WOMEN-IN-HOCKEY Digest 218

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: Provincial Championships
	by email@hidden (Louise C. Mallory)

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Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 23:39:08 -0400
From: email@hidden (Louise C. Mallory)
To: email@hidden, Subscribers to 
Subject: Re: Provincial Championships
Message-ID: 

At 2:08 PM 4/15/96, George Boccanfuso wrote:
>Just finished my daughter's atom 'A' OWHA provincial championship
>weekend. It
>was great as usual, especially since her team won gold. It is great how
>you can catch alot of hockey of different ages all in one weekend. I hope
>it stays much the same format as girls/womens hockey grows. But then
>again I may be dreaming; since I am already set to go to Ottawa for other
>daughter's OWHA provincial championships.

Congratulations to your Atom daughter, and best of luck to your other daughter.

Comparison of American and Canadian terms:  Canadian Peewee is 13& under.
(Ontario also has provincial championships for 11&under and 9&under.)  USA
Hockey's national championships for female hockey include 15&under,
19%under, and Senior.  There are about as many female teams registered in
all of USA Hockey as there are in the OWHA.

>What might be the next step would be to some how arrange National titles
>for some of the younger ages (maybe down to Peewee A level)??

This would be complicated and expensive, and I'm not sure the benefits to
female hockey would outweigh the problems.

In Ontario Senior AA, the provincial championship is held mid-February, in
order to select the winning team early enough to prepare for Nationals.
But in Senior AA, they don't need regional playdowns.  Imagine how early in
the season you'd need to close registration, and how early you'd need to
begin the regional playdown process, in order to select a provincial
champion by February.

I think it's clear that recent interprovincial competitions such as the
Under-18 Championship and the Canada Winter Games (both involving
provincial select teams, rather than club teams) have encouraged the other
provinces to expand their female hockey programs for teenagers.  These
select-team events also give the young elite players exposure to selection
camps, good quality coaching, and a chance to play with new teammates at
their own level.  Those are all benefits for female hockey.

However, as a supporter of female hockey for all girls and women, I also
see the detrimental effects of too much emphasis on trying to win
provincial championships, and I worry that such problems would be
exacerbated if age-group club teams were able to compete for national
championships.  In one hockey organization I know, they had enough
Novice-age girls for two teams this year.  They divided them by ability.
The better team was competitive against the local boys' teams they played
against, and enjoyed success in tournaments and in the OWHA provincial
championships.  But the beginners on the other team had a very discouraging
year; they lost by large scores to both the boys' teams they played on a
regular basis, and to the only other OWHA Novice C team within driving
distance.  (They did win one game in March, against an Initiation Program
group.)  Can that organization point to their trophies and count their
Novice program a success?  I think not.  Many of the beginners on that
losing team did not enjoy their first year of hockey enough to continue,
because the organization divided them by ability in order to have one
winning team.  When local organizations lose sight of the goal of providing
a positive hockey experience for all their members, that hurts female
hockey.


Louise

*       Louise                                                        *
*  "No-one said it would be easy; no-one thought we'd come this far." *
*                                                  -Sheryl Crow       *



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End of WOMEN-IN-HOCKEY Digest 218
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