All geared up and no place to play for women’s hockey league
To the editor:
The folding of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League on April 1 was a sad day for Canadian hockey.
In our Colchester community one of the fastest growth areas in sports is female hockey. I’m sure we are not the only community across Canada experiencing this phenomenon.
We live in a time when there are concerns about young people and too little exercise, too much technology or lack of a work ethic, people skills and self-responsibility.
Many female hockey graduates throughout their hockey careers learned valuable life skills and have become leaders, coaches and volunteers in their communities. There are so many reasons to grow the game at every level and give Canadian female hockey the investment it needs.
The folding of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League is the end of a chapter but not the story. To everyone involved in taking the program to 12 seasons, a very big thank you.
A new direction is required to sustain what has been accomplished, but also to give every Canadian female hockey player the chance to dream big! A new business model, perhaps with team ownership, plus corporations lending their expertise in branding, development of markets and fan engagement could move a league in a quantum leap.
Leadership abilities and the Canadian hockey mosaic are synonymous.
The change agents who can inspire a new vision and work to its completion are out there. All Canadian hockey communities across the nation should be saying, “What can we do to help in this situation?”
Thousands of girls take their first tentative steps on the ice during a Tim Horton’s hockey scrimmage; the high fives, fist pumps and smiles of a female hockey team winning their first provincial championship and the world medals worn by Canadians with so much pride after a challenging competition, embodies the desire and commitment to female hockey.
The Canadian Women’s Hockey League needs our support. Please hurry, thousands await the next chapter.
Debbie Brown,
Truro