Women's hockey team a first step: College president

The introduction of a women’s hockey program at Confederation College is just the first step, says school president Jim Madder.

The first-year team, which will play a limited schedule in 2011-12, beginning this weekend in Blaine, Minn., is incredibly important for the region, he added, saying he envisions the program one day reaching national status.

“There are lots of local teams and this provides another vehicle for a regional team. And with a little luck we can have it grow into a full varsity sport and represent Northwestern Ontario right across the province, and even across Canada.”

The 17-woman squad, captained by Thunder Bay’s Amber Butler, has drawn its roster from across the region, stretching from Sudbury to Red Lake. Coach Marshall Erickson said it’s the first time there’s been a post-secondary team in the region.

“It’s a first. It’s groundbreaking. It doesn’t come without a bit of risk and hard work, but we see all kinds of great opportunities for these female athletes, hockey players in particular, to make two great decisions,” Erickson said.

“One is to go to college and get a post-secondary education. The other is to continue doing the sport that they love, and that’s hockey.”

The program got the support of the school population, through a student union survey that indicated students wanted the team.
Amber Butler has been pegged as the Confederation College Thunderhawks first captain and said she’s glad to be back on skates in a truly competitive environment.

Butler, who played hockey growing up with the Thunder Bay Queens organization, had resorted to playing recreationally to stay in the game.

It just wasn’t the same, the pre-health sciences student said.

“We don’t really have much women’s hockey here for girls to get out of town and go show what  they’ve got in case they get an offer to go somewhere,” Butler said. “I think it’ll be overall just an awesome experience for girls who have been playing rec league forever and then had to stop because their high school ended.”

For now the team doesn’t have a league of its own, Erickson said, explaining the team will playing a mish-mash of exhibition games and tournaments.

“For this first season it will be a rather limited schedule. We have two out-of-town tournaments confirmed, one of which we’re leaving to this weekend. The other one is going to be in Manitoba in February. We’ll be playing some Canadian and American college teams as well as junior teams in that event,” Erickson said.

“That will probably be a really stiff level of competition and we have to work hard to get ourselves ready for that.”

Like Madder, Erickson says the sky’s the limit. But, with the school footing most of the bill this year, he knows they’ll have to find other ways to raise money in coming seasons, to help cover the costs.

“This first year what we’re looking at doing is getting a good team infrastructure in place,” he said. “I’m really happy with the staff that we have, the players that we have … We have the support from the college community and the student union, and this is just a building block. From here will build for future seasons.”

The Ontario Colleges Athletic Association discontinued men’s hockey in 2004. At the time it was estimated it cost between $60,000 and $100,000 to operate a team.