Hitting the ice and lovin’ it
Jason Hornick/News & Messenger
Members of the Prince William Panthers wait to perform a drill during practice.
The guys quickly chimed in and started mocking her with sarcastic comments like, “Ooh, me hockey player, me tough.”
“It was like a Seriously, you play hockey type of reaction,” she said in reference to the boys’ remarks.
Bradfield dismissed the talk, but knows she will draw attention to herself because she plays hockey. And she is proud of that.
“It’s been great,” said Bradfield, a 15 year-old who attends Hylton High School. “I really love the sport. I’ve loved it for a while. I’m not really an avid sports fan, but I’m definitely going to be playing it for a while.”
Bradfield and 15 other girls make up the U16 Prince William Panthers, a travel ice hockey team and Prince William County’s lone all-girls’ hockey squad. The team is affiliated with Prince William Hockey Club, one of 25 Virginia Associations in U.S.A. Hockey’s Southeastern District.
The Panthers play in the 25-team Capital Beltway Hockey League.
“It’s just fun to get active with a bunch of girls you know,” said Renee Brittigan, who at age 11 is one of the team’s younger players. “You get to play the game and know all the girls and go out there and give it your best. You always look for ways to improve yourself.”
The first PWHC girls’ team was formed in 1998. Coincidentally, that was the year women’s hockey made its debut at the winter Olympics with the United States winning the gold medal.
The inaugural PWHC girls’ team participated in the club’s inline program. In 1999, enough girls were inter-ested in playing that a full girls’ inline division formed.
During the 2002-03 season, the first girls’ ice team participated in the CBHL in the U15 division.
PWHC fielded a girls U14 and U19 team the following season and continued that format for five seasons.
Because all but two players who made this year’s team were 16 and under, the club decided to have one U16 team rather than field multiple teams.
Tryouts took place in May. Once the team was announced, summer training went from June-August where each player worked with an instructor on power skating. They learned hockey strategy during a minicamp that concluded training.
“The big thing is to challenge them, to make them work,” coach Jim Buckley said. “They’re all good stu-dents. They’re all good athletes and they just want to be challenged. If you make it difficult and teach them the fundamentals, they’ll grow from there. They’re all very bright and eager to learn.”
Buckley, in his first year working with a girls’ hockey team, coaches voluntarily. But PWHC requires coaches to be members of U.S.A. Hockey and have coaching certification.
Players must also register for U.S.A. Hockey and agree to follow its rules and that of the CBHL.
A $350 deposit is required and a $2,200 fee must be paid to cover ice time and other costs.
U.S.A. Hockey also monitors its player registration. According to its website, 10,000 females were registered with U.S.A. Hockey in 1992-93. In 2006-07, that number passed 57,500.
Buckley’s daughters KC and Erin play forward and defender, respectively, and are in their fourth year playing hockey. Their interest in the sport began when the Buckleys lived in Brunswick, Maine for two years before moving to Prince William County.
“When you go further north, hockey becomes more of a popular sport,” Jim Buckley said. “Bowdoin Col-lege was located close to where we lived and there were a couple outdoor rinks.
“Skating’s very popular up there and that’s what you do when you live in that neck of woods. We happened to be up in Maine at the time and a lot of kids play hockey in winter. We wanted our children to experience as that well.”
Debra Baner, a sophomore at Potomac High School and one of the Panthers’ goalies/forwards, developed an interest in hockey due to her father Carl being from New York and a New York Rangers fan.
Bradfield is playing hockey for the first time. A former figure skater, she became tried out for the Panthers when friend and team center Taylor Andersen persuaded her to do so.
“She was always like, ‘Taylor you’re a really good skater and you’re pretty good with all your skills,’” said Bradfield, whose brother played for the mini-mites and mites teams in the club’s House program. Her father also plays in an adult league.
Bradfield’s passion for hockey is evident away. She roots for the Pittsburgh Penguins and owns a jersey of Penguins winger Sidney Crosby.
“I loved to watch it and love the game,” Bradfield said. “I was getting bored with figure skating and I never played a team sport. But it’s really fun playing on the girls’ team. There’s a lot of camaraderie.”
There are also fun times. Panther players were invited to participate on the ice crew at Washington Capi-tals home games. The crew goes on the ice and makes sure it is properly maintained during games.
When practice is in session, though, players polish their fundamentals during practice Monday and Wednesday at the Prince William Ice Center in Dale City.
Games are played Saturdays and Sundays against teams from Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina in a season lasting from September through March.
The culmination to the season is the Pony Tail Tournament where various teams convene to play in Mary-land. Some are from the CBHL, but teams from other states could enter as well.
No checking is allowed, but contact is as players try to secure the puck.
“We do bump each other a lot and move them out of the way so it’s not like it’s no contact,” KC Buckley said.
No matter how physical the play, the players know their friends appreciate what they do.
“They’re really supportive of it and they think it’s really cool you do something that not a lot of people do,” said Paige Bugg, MVP of the 2008 Pony Tail tournament where the U14 team won the silver medal last March.
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