“My favorite thing about playing ice hockey is the adrenaline rush I get from it. It’s just this rush of energy, and I feel so powerful on the ice.”
“I think the most difficult thing I’ve encountered was this idea that… girls hockey is different from boys hockey. I feel like sometimes when I have played co-ed in the past, that I had to prove myself a little bit more. Sometimes, [male players] think that girls aren’t going to be as great, but I think that’s wrong. I’ve seen some crazy [girls] teams that are really good and could do just about anything. I personally experienced it last year. On Saturday nights at 10:30, I would play with college players for Villanova. When I would get the puck, they would kinda go easier on me. Probably one, because of my age since I was like 14, and two, because I was a girl. It was a fun experience, for sure, because it was challenging, but sometimes they would ease up on me. That was when I was trying to improve a lot. I feel like it’s hard to improve when everybody else isn’t trying their best.
I think that aspect was definitely the hardest, but I really do enjoy it. I actually considered making a girls’ team [at GA] last year. I talked to the [athletic directors] and they were like, ‘We definitely would really like that, but there isn’t enough interest at GA. There’s just not enough players.’ I’ve played girls’ hockey for so long and I feel comfortable with the kind of close-knit community there. But, at the same time, my favorite part of hockey is the hitting (body checking)*, so I would honestly enjoy playing co-ed. It’s fun hitting… until you get hit really hard into the boards.”
*In women’s hockey, body checking—a core tactic of the men’s game—isn’t allowed.