Feature Story

Girls’ hockey – A wonderful venue

 

By John Russo

Let’s Play Hockey Columnist

 

I’ve watched recently as some of the so-called sports press that “prey on the negative” have taken a shot at girls’ high school hockey in general for one bad incident that is truly an extreme oddity in this now well-developed portion of our great game. Girls’ hockey is really an example of skill and movement that the boys’/men’s game only has at times. This is not a criticism of boys’/men’s hockey. I love all parts of our sport. I just think the desire to violently “run into” other players is likely a testosterone-related activity that girls’ games just don’t have — and don’t even really allow. It makes the girls’ game unique. 

I’ve watched over the past 15 years as girls’ high school hockey has evolved from a sport where nearly anyone who went out for the hockey team won a varsity letter to a sport with numerous players with good skills across the board and enjoyable games to watch as well as play.

Over the past four years, I’ve become even closer to the girls’ game as my wonderful eight-year-old grand-daughter (one of two of the most wonderful grand-daughters in the USA!) has evolved through the mite levels in her association. She has the same love of the game that her father and I have. I’ve learned some things from her “view” of the game.

When I coached at Blake and ran the Russo Hockey Training Programs (now dormant), I saw the top girl hockey players and came to respect their approach to the game. They are slightly less intense and focused on hockey at times (at the high school level) than the boys. I think their intensity and focus is healthy and OK. They are a much different group to coach for that reason — in all sports. They are also different to parent and grandparent than boys, so nothing new there.

There was a time that choosing to coach “girls” might have “doomed” (correct word?) a coach from ever coaching “boys” again. I think that time has passed. There are many very good, even great, girls’/women’s coaches around now that could coach at any level. Check out Mark Johnson (University of Wisconsin) for example. He could move back and be a boys’/men’s coach at any level at any time, in my opinion.

The other high school example I’d like to focus on in this column is Rob Little of Breck High School. Rob was a very successful boys’ high school assistant and head coach at Breck, St. Louis Park and Edina for about 15 years, then took over a meager girls varsity program at Breck a few years back. He started with a team that struggled to win against the more competitive teams like perennial power Blake. 

Over the years, he was able to mold a broad-based team into one that has finally beaten Blake in his section (first time in 27 tries) and will be one of the favorites at this year’s state tournament.  I had the privilege of being Rob’s assistant for three years (boys’ teams) where I found some of my current coaching philosophies and strategies. 

I talked to Rob about the current state of high school hockey —both boys’ and girls’. He said that the biggest difference between them is that the girls are much more oriented toward “enjoying the moment” as he put it. They waste little time worrying about what they will be doing in hockey next year or three years from now — as many of the top boys do. 

“The girls aren’t trying to get ahead of themselves; they truly enjoy the social and participation aspects of the sport, more than the boys,” he commented. 

I asked him if this maybe helped the girls actually enjoy the sport more. His response was that they “have a different perspective – hockey is a ‘smaller piece of the person’ as it were,” than for the boys. He couldn’t say they actually enjoyed it more — just differently.

I also asked him what the biggest change has been in coaching girls over the past 10 years.  He said, “A team with one or two stars can’t walk through other teams anymore. Girls’ teams are now broader based — there are more well skilled (not necessarily outstanding) players now.” 

Rob utilized three lines and five defensemen on a regular rotation all season, including the Blake game. “I have many players that can compete with top players on the other teams — isn’t that fantastic?” 

Coaching girls, then, has become a little tougher, really.  In the “old days,” a coach could let two or three stars loose and they could score three, four, five goals a game to win. It is nearly impossible to do that anymore. Coaches have to focus on their whole team.

Girls feel just as competitive during games, but they “let go more easily” between games. Some of that may be due to the fact that many girl hockey players play and often excel at one or two other sports. 

I asked Rob for an example of a “good story” player on his team. He named his captain Sarah Johnson. She is a senior with an “A” average that has been at Breck since kindergarten — and has played hockey since the fifth grade. She is also a varsity soccer player. She is the “very good” broad-based player that Rob described. She has worked at it and loves hockey but will likely play only at the intramural level in college. She has looked at all of the schools she is interested in and they really don’t fit for varsity hockey for her. There is no doubt that she could play varsity at many Division III schools, but Sarah is not willing to let hockey rule her choices. A “gamer” in Rob’s words, and making good decisions about her future.

Breck’s leading scorer, Ellen Swintkowski, will likely go on to play college hockey, by the way — but also likely at a Division III Eastern school that has “really great” academic programs. Rob indicated that he “enjoys coaching the girls just as much as he did the boys,” which answered another one of my questions. He indicated that he enjoys the girls’ game competitiveness, but very much also appreciates the fact that hockey is not the end all for them. Their outlook is “very healthy” as he puts it.

So my look at girls’ hockey finds a good, solid, healthy sport. Our wonderful sport is being enjoyed by girls and boys and by the coaches in both venues. Girls’ hockey has matured but its players have maintained a balanced outlook.

 

John Russo, Ph.D., is founder and director of the Upper Midwest High School Elite League. He was a captain at the University of Wisconsin, and his Coaches’ Corner columns have appeared in LPH since 1986.