With the onset of shorter days and cooler temperatures, more and more Kitchener girls are finding their way into arenas all over town. Not only does September bring a renewed thirst for reading, writing and arithmetic, it also drives a passion for skates, sticks and ice.
Women’s Hockey has enjoyed more than two decades of success, both nationally and internationally. Names like Cassie Campbell, Haley Wickenheiser, and newly inducted Hockey Hall of Famer Angela James, are becoming cemented in a culture that is truly embracing “The Game” itself.
There are few, if any, greater examples of the passion and purity of hockey then the very beginning of Competitive Women’s Hockey. The Kitchener Lady Rangers have been giving girls as young as five the opportunity to represent their City, and has been rewarded with a great deal of success. In the last two years alone the team, made up of 6, 7, and 8 year old girls, has brought home 5 tournament Gold Medals, 4 tournament Silver Medals, a OWHA Provincial Title (2010), and has placed a plaque bearing the Kitchener Lady Rangers name in the Hockey Hall of Fame (Silver Stick Brighton 2011).
With enrollment exceeding visibility, it is important to keep Women’s Hockey at the forefront. Television and Ticket sales continue to grow throughout the country, new leagues continue to sprout, and this desire should be encouraged to thrive.
Any misconceptions or misguided stereotypes are quick to disappear when these Belles in Blue take to the ice. The speed, fury and the action of hard working Kitchener Hockey beats in the hearts of each and every one of these young ladies. It is almost as though Hockey instinct and awareness has been bred into them. That they arrive in this world with Game Faces on.
However in Kitchener it is more the Nurture than Nature. KMHA has worked endlessly to integrate rather than segregate the girls program from the boys. The uniforms are the same, the play books are the same and the goal is the same. Represent plus Respect equals Reward. Knowing that you always have a City behind you is a terrific motivator and it is not lost on even the very young.
The excitement around the rinks this time of year is palatable, the hunger, the drive, the highs and the lows are all proudly felt by the old and the young and most importantly by the boys and the girls. They are all Kitchener Rangers and we wish them all a successful 2011-2012 campaign.