From women-in-hockey-bounces+women-in-hockey-archive=email@hidden Tue Jan 13 15:57:12 2004
Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i0DNrd2q024683
	for ; Tue, 13 Jan 2004 15:53:40 -0800 (PST)
Received: from imo-m06.mx.aol.com (imo-m06.mx.aol.com [64.12.136.161])
	by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i0DNqk1l024661
	for ;
	Tue, 13 Jan 2004 15:52:47 -0800 (PST)
Received: from email@hidden
	by imo-m06.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v36_r4.12.) id t.d1.302eeb8 (2168)
	for ;
	Tue, 13 Jan 2004 18:52:41 -0500 (EST)
From: email@hidden
Message-ID: 
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 18:52:41 EST
To: email@hidden
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: 8.0 for Windows sub 6021
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.2+
Subject: Article from Star Tribune pasted in e-mail
X-BeenThere: email@hidden
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2+
Precedence: list
List-Id: A mailing list for women who play hockey and people involved in
	women's hockey  
List-Unsubscribe: , 
	
List-Post: 
List-Help: 
List-Subscribe: , 
	
Sender: women-in-hockey-bounces+women-in-hockey-archive=email@hidden
Errors-To: women-in-hockey-bounces+women-in-hockey-archive=email@hidden
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by plaidworks.com id i0DNrd2q024683

Hockey moms 


By Kim Palmer
Star Tribune Staff Writer

     They shoot, they score!
     They also drive in car pools, cheer from chilly bleachers and wash
stinky jerseys. They're Minnesota hockey moms, and increasingly they're
not just supporting their offspring, but taking to the ice themselves.
     Some are seasoned players who years ago - even decades - first
heard the call of the puck  before organized programs for girls became
widespread. Others are recent converts who decided to get in touch with
their inner Gretzky after seeing the fun their kids were having.
     ``I just love it,'' said Cheryl Doshan, 48, of Minnetonka, mother
of a Peewee-level son. ``It's the only sport where every pore of your
body sweats. It's such a high!''
     The Women's Hockey Association of Minnesota (WHAM) listed 54 adult
women's teams last year, almost double the number in 1997. But teams are
only part of the picture. Rookie clinics for women, some complete with
day care, are popping up at some arenas.
     When girls' and college women's hockey took off in the 1990s, it
helped inspire a generation of women who missed out during their youth,
said Lynn Olson, WHAM's director. ``It gave us publicity with moms.''
gf118t`Chicks With Sticks'
     With the voice of a benevolent drill sergeant, Mike Curti is
coaching skaters on the fine points of passing.
     ``Remember, ladies, this is not a putting green,'' he booms.
``This is a hockey rink. At the hockey rink, you pass the puck hard. I'm
seeing a lot of this,'' he added, demonstrating a wild baseball swing.
``It looks like you're throwing a bale of hay over your head.''
     Curti, a veteran youth coach, started a twice-weekly women's
clinic at ``the Pond'' (the Harold J. Pond Sports Center in Mound) about
two years ago. He was inspired, he said, by his wife's enthusiasm for
hockey once she tried it. ``She said, `I feel so cheated that I never
had a chance to play this game. It's such a blast.' '' So during youth
hockey signup, he tried to recruit some moms,  as well.
     ``Initially, it took a little arm-twisting,'' he said. ``We had
maybe five people. Then everyone started talking.'' Soon there were 35
or 40.
    The ``Chicks With Sticks,'' some of whom wear jerseys designed by
Curti, represent a range of skill levels, from rookies to women who play
on teams. They include Kathleen Wragg-Baker, 47, a Mound resident who
raised three hockey players (twin daughters and a son), and is now in
her fifth season playing with the Orono Lakers.
     She signed up for the clinic to get extra ice time and some tips.
``When you start out, you're trying so hard to learn,'' she said.
``We're old chicks now, and we're still learning.'' Hockey helps her
stay in shape, she added.  ``I've lost so much weight, my pants don't
stay up,'' she said, extending her breezers for emphasis.
     Some of the women use their kids' castoff equipment. Wragg-Baker
is wearing her son's old kneepads, ``nice holey ones,'' she said with a
laugh. ``And if you have a small foot, you can buy boys' skates. They're
less expensive.''
     Doshan took up hockey about a year ago and loves it so much she
can't help regretting her late start. ``My whole family is from Canada,
so I feel like it's in my blood,'' she said. But there wasn't any hockey
for girls when she was growing up. In fact, there were no organized
sports, period. ``My husband didn't believe it. So I pulled out my
yearbook. Not one sport for women. It's so unfair. I think I would have
been a really good player.''
     Curti spends the first 45 minutes of each clinic on drills, then
allows a half-hour for scrimmage ``to let them cut loose,'' he said.
     On this day, Doshan cuts a little too loose, and Curti sends her
to the penalty box for tripping, which elicits hooting laughter from her
rinkmates. Curti doesn't call a lot of penalties, he said later. ``But
that one was so flagrant.''
     The rapport and good-natured ribbing that the women share make it
fun to coach them, he said. Plus, they listen a little better than their
kids do.
``And they don't push in line,'' Curti said. ``If they bump into each
other, they're very apologetic. Little girls who played from the get-go
are as aggressive as the boys. But some of the ladies are real
tentative. I don't know if you ever overcome that.''
gf118tRicher experience
     Another women's-only clinic started several weeks ago at the
Plymouth Ice Center, led by longtime youth coach John Bazzachini.
     Grown-up students pose unique coaching challenges, Bazzachini
agrees. ``When you're teaching young kids, verbal instruction goes in
one ear and out the other,'' he said. ``With moms, they can
conceptualize easier. But a young kid isn't afraid to fall down. That
holds [moms] back.''
     Mothers who learn to play have a deeper understanding of what
their kids are doing on the ice - and how difficult it can be,
Bazzachini said. ``Playing makes their experience richer.''
     Curti agreed. ``The moms say they now have more respect for what
their kids do. They don't yell so much.''
      gf118tThe veterans
     It's early afternoon on a recent Tuesday, and wet snow is falling
heavily enough to slow traffic around the Roseville arena. But that
doesn't deter the women hauling hockey bags out of their cars and
heading inside for the weekly women's open skate.
     These are skilled players, most of whom play on teams. Some, like
Mary Rothchild, 46, a state college administrator, are working women who
skate over their lunch break. ``My secretary knows I take one lunch a
week - this is it,'' said Rothchild. ``People work out at gyms [over
lunch]. This is my exercise.''
     Other regulars include Emily Sherman, 47, a St. Paul real estate
agent who remembers playing pregnant, and later putting her baby in the
penalty box while she practiced. She also helped to get girls' hockey
sanctioned in school districts. There's also Marlene Brodt, 57, a Falcon
Heights grandmother who raised five hockey-playing children, including
Winnie and Chelsey of Gopher fame; and  Sue Ring-Jarvi, 52, of Anoka,
mother of a varsity-level son and a hockey pioneer who started a women's
club team at the University of Minnesota. She recently was named to the
Gopher Sports Hall of Fame.
     ``I've always been hard-core,'' Ring-Jarvi said. ``I play
year-round. At my age, if I take too much time off, I'll be hurting.''
     Just this year, she dropped from the A to the B1 level, with mixed
feelings. Her former team has won both the state tournament, held in
March, and the national tournament four years in a row. Last year they
finished third at both. ``I wanted to win one more,'' she said.
``Honestly, I think I could still compete at A. But I am slower. Soon,
down the road, my teammates would be annoyed. And my friends were ready
to move down; I've played with them for 29 years.''
     The senior skater is Ring-Jarvi's mom, Jane Ring, who still plays
twice weekly at age 78. Ring played on a B1 (upper-level) team as
recently as two years ago, although she admits ``I was not quite B1
caliber'' by the time she quit. Her favorite hockey memory remains the
first time she tried the game, 30 years ago. ``It was just
exhilarating!'' She shares her love of the sport by sponsoring, with her
husband, a girls' hockey scholarship.
     There's no checking in women's hockey, but most of the women wear
full protective gear. ``I've taken some hits,'' Ring-Jarvi said. ``When
I started, I didn't wear shin guards or elbow pads.'' But after
separating her shoulder - twice - and spraining her knee, ``I'm a lot
more protective. Now I wear everything.''
     The talk in the locker room ranges from a little proud bragging
about their kids' recent games to admiring new equipment, specifically
Ring's Minnesota Wild gloves. The gloves were a gift from team owner Bob
Naegele Jr., after he spotted her photo, and her beat-up gloves, in a
foundation newsletter. ``They looked pretty pathetic,'' Ring-Jarvi
said.
     Nancy McDonald, 46, of New Brighton, who grew up on Turtle Lake
with three older hockey-playing brothers, is one of the few women her
age who had an opportunity to play as a youth. ``In '74, we were the
first-ever midget champs,'' she said. She remembers some of the fathers
trying to switch their daughters' interest to ``ringette,'' a kinder,
gentler hockey alternative. And she remembers her reaction: ``I said,
`I'm not going to play a sport that ends in `ette,' ''
     McDonald, who now has three daughters and a son who play,
rediscovered the joy of playing herself about seven years ago. She's
improved her game since, rising from the C2 level to B1.
     Rothchild, too, has steadily honed her skills since she began
playing five years ago. ``Sue [Ring-Jarvi] was my mentor,'' she said.
``Sue could have been one of the Olympic Miracle on Ice''-type skaters
if opportunities for women had existed when she was young. ``I think we
all wish we were 20 years younger,'' Rothchild said.
     Ring-Jarvi does wonder sometimes about what might have been. ``You
can't help but think about it,'' she said while taking a quick break on
the bench. ``But I have a great life. I have had a ball. Everything I
wanted to do, I organized myself. You don't develop as much; you don't
have the coaching or the ice time, but there were no rules.'' And with
that, she smiled and skated  back onto the ice.

_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Women-in-hockey mailing list      (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/women-in-hockey/email@hidden

This email sent to email@hidden