Springfield Pics Provides an
Option for Girls
For Immediate release:
September 26, 2009
West Springfield, MA.
By Mike Scandura
Special to USAHockey.com
See the article as it appears on the USA Hockey website
Without question, the Springfield (Mass.) Pics fill a need.
It’s one of the few organizations that offer girls’ hockey between the greater Springfield metropolitan area going west to the New York state border.
The organization added girls’ hockey prior to the 2003-04 season and with good reason.
Springfield Ma Pics cov
The Springfield Pics are dedicated to helping area girls play hockey.
“We were looking for a place for girls to play,” said director of girls’ hockey Kevin Dorsey. “Most, if not all girls, played in boys’ programs from Mites through Squirts. As they became PeeWees and Bantams where checking was allowed, most girls didn’t want to be involved.
“Smaller girls were great skaters, but body checking and the physical part got to be too much for them. Traditionally, PeeWees is when girls leave boys’ programs.”
Once Dorsey became involved, he spread the word about forming a 12-and-under team.
“There were a number of girls who had played with my daughter on teams I had coached for boys,” Dorsey said. “We started with informal, girls’-only practices on Friday nights because it was easier to get ice time [at the Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield].
“We started with a handful of girls, about five or six, and kept spreading the word out there.”
The program grew — if not by leaps and bounds, at least at a steady pace.
During the 2007-08 season, after merging with the New England Falcons, the Pics dressed a 12-U team, two 14-U teams, two 16-U teams and a 19-U team.
Then, in the 2008-09 season, it dressed teams at the 14-U, 16-U and 19-U levels — with plans to skate a 12-U team again in the near future.
But heading into the 2009-10 season, the program essentially is swimming against the current.
“Because our numbers have dropped off, we only have a 16-U team,” Dorsey said. “It will play in the New England Girls’ Hockey League and the Eastern Hockey Federation, which has a girls’ league that was formed to get girls playing again.”
Dorsey still would like to add a 12-U team if he could find enough girls to sign up.
“The girls I’ve worked with are getting older and are attending private prep schools and aren’t interested in playing on club teams,” Dorsey said. “I’m just trying to give girls a place to play. But the number of children — both boys and girls — is declining rapidly in western Massachusetts.
“This involves a very big time commitment. And in my opinion, we’re moving into a generation of parents who did not play a lot of ice hockey. Usually, if a parent, or parents, didn’t play hockey, it’s less likely kids will play.”
The Pics’ predicament is the polar opposite of organizations in the eastern part of Massachusetts.
“In the eastern part of the state they have a greater population to draw from,” Dorsey said. “Among others, you have organizations like Assabet Valley which is very competitive. People will drive an hour or two to have their girls play for that organization.
“I’m not holding any grudges. But another thing to consider is that, in eastern Massachusetts, both public and private schools offer girls’ hockey whereas in western Massachusetts we only have private schools that offer girls’ hockey — not the public schools.”
Nevertheless, Dorsey doesn’t expect the Pics to throw in the proverbial towel.
“Granted, it’s difficult for a girls’ organization to attract new players that haven’t played hockey before,” he said. “Our program did grow and maybe this year is an aberration. That’s what I would like to think. We could get 10 or 11 phone calls in a week from girls interested in joining the program.
“But for the moment, we’ll keep going with what we have and continue to give girls a place to play.”
Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc. |