At the 400,000-square-foot sports complex in Stamford known as Chelsea Piers Connecticut, there is change in the air or, rather, on the ice as women and girls of all ages are taking to ice hockey in what appears to be a breakout year for the sport in the region.
“The Connecticut Whale, the National Women”™s Hockey League team, had its first home game here Oct. 11 and they had over 600 people that came to watch their first professional game,” Brian Payne, rinks director at Chelsea Piers Connecticut, said. “Girls hockey is one of the areas where they are seeing huge growth in the sport, With the addition of the Connecticut Whale, we expect that to grow.”
The game was sold out, said Sam Faber, the Chelsea Piers director for youth ice hockey. She knows the growth of the sport over the last decade well, as she has lived it.
- Sam Faber, youth hockey director at Chelsea Piers Connecticut, and Brian Payne, rinks director.
Playing ice hockey since she was 7 years old, Faber is a lifelong athlete who played Division One ice hockey at the University of New Hampshire prior to winning the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation”™s Women”™s World Championship in China as as part of the U.S. Women”™s National Ice Hockey Team.
“It is pretty amazing how it has changed over the years,” she said. “There are girls teams everywhere in this area, it is crazy how many there are. The girls have gotten much better and they don”™t have to play with the boys anymore to compete.”
Faber is also a forward on the Whale, which currently has a 3-0 record in the National Women”™s Hockey League”™s inaugural year.
Faber said she thought her playing career was over after college but, with the creation of the new professional league young girls and women athletes can actually aspire to play their sport as a career and not just a hobby.
“It is horrible to think a sport you grew up playing your whole life, being one of the best in the world at and you get out of college and you have no options for a professional life playing,” Payne said. “Now there is a place for girls to aspire to play professional hockey; it is great for the sport and for the girls.”
From the age of 7 through 15, Faber grew up playing ice hockey with boys. Now with about 25 to 35 percent of the youth league members at Chelsea Piers Connecticut female, girls are still playing on mixed-gender teams, but appearing on the ice in greater numbers than ever before, she said.
“I just think hockey is one of the sports that maybe years ago was more gender specific and as times have moved on girls have realize it is not gender specific; they can excel at the sport as well as boys can,” Payne said.
Payne said he thinks one change in the sport that has allowed young girls to get involved has been the widespread removal of body checking for children”™s leagues.
“Before, it might have been a little bit more difficult for those 12-year-old girls to hang with the boys,” he said.
But hang with the boys the girls do, even at higher levels, with some women playing in the top adult leagues at Chelsea Piers, Payne said.
Adult ice hockey, also popular at Chelsea Pier”™s twin rinks, is also on the rise, Payne said. Offerings like “lunch-time hockey” are popular among corporate athletes trying to squeeze in time for the sport on their lunch breaks, Payne said.
The facility supports roughly 65 teams spread across three playing seasons ”” anywhere from 12 to 20 of these teams are corporate sponsored teams from local and regional organizations such as Indeed.com and Jimmy”™s South Side Tavern.
Faber and Payne foresee only growth for the sport, particularly in the Fairfield County region.
“Though you might not read about it, there are plenty of adult hockey players out there ”” guys willing to play at six in the morning or 10:30 on a Tuesday night,” Payne said. “The players are extremely dedicated and they might not all share the same skill level, but they all share a love for the game.”
