Girls setting new goals

Women's hockey made an exciting debut at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, inspiring North American girls to lace up hockey skates in rapidly growing numbers.

Hayley Wickenheiser, who has been dubbed the Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey, has become a household name and an inspiration to girls playing hockey.

There was a time when the idea of hearing a sportscaster yell, "She shoots, she scores!" to a global audience of hockey fans seemed as unlikely as a woman becoming Prime Minister of Canada.

Well, the latter happened, briefly, and the Winter Olympics have brought women's hockey to that worldwide audience, or at least to the part of the world that cares about hockey.

Most parts of the hockey-playing world have lagged well behind Canada and the United States in developing the women's game, but the improvements in recent years by China and Russia suggest that the game may be finally evolving into a truly international sport. Meanwhile, the number of North American girls and women playing hockey is soaring, while funding for the sport improves, tournaments and leagues become established and the media shows increasing interest.

The Olympic spotlight and growth of the game
The Olympics have much to do with this heightening interest. First there was the banner day back in 1992 when women's hockey was accepted as an Olympic-level sport. But the real watershed was the Americans' upset of Canada to win the gold medal at women's hockey's debut as a full medal sport at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. The following two years saw a 50 per cent increase in the number of girls and women registered with Hockey USA, and a 40 per cent increase in all-female teams.

In Canada, the inclusion of women's hockey in the Olympics built on the foundation provided by the women's world championships, which were held for the first time in 1990. Over the next decade, women's hockey registration in Canada climbed an estimated 300 per cent.

Of course, evidence of the growing interest is easy enough to find -- from the number of ponytails flying behind helmets at local rinks to information gleaned in chats with any girls' coach or team administrator.

Bev Harper is the president of the board of directors of the London Devilettes, based in London, Ontario. Over the past five years, she's served as team manager and handled public relations for the team before assuming her current position. She says that without a doubt, the sport has grown substantially in that time.

"The profile of women's hockey has definitely increased in the past five years," says Harper. "In our particular area, the number y image,where to play sports, girls self-esteem, girls soccer, girls cycling, girls and nutrition, nutrition for active girls, Canadian Association for women and sport, girls@play, snowboarding, skating, boarding, girl site, sports girl, extreme girl, mountain biking, skateboards, surfboards, X Games">

Harper credits the Olympics and the Olympic level of play with intensifying the interest of girls and young women in the game. Hockey-playing girls "absolutely pay attention to women's Olympic hockey," Harper says.

"There's been much discussion around the arenas about the Canadian women's recent slump versus the Americans, and what that will mean at the Olympics.

"The Devilettes hosted a satellite game of the International Ice Hockey Federation's 2000 Women's World Hockey Championship here in London about two years ago, and it sold out even though the game didn't feature Team Canada."

Household names to girls on skates
While the recognition factor of women hockey players may still be limited to a chosen few, there's no doubt some are becoming household names to girls on skates.

"When you go to tournaments and Cassie Campbell or Hayley Wickenheiser are signing autographs, there's always a crowd," says Harper. "I'm not sure we're at a point yet where they will name a female as their favourite player, but I expect that time will come."

Twelve-year-old Sonja van der Bliek, a goalie for the Toronto East Enders and winner of the Toronto Maple Leafs-sponsored Skills First Challenge (awarded to the over-all female Atom champion goaltender) in 2001, may be typical of young girls in the game. She doesn't profess to have "heroes" as such, male or female, but she loves watching good competitive hockey being played, regardless of who's playing. She does admire good players -- including Sami Jo Small, a Team Canada goalie, whose autograph she has.

Van der Bliek is nothing if not committed, taking part in a couple of practices and playing a couple of games each week, with tournaments on some weekends, as well. While she's quick to point out that she doesn't only live and breathe hockey ("I do have a social life, and I play soccer"), it's obvious that hockey is a big part of her young life, from watching Hockey Night in Canada, to helping her mom's team out on occasion. And she does admit to harbouring big hockey dreams.

"I do hope to try for the Olympic level," she says.

Van der Bliek feels that at her age, the level of play is generally higher on a mixed team, and she is one of two girls on the East Enders. Gender issues seem far less important than playing the best competitive hockey she can. Her biggest frustration? "I never get shutouts," she laughs. "Well, I had one shutout this season."

Women's hockey since the 1890s

For all that the exponential growth of women's hockey has been a creature of the last 10 or 12 years, girls and women have been playing hockey since the 1890s, when the first recorded women's games were played in Ontario. By the 1940s women were well-established in the hockey world, mostly on university teams. But it wasn't until the 1975 that women's hockey became truly organized with the formation of the Ontario Women's Hockey Association -- an organization that continues to grow in profile.

Girls in the United States quickly followed suit, and although there is certainly an intense rivalry between the United States and Canada, there's still a lot of good will between the two -- witness North Carolina's Raleigh Storm's Web site greeting: "Y'all, we do have hockey down here, eh!" Both Canadian and American women's hockey players know well that for the game to continue to grow in popularity and credibility, both sides will have to keep developing more and better players.

It's perhaps even more important that European and Asian countries step up the development of their women's games, as well, to provide more meaningful competition for the North Americans and further enhance the appeal of the game internationally.

But whether the growth and excitement connected to girls playing hockey means we'll see young women in the NHL in the years to come is debatable, although two Canadian women, goaltender Manon Rheaume and forward Hayley Wickenheiser, have practiced with NHL teams. But Bev Harper thinks the game will take women in a new direction.

"There are many girls, mainly in our competitive program, who would like to turn their hockey experience into a university scholarship and perhaps a place on the Canadian national team after that. Now, with the WNHL and the national team being available, I think most females aspire to be part of that, rather than say 10 years ago when they might have hoped to be one of the first females in the NHL."

One thing is for certain. Whether it's in London, Ontario, or Raleigh, North Carolina, female fans on both sides of the border will be tuning in to the Salt Lake Olympics to watch as "she shoots, she scores!"

Reprinted with permission