By David J. Hill<br><a href="mailto:hilld@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail David</a>
Ashley Bennett fell in love with ice hockey in eighth grade, after she attended — and loved every minute of — a week-long, eight-hour-a-day camp at Leisure Rinks.
The next year, as a freshman at Kenmore West High School, Bennett and her friend Amanda Gabryszak began approaching teachers and administrators about the prospect of starting a girls varsity ice hockey team. Their hope was that they’d be able to skate for that team by their senior year. Today, the two seniors, along with approximately 18 other girls in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda district, will get that chance — sort of.
At 5:30 p.m., they’ll don used Ken-Ton boys club team jerseys and face off on the Olympic Rink at the Amherst Pepsi Center against a girls team from the Williamsville school district.
Their game precedes a slew of four boys WNY Varsity Federation games. While it won’t count in any standings, nor will it have any playoff or championship implications, today’s game will go a long way toward fulfilling a dream of hundreds of high school-aged female hockey players — the creation of a Western New York varsity league for girls.
Girls ice hockey at the scholastic level is still relatively new in New York state, but the push is on now to provide girls in this area the same opportunity that has existed for boys for two decades, and it’s gaining more momentum than a Cammi Granato wrist shot.
Over the past several years, parents and female hockey players across the region, banding together under the name “Girls 4 Varsity Ice Hockey,” have lobbied their school officials to support a girls varsity league.
Hockey as a varsity sport for boys has existed since the formation of the Federation league in 1990. The league has expanded each year and now includes 24 teams.
With no high school league for females, girls like Bennett have to join travel or house organization teams, or play with the boys. Bennett started this season playing on a Buffalo Regals boys house team but has since transferred to an all-girls squad.
To bring more notoriety to its cause, Girls 4 Varsity Ice Hockey developed a series of five “showcase” games at the Amherst Pepsi Center. The series concludes with today’s Ken-Ton/Williamsville contest.
“The girls want their chance,” said Bill Pavone, a Ken-Ton parent who has spearheaded district parents’ efforts to join the league and whose daughter, Laura, who competes in the Great Lakes Girls Hockey League, will play tonight. “A lot of them play on travel teams in different leagues, but when it comes to this, they’re high-fiving each other and having a great time. They’re pioneers in playing on their school team, even though this is technically an intramural level. Still, you see their emotions and everything, it’s just great,” he said.
Bennett will have mixed emotions about tonight’s game. On the one hand, she gets to play for the Ken-Ton team, but on the other, she’ll graduate without having played in a girls varsity league that she fought so hard for throughout her high school career. “It’s a little bittersweet, but mostly it’s exciting at this point,” she said.
Getting started
The regional movement toward forming a girls varsity league began several years ago, when a contingent of parents in Williamsville started making their case before that district’s board of education.
With numbers on their side, the group’s pleas were heard. In December 2008, Williamsville Athletics Director Jim Russin met with ADs in other local districts to discuss the prospects of forming a league. Some of the ADs decided to OK the idea, provided that at least five districts could field a team to start.
Immediately, Williamsville was on board with two squads. Then, Monsignor Martin Athletic Association schools pledged their support and a combined Catholic schools team coalesced.
Also in December 2008, Pavone spoke during a Ken-Ton Board of Education meeting to petition the district to offer its support. Armed with USA Hockey-supplied data, Pavone later met with Ken-Ton Athletics Director Brett Banker and Superintendent Mark Mondanaro and showed them just how many girls in the region play ice hockey — approximately 800 in Section VI, the high school league that comprises Western New York. Soon after, Ken-Ton became the third district to commit to a girls league. Banker’s athletics department budget for next school year will include funding for a girls hockey team.
Its supporters remain optimistic that a girls league will be in operation next school year, as several larger districts — Frontier, West Seneca and Lancaster, among others — appear close to committing. Several districts in Niagara County also are considering fielding a team. “We think this is going to happen, we’re just waiting for the fourth and fifth schools to come on board,” Pavone said. “We think it’ll be a domino effect after that.”
Cost and competition
As is often the case with adding a new sport, some districts are waiting to see how spring budget deliberations unfold before determining whether they can support girls hockey in subsequent years. The estimated cost of a team is $24,000, including jerseys and equipment. The league would handle ticket sales, security and scoring officials.
Despite that figure, there are ways to reduce the cost, Pavone said. For starters, Girls 4 Varsity Ice Hockey will conduct a fundraiser during the Buffalo Auto Show beginning Wednesday. The event will include a hockey shootout, raffles and other prizes.
In addition, numerous volunteers have offered their help, including the Ken-Ton teachers — Lisa Siegel and Sara Colombo — who will coach the team.
“It’s not really the burden a lot of people think it could be,” Pavone said of the cost.
Another key element is the quality of competition. School systems across the area would be reluctant to support a girls league if the level of play resembled that of a junior varsity level. That’s not the case, Pavone says.
Not only have the four previous showcase games been well-attended, they’ve also featured good end-to-end action, crisp passing and solid goaltending, despite the fact that some of the clubs, including Ken-Ton’s, have had only one full team practice thus far, he said.
Other factors include the league’s sustainability, and the potential problem of finding enough ice time at local rinks for even more clubs while the boys league continues its expansion.
Sustainability was a key concern for Banker, the Ken-Ton AD. He’s reassured by the fact that the bulk of the interest in the Ken-Ton girls team is from players in sixth through ninth grades. “It’s OK to start a program, but I don’t want to do it poorly and not be able to sustain the program,” Banker said. “We needed good breadth across age groups, and it appears we have that.”
Banker says he’s “cautiously optimistic” that the league will start next year. “I think districts are re-evaluating things based on the fiscal climate, the governor’s proposed budget and reductions in state aid for schools,” he said. “I think it’s going to be more difficult, but I think that if parents, boosters and school districts work together, there’s a way to do it financially.”
The athletics director also said adding girls hockey to the Ken-Ton district makes sense, given the interest level in the region. With the Buffalo Sabres and successful collegiate hockey programs, plus its proximity to Canada, Western New York is a hockey hotbed for both boys and girls.
Enough girls are now playing ice hockey to sustain a varsity league for years to come, Pavone said. The Town of Tonawanda’s house league alone has 25 girls playing with the guys, not to mention all of the other girls who compete on travel teams, such as those in the Great Lakes Girls Hockey League.
In addition, interest is sure to spike among girls with the Winter Olympics soon getting underway, much like interest in girls soccer rose sharply after the U.S. women’s team won the World Cup in 1999.
“Girls are getting into hockey at age 6 and 7,” Pavone said, citing his own daughter as an example. She traded in her dance shoes for hockey skates when she was 7 because she wanted to play hockey like her older brother did.
Young players excited
Kaeli and Brianna Mathias also got into hockey at an early age; in fact, they were 4 when they first started playing. The twins are now eighth-graders at Hoover Middle School and play on the Buffalo Hornets 15-and under girls team.
They’re thrilled by the prospect of playing for their own district next year and, more importantly, with their friends and classmates. “I’ve kind of always wanted to play for the school, but now there’s finally a chance. I’m really excited,” Kaeli said on her way to a Hornets practice.
Brianna and Kaeli also can’t wait to play tonight before a crowd at the Pepsi Center that’s expected to be near 500. “I’ve never played in front of 500 people before,” Kaeli said. “It’s always been a couple people, maybe 50 at the most, at our travel games.”
That excitement might be lost on someone like Ashley Bennett, the Kenmore West senior who won’t get the opportunity to play next year, but she doesn’t see it that way.
While she expects to play club hockey for the Buffalo State College women’s team next winter, she plans on helping out the fledgling Ken-Ton girls squad in any way that she can. She even offered to help coach the team.
And, should a girls varsity league come to fruition next school year, the overwhelming sense of reward in having played a big part in its creation won’t be the only reason for Ashley’s exuberance.
Her younger sister, Kelsey, will be a junior at Ken West and plans on playing on what would be Ken-Ton’s inaugural girls team.
“I’ll probably be the loudest one cheering for her,” Ashley said.
Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.
