Olympians give back to girls’ hockey
Olympians share skills, stories with 200 young players
Young players came face-to-face Sunday with some on-ice heroes,
Bright eyed and full of excitement, young hockey players spent Sunday training at Scotiabank Place and had the chance to meet their hockey heroes.
The Scotiabank Girls HockeyFest attracted more than 200 players aged seven to 12 for a day of practice, prizes and learning the importance of working as part of a team.
Former Team Canada hockey players and two-time Olympic gold medallists Cassie Campbell-Pascall and Sami Jo Small coached the girls on the ice and gave speeches to inspire a new generation of female athletes.
Campbell-Pascall said she was grateful for the support women’s hockey receives today.
“It’s amazing what hockey can do, especially for girls,” she said.
When Campbell-Pascall, 39, was growing up, there were no girls hockey teams; the sport was not often considered an option for young women. Campbell-Pascall said her parents first enrolled her in figure skating, but, wanting to be like her older brother, she asked to play hockey. Soon she was the only girl playing on a boys team.
In her keynote speech to the young hockey players, Campbell-Pascall said her first team didn’t realize she was a girl until the swimming party at the end of the year.
“The little boys were like, ‘Uh, Cass, what are you doing? You’ve got the wrong bathing suit on.’” But it never bothered her teammates that she was a girl, she said.
Campbell-Pascall also noted how much hockey had changed since she was a kid.
“I thank my parents for allowing me to play at a time when it really was not cool for girls to play.”
Today, she said, it was easy to get a couple hundred players out to the Girls HockeyFest, now in its ninth year in Ottawa.
“It just blows my mind away about how much it has grown.”
Small spoke about the importance of being a good teammate, recounting her decision to push her own feelings of crushing disappointment aside when her coaches told her the night before the gold medal game at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City that they had decided to put Kim St-Pierre in net instead of her.
“In life you don’t always get to choose the role you play, but you always get to choose how you play it.”
Small told the young players that she decided she needed to keep a positive attitude and support her teammates even though she was upset.
Later, Small said she continues to promote hockey for girls and women because hockey had been so important in her life.
“It’s so rewarding to see young girls be able to play,” she said. “I had such an amazing opportunity through sport and it taught me so much about myself.”
Small said that girls’ team sports — not just hockey — need to be supported and encouraged because they build children’s confidence, teach teamwork and can set the foundations for lifelong friendships.
Paige Knight, 10, a forward for the Nepean Fireballs, said she hopes to move up into a competitive division next year.
“It’s my favourite sport,” she said. “Plus, you get to meet friends and it’s really fun.”
Nisrene Darwiche, 9, who started playing hockey just five months ago for the Fireballs, said she also enjoys playing because it is fun. Knight, Darwiche and their teammates said they hoped to pick up some new skills at the HockeyFest to help their team improve.
“I learned that you always have to believe in your team and that you always have to believe in yourself. Never give up,” Darwiche said.