Women’s hockey gets royal treatment it deserves in Peterborough
This can be a column by Shireen Ahmed, who writes opinion for CBC Sports activities. For extra details about CBC’s Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
The Kawartha Lakes area is without doubt one of the most lovely elements of Ontario. I’ve been there tenting with my household and consuming the well-known Kawartha Dairy ice cream. However this previous weekend was my first go to to this college city for hockey — particularly ladies’s hockey. And the joy was palpable.
After I walked into the Peterborough Memorial Centre, the whole area was buzzing. The ice was freshly Zambonied, and there have been individuals of their seats a full hour earlier than puck drop. It’s no shock that Peterborough hockey is a ardour right here; its hockey historical past speaks for itself.
The Peterborough Petes are one of many OHL’s most storied groups and the oldest — created in 1956. They’re additionally the one crew in main junior hockey to be owned by a board of administrators. The Petes are a non-profit group and proudly preserve that possession mannequin. They’re volunteer-based and accountable to the neighborhood. They collaborate with neighborhood companies and companions freely.
I wasn’t shocked once I heard of a collaboration between the Petes and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association. The PWHPA is a corporation that was born when the CWHL folded. The truth that there isn’t a sustainable ladies’s skilled league for hockey, soccer or basketball in Canada is a large downside. We boast among the prime ladies’s gamers on the planet. I’ve argued that supporting Canadian women’s hockey is crucial, and serving to hockey tradition evolve into an anti-oppressive place can be mandatory.
Whereas we have a good time ladies’s hockey, it is very important acknowledge the way wherein the Petes collaborate with numerous neighborhood companies and companies, particularly these they might not have up to now. On the morning of the sport, I met Charmaine Magumbe, the chairperson of the Neighborhood Race Relations Committee of Peterborough.
The daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Magumbe grew up in Toronto as a hockey fan; Darryl Sittler was certainly one of her favorite gamers. She moved to Peterborough together with her household after residing in Zimbabwe for a couple of years. She loves Peterborough and is a valued member of the neighborhood.
Magumbe and I sat at Smitty’s restaurant on George Avenue having pancakes whereas she defined the city’s historical past to me. She instructed me within the 1950’s Peterborough was often called a “sundown city,” which I assumed meant a retirement neighborhood. However what that truly meant was that Black and Indigenous of us weren’t permitted to be seen wherever after darkish. I used to be surprised. I assumed that predominantly occurred within the U.S., however apparently some small cities in Canada additionally had these insurance policies. Magumbe instructed me that Peterborough is at present 96 per cent white and the remaining 4 per cent is a melange of newcomers to Canada or of us who moved to Peterborough from bigger cities.
Magumbe is co-owner of Zingha, an Afrocentric social enterprise that provides anti-racism schooling. When the Petes approached her, she was pleased to assist the PWHPA sport and share her work with the neighborhood. As a hockey fan, she was additionally excited to look at the sport.
This underlines that for a small Canadian city, there are various truths. There’s a method to create areas that assist ladies’s hockey and construct a connection to all communities via the game. This requires intentional apply, which is what the Petes are doing proper.
What I noticed over the weekend was a junior crew and a complete neighborhood enthralled by the ladies gamers and pleased with their neighborhood. Group Sonnet (Toronto) was going to tackle Group Harvey’s (Montreal) on the dwelling of the Petes — a primary time for each the OHL crew and the PWHPA.
I spoke with Jayna Hefford, senior guide with the PWHPA and a Canadian hockey legend. She instructed me the Petes and PWHPA collaboration is necessary as a result of it additionally provides enterprise alternatives.
“There is a large demand for the sport, and there is enterprise alternatives, and the power to convey new followers to the constructing,” she stated. “So much golf equipment, be it OHL golf equipment, CHL golf equipment or NHL golf equipment, are understanding that it’s agreeable to their enterprise to convey ladies into the constructing whether or not that’s as a participant or a fan.”
Whereas the PWHPA is working exhausting to create a sustainable league, it’s also fairly helpful for the lads’s groups and leagues in addition to the Petes have been anticipating a crowd of about 3,000.
“We wished to point out the sports activities neighborhood that there’s completely a requirement for girls’s hockey when there’s correct monetary and advertising useful resource put behind that,” stated Shelbi Kilcollins, director of promoting and progress for the Petes. “And we will see that within the stands [Saturday] evening.”
Kilcollins is a longtime supporter of girls’s hockey and is acquainted with the challenges PWHPA gamers face. Many gamers, workers and coaches work full-time jobs in the course of the day, prepare within the evenings and compete on weekends. Like many different ladies’s leagues, they cannot rely solely on their hockey wage. Additionally they handle their tools and deal with their journey preparations by themselves. That is why Kilcollins wished to make it possible for they have been handled as they deserve.
“We wished to present these athletes the premier expertise they deserve. And simply fundamental stuff, all the things from getting their luggage tagged, giving them good meals, a correct place for warm-up. All of that was prime of thoughts when planning this.”
It may appear odd that this does not already occur contemplating that the gamers of the PWHPA are among the finest in Canadian hockey altogether.
All the Canadian Olympic hockey crew normally performs with the PWHPA, however simply not this season as a result of it’s an Olympic yr and so they have obligations with Hockey Canada. However they nonetheless come and assist. I chatted with Beijing champions Jocelyn Larocque and Jamie Lee Rattray, who introduced their gold medals to the sport and supported their associates and teammates and acquired a standing ovation from the group for the ceremonial puck drop.
Supporting one another within the PWHPA is a vital a part of this hockey neighborhood. Liz Knox is a retired goaltender and advisor to the PWHPA. However once they wanted her, she answered the decision. She initially thought it was a joke.
“I bought a name this morning at, like, 6 a.m, from our GM [Rebecca Michael],” Knox stated on Saturday. “This sport was rescheduled and so the rosters have been a bit of skinny tonight. So the goalie who was anticipated to begin for Group Harvey’s examined constructive on her fast check.
“Danielle Sauvageau [Harvey’s GM and head coach] referred to as our crew and stated, ‘we’d like a goalie!’ I assumed she was joking. She stated, ‘you gotta go in internet!’
So Knox (lovingly often called ‘Knoxy’) a full-time firefighter, equipped, regardless that she hadn’t performed at a professional degree in additional than three years. In a enjoyable twist, her spouse, Kristen Richards, performed on the opposing crew.
This can be a lesson that whereas nobody is larger than the sport, the sport can have an effect on us all in a beautiful manner. Girls’s hockey is a present and we must always stay vigilant in defending and supporting it.
Group Sonnet might need gained 4-1 towards Group Harvey’s, however there isn’t a doubt that the largest winner was ladies’s hockey.
