In today’s episode of This Hits Different, Shelby Cassesse tells the story of a local girls high school hockey team, which is providing an outlet to grow the game in the region.
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Girls hockey league growing love for game locally
For local hockey coach Alli Paratore, the sport has always been close to her heart, but it wasn't necessarily always close to home while growing up in Johnstown.
“I played for Allegheny Badgers, which is like a 50 minutes drive from my parents’ house,” Paratore. “ThenI went to Altoona, which is 45 minutes in the opposite direction.”
It's just another example of how barriers have long plagued girls hockey — from accessibility, to cost, to cultural issues that can and do chase people from the sport.
“Girls hockey was very few and far between,” Paratore added. “So if you wanted to be successful within girls hockey, you have to move outside of where you currently were at, which is kind of where it’s still at, to an extent.”
Up until last year, if a girl in western Pennsylvania wanted to play hockey for her school team, she played with the boys. What Allie and one of her players, Emily Reiner, says can often be an isolating and even demoralizing experience.
“We’ll definitely have a few friends on the team,” Reiner said. “But more than half of the team don’t talk to you, because you’re a girl. That’s just how it is.”
“Boys don’t talk to the girls on the team,” Paratore added. “There’s almost like an old school mentality and girls shouldn’t really be playing co-ed.”
That culture was on full display last year, when a female goalie at Mars was the target of vulgar and sexist chants by an Armstrong student section. Though that may have been the most publicized example, Alli says it's far from the only one.
“Every girl gets called something on the ice,” Paratore said. “For the most part, it is other teams. You hear it. And you’re hoping a coach would stand up, or notice it, and stop a game completely. Usually it doesn’t get to that point. Usually it’s just, ‘that’s how the game is.’”
Despite plenty of hurdles to leap at times, girls hockey continues to make progress thanks to club programs and efforts by the Penguins. It reached a point a few years ago where the PIHL felt confident an all-girls league could take off. Commissioner and Director John Mucha.
“We thought if we could create a separate girls division of high school hockey, it would give more girls an opportunity to play,” he said.
The league was supposed to have its inaugural season in 2020 with about 75 girls — which took a back seat to COVID-19. But when it finally got the green light for 2022, interest had only grown.
“A few years ago we had about 75-80 girls who were interested in playing,” Mucha said. “This year, when the league actually started, we had right around 100 girls.”
Reiner was one of those 100+ players.
“I was super excited,” she said. “I knew most if the girls, because I’ve played for lek super long time. I know most of them. It was really exciting.”
Paratore got involved as the head coach of one of six teams, grouped geographically. All girls, with ice all their own.
“It was just a really cool experience to be part of the first inaugural season,” she said. “It’s something that, for all of these girls, no one can take away.”
The first season wrapped in June and was a huge success. It was also just the start.
“The long term would be that the schools have there own teams,” Mucha said. “We would have some sort of state championship game with our friends from the east.
But the sport still has a long way to go, with access, conversation, and visibility the main path forward. And if you don't think representation matters in that mission, think again.
“Seeing all of these going to the olympics and stuff, you can be like, oh that can actually be me,” Reiner said. “Without them paving the way for you, there would be no thought of even going to the olympics or going to play hockey in college.”
Still, there's plenty of room to celebrate what the sport has accomplished up to this point. Just ask the now head coach who at one time had to drive at least an hour just to play the game she loved.
“It’s more accessible and it’s more closer to home, rather than having to go elsewhere,” Paratore said. “At the point you really don’t have to leave the Pittsburgh area to play girls ice hockey.”