Is Women's Hockey good for women's hockey?
The Battle of the Border event hit Dawson Creek, B.C. last week. It featured a game between the Calgary Oval X-treme Women’s hockey team (loaded up with Canadian Olympians) and the U.S Selects Women’s hockey team (loaded up with American Olympians). As part of the event, the players sat down with local female hockey players for the Hero’s Lunch. While eating their lasagna, ceasar salad and red and white jellybeans, the women told the young players of a time when there was no Women’s Hockey. When they had to lace-up with the boys and hold their own in the corner. How nice it is, the Olympians cheered, that today’s young players can experience Women’s Hockey right from their first T-push.
But once I overcame the thrill of seeing a room full of athletes for a sport that hadn’t existed until recently, I began to wonder if having girls play with girls was really helping the sport? There are 17 Olympic medalists between the two Battle of the Border teams, all of whom began playing hockey before there was such a thing as Women’s Hockey. Most started playing with boys until they got old enough to qualify for the elusive Under-22 teams. So, if playing with boys and honing their skills amidst testosterone filled locker rooms made those girls into Olympic gold-clad women, maybe we shouldn't rush to segregate the sexes.
It’s a pretty common coaching tool to have less talented athletes compete with and against more talented athletes, as a way for them to step-up their game. The Canadian Women’s hockey team did this before Turino in '06. During their training, they played teams that could really push them, teams that could challenge them, and better still, teams that could beat them. Those teams, were boys teams. And I don’t mean men’s teams. I mean teams of 17-year-olds. And the Canadian Women’s team only had a 50/50 record against them. So if growing up on boys teams made these women the best Women’s hockey players in Canada; and competing against boys teams vaulted the women into Olympic champions, why would we be excited about taking boys out of the mix?
We need the boys in girls hockey if for no other reason than there simply aren't enough girls in hockey to foster a completely competitive environment. It's true that after every Olympic Winter Games, girl's hockey registration spikes. This is good for the sport. Unless it means more access to female-only leagues and less access to the boys who toughen up the girls - enabling them to elbow their way to the top. As a nation, our strong hockey genes began in the men's game. The men are Canada's competitive edge - like a legal performance-enhancing substance. Let's not rush to ostracize the very thing that makes our girls faster, stronger, better and golden.
