WOMEN’S LEAGUE
Women’s League is a collection of images focusing on the women of Tuesday night hockey in Oakville, Ontario. It brings to light their daily lives and how they have made hockey a part of that. It is a community of encouragement and acceptance and support. These women work hard every week while finding time to pursue their passion of the game, no matter what their age is. While hockey may mean something different to everyone, it is the pure joy and passion that brings everyone together. Women’s league has paved a path for current and future generations of women, showing that it is never too late to try something new, to take a chance, to try your best...but most importantly, to have FUN!
Name: Sue Puffer
Position: Defence
Shot: Right
Experience: 24 Years
I’ve been playing hockey in an organized league since 1997. But I did play pickup with some guys before that. I played soccer for years and a girl on my soccer team was talking about joining a women’s hockey league. I thought I would be interested in that so I signed up. I ended up knowing someone from high school in the dressing room which was cool. I think I found out about the hornets online. It’s been great, no complaints. I’m pretty easy going, and I’m there to have fun. I love the hornets. The practice helped, which they didn’t have this year. I mean with daycare I’m home all day not really talking to adults, talking to kids, so hockey was a great outlet. It is my night out, and it’s nice sharing drinks with the girls afterwards. It is pretty important socially to me. And now I have more freedom but its still nice, its exercise. I’ve had a few people ask me, and I just say try it. It’s a pretty friendly league. Great sport, it’s fun. Just do it, its great. You never know until you try. It’s worth the effort.
I’ve done home daycare for 20 years, but I’ve since quit doing that. I worked for Canada post for a year but I didn’t really like that. It was tough, there were days I’d work 12 hours in harsh conditions. So I stopped doing that and went back to daycare working out of peoples homes, and that was a lot different but it was nice. Ive gotten out of that a little bit. Now I work with an organization called Bronco Hockey. There’s a product called the bronco belt and it has weights to help your skating. Once the weights are off you can really fly. I help process orders and book ice time, and part of my job is watching hockey so its kind of cool.
Name: Alison Macdonald
Position: Defence
Shot: Left
Experience: 10 Years
I started playing hockey 10 years ago, at the age of 49. A friend from curling started playing hockey and asked if I wanted to try it out and I thought why not. For the most part it’s been great I play hockey twice a week. Friday night teams are mixed up each week and that’s great because you get to play with different people and meet different people. No matter the skill level everyone gets to touch the puck. There are some women that are much better but they play very graciously and set up opportunities for other people to touch the puck. The hornets had a Sunday morning skills and drills session, it helped me to be more comfortable on the ice. I learned a lot. Getting exercise outside of work gives me a clear mind. If you want to play hockey, why not give it a try. I had no hockey skills at all when I started. I didn’t know whether I was a right shot or a left shot and I went out and gave it a try and I absolutely love it. No regrets at all. It’s about having fun, not just about winning.
I work for Sedgwick Canada Inc. (independent insurance adjusters) as an administrative assistant. I started out as an insurance adjuster and took time off to raise kids. I came back as adminisative assistant when I started working with my husband for his insurance company. We are a good team. I enjoy my job, and I like working at home. I work every other day, 9-5, and my job is mostly sedentary so I look forward to getting out and playing hockey at night and on Friday mornings when I’m not working. I have been able to help people I play hockey with, with insurance claims, dealing with house fires, flooded basements, and advise on how to handle their own claims.
Name: Monique
Position: Centre
Shot: Left
Experience: 20+ Years
Name: Robin Metcalfe
Position: Defence/Forward
Shot: Right
Experience: 13 Years
I started playing hockey in my 20s. That came about simply because I knew how to skate. That is a million years ago because I am now 50. I was working as a pharmacy technician and one of the pharmacists played hockey. She asked if I knew how to skate and put me on her hock team. I was flabbergasted. I am of a generation where growing up girls figure skated and boys played hockey. I’m sad it hadn’t been sooner. I’ve been playing off and on for 30 years. It has been something that once I was aware it was even there, it was something that was consistent no matter where I was. And with my former career as a police officer I lived and worked all over Canada and there was always a women hockey community out there…maybe you had to look for it, maybe you had to find someone who was already part of it but it was there. It often was a constant in my life when other things were changing. Partly it’s the game, and more so it’s the community. Community is very important to me in all aspects of my life, family, my urban indigenous community, my hockey community. They all add up to complete that circle. They all have a piece of that circle which if they’re not getting filled then its not really well rounded. I will find a way. I found that it is supportive, welcoming and all of us have our own story behind it and love the game, so it’s something we want to share. We want others to love the game as much as we do, for whatever reason. For some its social, for some its exercise, for some its competition. It’s not a place that you will not find your place: you will if you stick with it.
I am a daughter, sister, wife, mother auntie and friend. I do not have a paid full time job as I am retired from my career, but I am fully engaged in being a mother and a wife and a citizen of my communities. There were times even through work that because I could or did play hockey that I could be involved in some things that had traditionally maybe had been more male dominated, very similar to the career that I had chosen. And it went from me being the only woman sometimes and having to change in refs rooms or having to change in bathrooms, to more women playing and the evolution of the change room if you will. Now we get our own change room. I’d say even ice times...now we are not always playing the scrap pieces of ice, although we’ll take it because we love it. Even just to witness now when I’m at a rink, it’s not uncommon to see entire sheets with nothin but all girls teams and younger girls which is awesome. We’re not a one of. And in some ways when I was in the mounties and people would be surprised when it was a women police officer dealing with something or tending to something, it was like I’m looking forward to the day when it’s not such a big “oh my gosh girls play hockey!” And again the availability of it, no matter where I’ve been.
I’ve been playing hockey since I was 35, so for 13 years. I’ve always skated and figure skated as a kid, then my kids started playing hockey. In Toronto there were so many opportunities for girls to take lessons and stuff like that so it seemed like a fun extracurricular thing to do. I moved here 8 years ago and looked up where to play. You could sign up as an individual and I didn’t know anyone so it was perfect. Overall experience has been amazing, I love it. I missed the house league so much, like I just loved it. Loved playing on the same team the whole year and making stronger connections with people because you see them every week and I think I got a lot better in that format. I’m a lot less fearful and more relaxed about it. I still screw up all the time and it doesn’t get to me as much. I enjoy it a lot more than I used to, I used to just be afraid. I would have to force myself to go sometimes and challenge myself to do it but now I just really look forward to it. In the past when I was only playing once a week and I was really not getting better, there were days that it was really hard to go because I just didn’t feel like I was ever gonna be of value to the team that I was on. But that changed hugely once I started getting on the ice three times a week and started getting some skills classes and playing in the 3 on 3 league, that was huge. That used to be a big challenge.
I’m a professor at York. I teach physics and astronomy courses. Last few years I’ve been really focusing on space exploration courses in our own solar system. I spent most of my time teaching the classes, preparing classes, writing lectures and course material. I’m working on this new minor certificate program in life in space for non-science majors so that’s what my days are filled with. I have to be careful about scheduling things. Fortunately I have the kind of job that I can do that. Sometimes things happen in games that I can bring into what I’m talking about. For example, there’s a physics class I’ll sometimes bring sports into. There’s this funny video of me skating and I couldn’t stop so I crashed into the net and the net went off the posts. I used that video in my class to demonstrate conservation of energy and how my kinetic energy transferred into the net and it went off. Sometimes you can bring the two of them together. And the students love to hear those kinds of stories, plus it was a really funny video.