Interview with Sarah (by e-mail) ================================ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is an interview that Sarah did for an essay for her English class at the University of New Hampshire. The ironic part of the story is that when Sarah handed in her paper, her teacher said to her, "So, how's Andria doing?" This is the same English teacher that I had at the University of New Hampshire, way back in 1986! :-) Small world, eh! Date: Saturday March 25, 1995 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (I) ABOUT ANDRIA 1. What type of team did you start playing on? [My speeches that I sent to you also explain this, I believe...] Started skating when I was 4. Figure skated grades 1-3. Started playing hockey in grade 4. Played on a boys' house league team the first year. There was one girls' team in the boys' league (which incidentally won all of their games!) that first year, but it was filled, so I played on one of the boys' teams in the league. Starting in grade 5, I always played on girls teams. Girls' hockey in Peterborough is quite developed, so finding a girls' team was no problem. I will send a file that summarizes which teams I played for. I played in the Peterborough house league until grade 6 (for 3 years) and then I played for Otonabee, until I went to UNH. 2. Was there someone who encouraged you to play, or inspired you to play when you were young? It's sort of funny, but I don't really know who it was exactly that inspired me to play. My mom says that I used to come over to her along the boards, when she was watching me at my figure skating lessons, and say, "Mom, I want to play hockey next year!" I think it was just that Peterborough is a big hockey town ... there is such a hockey influence everywhere ... at recess we used to toss hockey cards, I watched the NHL on TV, and I knew of some of the boys in my class who played ... but no, I can't pinpoint a particular person ... I did love to go to watch my dad play every Friday night when I was young ... I wouldn't miss that for anything! 3. Did you ever dream of being a member of a gold medal national team when you started playing? I didn't start dreaming about things until high school ... and then my dream was that I wanted to play for a women's university hockey team somewhere. I was sooooo excited to be offered a scholarship at UNH ... you wouldn't believe how excited! :-) I guess playing on the national team just seemed a little unrealistic for me (even for dreaming), and I guess that since there was no women's national team when I was growing up, that's a big reason why I had never thought about it. 4. Who was your role model? Do you think that it is important for young girls as hockey players to have female role models to look up to? Is a lack of female role models in hockey? or are stars like Douggie Gilmour, Clark, etc... good to look up to, although the game is quite different? My role models would have to be (i) woman: Angela James, and (ii) man: Wayne Gretzky. I think it's okay for girls to have role models in the NHL, but I think it's great that it's becoming more common for female hockey players to have female role models. I think this is only possible through increased public awareness of the sport. It's really cute to see the young girls at the tryout camp in a Team Canada "Heaney" or "James" jersey! I definitely think it's important for young girls to have female role models. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (II) WOMEN IN MEN'S SPORT? 5. Were you ever harassed for playing a "man/boy"'s sport? If so, how has your reaction changed since you first started playing? No, but I have sensed that people who are not used to hearing about women in a typically male sport, are shocked when I tell them that I play hockey. I have never been "harassed," but I can tell that some people think that there is something very unnormal about me playing hockey. I sensed this more in the United States when I went to university and in Switzerland than I do in Canada. I must say that over the last 10 years I have noticed a difference in the reactions that people have ... not so many people are surprised to hear about women playing hockey. I think the publicity of Manon playing pro hockey has made more people aware of women playing hockey. 6. Do you think hockey is too rough a sport for some women? No. If you are a weaker woman, you have the option of playing in a non-competitive league. There is no body contact in women's hockey, so even the frailest person could play without any worries. Hockey is not a rough sport ... where do people get this idea, eh? :-) 7. Is it right that women can play on men's teams and not vice-versa? you could? In terms of whether it's allowed, I'm not sure. I guess it would depend on the league. I guess the reason why you see women wanting to play on men's teams, and not vice-versa, is because: (a) there is no women's league in that city (b) caliber of the men's league is better in that city (likely no Division I women's leagues available) (c) coaching may be better in the men's league I think that as women's hockey becomes more developed, reasons (b) and (c) will become less likely. This is because with increased interest in the sport, women should be able to find adequate coaching and competition in women's leagues. I would argue that in Ontario where women's hockey is very popular, there is no reason why you wouldn't be able to find a women's hockey team that suits your competitive needs. The lack of superior coaching is one problem with women's hockey at the moment, but the situation is getting much better. As the sport becomes more popular, more high-quality coaches will be attracted. It does seem a little unfair that if women can play on men's teams, then why can't men play on women's teams? I don't think it's really an issue because most men don't have a need to play on a women's hockey team because there is usually a much wider range of selection of men's hockey leagues from which to choose. If the question is, are women good enough to play with men, then I would say that they are up until a certain level (basically, before puberty kicks in). I really doubt we'll ever see a woman who's good enough to play in the NHL ... there's just too much difference in size and strength. I'm average size for a woman, but I'd be by far the smallest player in the NHL. If a woman wanted to play pro hockey (I would argue that this would only be possible if she was a goalie), then she would have no choice but to play with men, as there are no women's pro leagues. In this case, I can't see any reason why she should not be allowed to play, because there is no option for playing pro women's hockey. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (III) DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN'S HOCKEY 8. Why do you think that women's hockey has had so little recognition throughout its past? I think that it has a lot to do with the way women were viewed by society. Hockey is not the sort of sport that was acceptable for the role that women were supposed to have. 9. What has been done to help women's hockey emerge in the past decade or 2? since you started playing? (rules + organization) Do you think this has to do with feminism and women's rights? What would you change in the sport or things related to the sport to make it better? I think the organization of World Championships has really made a big impact on the emergence of women's hockey. It has made more people aware of it and it has given girls something to strive for. The numbers of women/girls who play hockey has skyrocketed over the past 20 years. I would suggest Brian McFarlane's book on the history of women's hockey as a good reference ... but you probably don't have time to look at it now. Since there are more players now, it has allowed women's hockey to have more smaller age categories ... more similar to boys' hockey. When I started playing, there were only 2 categories (junior/senior), and then gradually it increased to three (junior/int/senior), and now there's even a tyke division (tyke/novice/atom/peewee/bantam/midget/int/senior)! I think this is important for development ... it's better to play against people who are close to the same age. It's less discouraging for a 6 year old who would be playing with a 12 year old in the old league organization ... so players will be encouraged to start at a younger age. I'm not sure how much it has to do with women's rights, but the reason the structure is changing is because increased interest allows it to be more diverse. I think it's more a matter of it being viewed as a suitable girls' sport by the public (which sort of has something to do with women's rights) ... because after all, if your parents think that it's not a girls' sport, then young girls will not start playing ... parents usually have the last word in matters of that sort ... at least that the way it usually worked at my house! :-) I think the elimination of body checking in girls' hockey may have also helped to increase interest in the sport. I think that parents are more likely to let their daughters play when they hear that there is no body checking... I can't really think of anything that I would change ... perhaps make it better organized, and as it says in the next question ... make the periods 20 minutes long! Why does the women's university game (in the United States) have to be 6 minutes shy of the length of the men's game??!!! That I just don't understand! 10. Women's hockey is growing, at its peak do you think that the structure should resemble that of men's hockey? How should the sport or things related to the sport be changed to make it better? Yes, I think that it would be a good idea to work towards having a structure that is similar to men's hockey. There's no sense reinventing the wheel, and we know the interest that there is in men's hockey, so it's likely to have a good structure! I think that the periods should be 20 minutes stop time, just like in men's hockey. Do they think that us women are too frail to go for a full 20 minutes? I've got news for them!!! I just don't get it! I think that there should definitely be 20 minute periods at the university level, where getting ice time is not a problem (since most universities have their own arena and the university teams have priority). I think that at the Senior AA level (or at whichever level is the highest in the province), that there should be 20 minute periods. 11. What options are there for women hockey players to go after college? Unfortunately there is not much out there besides coaching (in terms of making hockey into a profession). You have the option of playing on a national team, but unfortunately only 20 players are allowed on the national team (although Canada is soon to introduce a system where 40 players will be carded). It is good that there are a lot of leagues (well, especially in Ontario), so the women can continue to play at a variety of different levels (Senior AA/A/B/C/D/Rec) after they have finished university. The incentive for playing in the Senior AA league is that if you win the provincial tournament, then you get to represent your province at the national championships. Unfortunately no NHL for women, yet! :-) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (IV) WORLDWIDE DEVELOPMENT 12. What is being done to develop women's hockey worldwide? How does women's hockey differ in NA as opposed to Europe (Switzerland)? (structure and play) In NA we have the advantage of having a lot more players. This allows for a finer breakdown into leagues .... In Switzerland each city has only one team, so we had players on our team that ranged from 13 to 33 years old! This is not good because (1) the young players didn't start playing at a young age, (2) the young players did not get any game experience, (3) the younger player could improve more if they played against people at their own level (hard to even get the puck if you're going against someone who's a decade older than you), (4) it could be discouraging for the younger players, and (5) it could slow down the potential for improvement of the older players. In terms of structure, I found hockey in Switzerland to be more organized than hockey here. There was full body contact allowed, and the periods were 20 minutes stop time, just like the men's game. That was awesome! 13. Where you think it's going to finish? Do you think there will ever be a women's NHL? I think we'll start to see the most improvement in the countries that currently don't have well developed women's hockey programs. I think we'll see the gap between Canada/USA/Finland and the rest of the pack narrow a bit. I doubt there will ever be a women's NHL. Women's hockey is a great game, but I don't think it would be as appealing to the masses ... it's not physical enough and not as fast as men's hockey, and that's what it is typically compared to. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (V) MORE ABOUT ANDRIA 14. What is it like to be a world champion? Undescribable! Really, it's hard to match the feeling... and I guess the reason is that you're playing not for yourself, but for your whole country, so it means just that much more. I think some of my speeches talk about it a bit, so I won't elaborate here... 15. What was your biggest moment of excitement/disappointment in hockey? Making Team Canada in 1992! Here's a line from a previous speech that explains how excited I was... "...I walked into the room where the coach was going to tell me his decision. I was absolutely thrilled when he greeted me by shaking my hand and saying "Welcome to Finland!" I'll never forget it! I was soooo happy! It took them 3, maybe 4 minutes minutes to peel me off the ceiling! Really! I was sooo overjoyed to find out that *I* was one of the 1000 hopefuls across Canada who would be fortunate enough to represent Canada at the World Championships. So I promised myself that I would do everything that I could to help bring back the gold medal to Canada." Disappointment: having an injury and not being able to play my best at the 1994 World Championships ... it didn't matter how much I wanted to do well, my body just wouldn't cooperate ... very frustrating because you can imagine how badly I wanted to play well! 16. What have you had to sacrifice to do well in hockey? I'm going to cheat here, and include a paragraph from one of my speeches. I guess you could say that I had to sacrifice sleep, and on occasion going out with my friends, although I must say that nothing seemed like that much of a sacrifice because I got to play hockey! This paragraph basically says that I started to lift weights, and play with some good men. We used to have the ice from 8am-9am every morning during the summer, and I could stay from 9am-10am to practice on my own. "About this time last year, I started thinking seriously about getting ready for the Team Canada tryouts. I was determined to make sure I would be ready to give it my best shot. Over the course of the summer, I played hockey 3 times a week with men - most of them were a lot stronger and bigger than me so it forced me to work hard. I also played ball hockey twice a week, and started lifting weights regularly to improve my upper body strength." Also, you have to be willing work hard. You have to make it a priority. Here's a paragraph from one of my other speeches... "Also, not enough can be said about HARD WORK and DETERMINATION. You can have all the natural talent in the world, but if you don't have the desire and motivation to go along with it, you'll never be a top-notch hockey player. One of the most frustrating things for me, is to see someone not trying ... especially if they have the natural talent and the potential to do well. It's those who give that extra effort who will excel ... and this isn't only true for sports ---> Working hard and giving your best effort are important for success in all areas of life!" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (VI) ONE MORE QUESTION... 17. Why should people pay more attention to women's hockey? I mean... why not? Because it's cool! :-) Because although it may lack the physical element of the men's game, it still has a lot to offer (from both a player's and spectator's point of view). From a spectator's point of view, women's hockey at the higher levels is a display of finesse and skill that is at the same level or above (because the physical element is not as dominant) as the men's game. It's unfortunate that people aren't more aware of this. From a player's point of view, women should get involved because it's a lot of fun and a great way to get some exercise and to socialize with friends! Okay, best of luck with your essay ... feel free to send me a copy if you like ... is it for a women's study course? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++