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Vermont gives girls' hockey a chance
http://www.startribune.com/526/story/964425.html
Vermont gives girls' hockey a chance
The only all-girls hockey high school in the country has to turn away potential students and continues to thrive.
By Lisa Rathke, Associated Press
Last update: January 27, 2007 – 9:58 PM
STOWE, VT. - Here's Kayla Colang's idea of a perfect afternoon: skating around a rink, passing the puck to teammates and drilling slapshots.
Colang, 17, from Fairbanks, Alaska, took up hockey at age 5 and never stopped. She competed against boys before they outgrew her, then joined a girls' team at 12. As a teenager, she followed her dream across the country to the North American Hockey Academy.
Now, she and 39 other teenage girls study and skate from October to March, honing their skills at what the academy's founder says is the nation's only all-girls' hockey high school.
The school, which charges $23,000 a year, has no trouble finding applicants. About 100 girls are turned away annually.
Its popularity mirrors that of women's hockey, which made its Olympic debut in 1998 and has quickly taken root at the high school level. At least 50,000 girls and women now play, up from about 6,000 in 1991, according to USA Hockey Inc., the sport's national governing body.
"It's exploded over the last decade," said Michele Amidon, USA Hockey's director of women's ice hockey operations.
In Vermont, 23 high schools have added girls' hockey since 2002, according to Bob Johnson, director of student activities for the Vermont Principals Association. Not everyone has access to a team or league, though.
"A lot of girls here run out of opportunities," said Bill Driscoll, director of the Hockey Academy. "We really feel this fills a void."
Driscoll, a former player and coach, founded the Academy in 1999 when a friend's daughter wanted to continue her ice career but didn't want to go to a prep school. It had 14 girls the first year, and 24 the next. Now, 40 girls attend, enough for two teams.
Living in a converted ski inn near Stowe Mountain ski resort, the girls spend their mornings on academics, working in one-on-one sessions with teachers in officelike cubicles, with the teachers trying to match the curriculum from the girls' home schools.
After lunch, it's practice, workouts at an offsite fitness facility, chores and a two-hour study hall before lights go out at 11 p.m.
"Everybody here is working toward the same goal of playing college hockey," said Teddy Fortin, 18, of Brunswick, Maine.
Pursuing that common goal makes for tight bonds -- on and off the ice.
"I cry when I leave home," said Chelsea Fillingim, 17, of Fairbanks. "And I cry when I leave here."
Vermont gives girls' hockey a chance
The only all-girls hockey high school in the country has to turn away potential students and continues to thrive.
By Lisa Rathke, Associated Press
Last update: January 27, 2007 – 9:58 PM
STOWE, VT. - Here's Kayla Colang's idea of a perfect afternoon: skating around a rink, passing the puck to teammates and drilling slapshots.
Colang, 17, from Fairbanks, Alaska, took up hockey at age 5 and never stopped. She competed against boys before they outgrew her, then joined a girls' team at 12. As a teenager, she followed her dream across the country to the North American Hockey Academy.
Now, she and 39 other teenage girls study and skate from October to March, honing their skills at what the academy's founder says is the nation's only all-girls' hockey high school.
The school, which charges $23,000 a year, has no trouble finding applicants. About 100 girls are turned away annually.
Its popularity mirrors that of women's hockey, which made its Olympic debut in 1998 and has quickly taken root at the high school level. At least 50,000 girls and women now play, up from about 6,000 in 1991, according to USA Hockey Inc., the sport's national governing body.
"It's exploded over the last decade," said Michele Amidon, USA Hockey's director of women's ice hockey operations.
In Vermont, 23 high schools have added girls' hockey since 2002, according to Bob Johnson, director of student activities for the Vermont Principals Association. Not everyone has access to a team or league, though.
"A lot of girls here run out of opportunities," said Bill Driscoll, director of the Hockey Academy. "We really feel this fills a void."
Driscoll, a former player and coach, founded the Academy in 1999 when a friend's daughter wanted to continue her ice career but didn't want to go to a prep school. It had 14 girls the first year, and 24 the next. Now, 40 girls attend, enough for two teams.
Living in a converted ski inn near Stowe Mountain ski resort, the girls spend their mornings on academics, working in one-on-one sessions with teachers in officelike cubicles, with the teachers trying to match the curriculum from the girls' home schools.
After lunch, it's practice, workouts at an offsite fitness facility, chores and a two-hour study hall before lights go out at 11 p.m.
"Everybody here is working toward the same goal of playing college hockey," said Teddy Fortin, 18, of Brunswick, Maine.
Pursuing that common goal makes for tight bonds -- on and off the ice.
"I cry when I leave home," said Chelsea Fillingim, 17, of Fairbanks. "And I cry when I leave here."