How My Girls Got into Hockey.

My youngest daughter started hockey in 2004 as a kindergartner. She had never skated before but had watched her brother play hockey and thought it looked like fun so she wanted to start playing hockey. Well on the first day of hockey practice we got on all the equipment and she headed out to the arena. Like I stated before, she had never skated before and she is one of those people who think that they have to know how to do something right away. To say the least, she could barely stand on the ice let alone skate. They had given her a training chair to hold onto on the ice as she learned how to skate. Suffice to say when she got done with practice she was so frustrated that she began to cry and said that she was not going back. Her sister heard her carrying on and convinced her that if she would stay in hockey the whole seasons that she would join the following year. Well the next practice she decided that she didn't need the training chair and throw it aside and learned how to skate. From that day forward she had fell in love with hockey and has been playing ever since. In the third grade she was invited to play with the junior gold girls team and has been on it ever since.

Since my youngest daughter had stayed in hockey for the full year and a promise is a promise, my oldest joined hockey the following year. She was a six grader at that time and the youngest player on the junior gold girls’ 16u hockey team. At this time that team had two teams in one. They played 16u and 19u girls. The team was one of the best teams in the state of North Dakota. The year before she had joined they had won the state championship and it looked like they were about to do it again. I had put her in basic skating the last part of the year before because it looked like her sister was going to make it through her first year of hockey. She got about 1 month of training before they had there ice show so she had not got a lot of skating. When she first started hockey she could barely skate and if you know anything about skates. Hockey skating and figure skating are different. The only way she was able to stop was by running into the boards or by falling down but with the help of the coaches and the older girls she had learned how to skate and play hockey. She ended up making her first goal at the state tournament that season which then hooked her into hockey. That year they took second in state both as 16u and 19u. The following year they went to just one team the 19u and had an undefeated year except at the state tournament were they taken second again.

My youngest and oldest daughters still play hockey today. My oldest is a senior and it is her last year in youth hockey. She has also been the team’s goalie for the last two years. She will be sad to be done with hockey but hopefully she will either coach or be able to get a women's league started. We are looking for a great year in girl’s hockey.