Campbell-pascall still inspiring players
A young Cassie Campbellpascall didn’t have a women’s hockey team she could aspire to play for.
An all-girls’ minor team were few and far between.
And there certainly wasn’t an event she could attend like Scotiabank Girls Hockeyfest.
“I went to the Eddie Shack hockey school. My friend and I were the only girls,” Campbell-pascall recalled with a laugh.
“You go to hockey schools and it was predominantly boys and that's just what I knew. It has changed so much now. I used to have to do hockey schools with boys and now girls have the option. I think that’s important to help develop and grow them as individuals.”
The three-time Olympian and hockey legend turned Sportsnet broadcaster turned special advisor to the Professional Women’s Hockey League was the special guest at the Halifax stop of the Girls Hockeyfest at Scotiabank Centre on Sunday.
Over 250 female hockey players aged seven to 16 attended the all-day event. They participated in on-ice drills, off-ice activities and classroom sessions, all under the watchful eye of one of the best hockey players Canada has ever produced.
Since its inception in 2006, the initiative has welcomed over 17,000 female youth hockey players at Girls Hockeyfests across the country, according to a news release. Campbell-pascall has been involved since Day 1.
“I remember when it first started and we struggled to get enough kids,” said the 50-year-old Campbell-pascall. “We were just trying to introduce girls to the game. Girls from ringette were coming over and first-time players and a few girls who were playing boys’ hockey.
“For 18 years, we have travelled all over the country and watched it grow. I still have kids who come up to me and say, ‘I did the Scotiabank Girls Hockeyfest like 10 years ago.’ Unfortunately now we are turning kids away. There are so many young girls playing the game. It’s been amazing. It’s an opportunity for these girls to play on the same ice as the Halifax Mooseheads.
We’ve done it in NHL buildings across the country. We were just in Edmonton and that’s where Connor Mcdavid plays. It’s a pretty special moment for them.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with different companies and done different things but the longevity of this program and the impact it has is the one I’m truly most proud of.”
Emmy Rankin of Dartmouth was excited to be on the ice with Campbell-pascall. The eight-year-old skated with Campbell-pascall over to the players’ bench where Emmy’s dad was watching so she could get a photo with the Order of Canada and Canada Sports Hall of Fame member.
“It was really fun,” Emmy said of her first Hockeyfest. “I liked playing keep away with the puck and I learned how to pass the puck between the defence.
“She’s a good instructor. She told us that each game it’s a tradition to go in the circle and say a good thing about the day. I liked that.”
When she was a kid, Campbell-pascall and her brothers would spend many summers in P.E.I. where her grandmother lived.
Nowadays, she returns to the Island where her 13-yearold daughter Brooke attends the Andrews Hockey Growth Programs. It was Campbellpascall who helped start the women’s program at the renowned hockey school.
“I remember my brother would get to go to the Andrews hockey school but I couldn’t go,” she said. “So, after my first Olympics (the 1998 Nagano Games), I helped them start their first women’s program. It was a full-circle moment for me because it was a hockey school that I wanted to participate in and now my daughter goes every time we're in P.E.I.”
Campbell-pascall, who captained Canada to gold-medal victories at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and four years later in Turin, Italy, stepped away from broadcasting in December to join the fledgling PWHL, the six-team league which launched on Jan. 1. The league’s inaugural game, New York at Toronto on New Year’s Day, reached 2.9 million Canadian television viewers.
Five days later, 13,316 fans attended a Montreal-minnesota game at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. On Feb. 16, the league’s first game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto drew a record crowd of 19,285.
Campbell-pascall said the attendance and viewership numbers provide an early glimpse of the PWHL’S potential.
“I really think we’re going to have a huge growth in the game in North America,” she said. “And I think we’re going to see an influx of European players come over next year, now that they know this league is legit.
“People are watching and you hope a lot of those people are young kids, boys and girls. It’s an opportunity for them to see their heroes on a full-time basis, something we never had before.
“The game is just going to continue to grow in every province and every territory and around the world.”