hard work we could succeed!

Hockey, like other team sports, is a great way to learn how to work together to reach a common goal. Our team has always tried hard, and I know I have always striven for my personal best while having a lot of fun in the process. My goal this year is for our team to be in medal contention at the end of the season. We have done this before and if we practice hard we can do it again. Since this is my senior year, I hope the incoming girls will share the enthusiasm and passions that I have for the sport.

With the Nike Girls@Play MVP grant, our team will be able to purchase some much-needed equipment. We have been limited by the lack of equipment available. Even if we could only purchase enough second-hand equipment to outfit one more player, that would be one additional year of experience the following season. Wearing our HFC team jerseys (Household Finance has been out of business for many years), perfectly conveys the age of our equipment. This has been my first year playing with good equipment as the senior players had first choice. In my previous years I know I would have greatly appreciated using equipment without holes and that stayed on properly. Duct tape has become a regular addition to the hockey bag, along with the hope that everything stays together. Luckily those thoughts fade as I, along with my teammates, step out on the ice and give it all we have - our very best as a team.

Sevrika Fisher
Defense
John Oliver Girls Hockey

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