Valley girls get hockey team to call their own

By Christopher Drexel

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 | midnight

A lot more pink sticks, pink hockey bags and players with pony tails have walked through the gates of the Las Vegas Ice Center as of late.

Last month, the rink formed its inaugural all-girls hockey team, which has 16 players ages 8 to 14 from across the Las Vegas Valley. About six girls had been playing for years in leagues with boys. The others began with the idea of competing with all girls.

The team played its first games Sept. 13 and 14 against a squad from Valencia, Calif., and split a two-game series.

"They were a little timid at first because the other team was pretty big. But once the game got going they calmed down and played awesome" assistant coach Dave Fehlig said.

Head coach Dominique Beaudoin last year started an all-girls weekly clinic at the rink. Eventually, he hopes to have a full girls program that includes different age groups.

"If I would have told people a year ago when we started the clinic and had six girls here that this month we'd have 15 girls and a goalie playing against another girls team, they would have said that was optimistic," Beaudoin said. "But I said it would happen. Our first game was a step forward to something bigger. It will be a snowball effect."

Beaudoin has experience in starting girls hockey teams. In 1994, he helped start the Cal Selects in Southern California. Beaudoin said that program has had 40 girls receive college scholarships, while three were with the USA national team during the 2006 Olympics.

Like in Las Vegas, Beaudoin said, people in California originally didn't think there was a demand for all-girls hockey until the program started.

"When you turn 13 or 14, girls don't want to play against boys anymore," Beaudoin said. "Boys sometimes go over the line with checking. Sometimes you don't notice that but the girls notice it on the ice. And for the younger girls, it's important for them to be part of a team, be a part of something bigger."

Brittany Sebine, a Henderson resident and Coronado freshman, has been playing hockey for two years.

"It was awesome to see all the excitement on the girls' faces and throughout the bench during our first game," Sebine said. "I'm pretty sure it will get bigger and more people will want to join. It's amazing to see we only had a couple people and then see the sport grow to what it is now."

Christopher Drexel can be reached at 990-8929 or [email protected].

Christopher Drexel can be reached at 990-8929 or [email protected].