Tavistock Minor Hockey fights for all-girls team in its organization

Tavistock Minor Hockey is fighting to bring an all-female team to its organization as interest grows.

Currently, female athletes either play on a co-ed hockey team or they have to leave the southern Ontario town to play in another community.

Jennifer McKee, vice president of Tavistock Minor Hockey, says they heard from families that there was interest in an all-female team. That's when they sent a formal application to the Ontario Women's Hockey Association (OWHA) in January 2023.

But, she says, they didn't initially hear back.

"We heard nothing back for months and months and I kept emailing and phoning and I even got cell phone numbers. I called and nothing," McKee said.

"I finally got a hold of someone in the office because April tryouts were approaching for other organizations and we wanted an answer. Our girls needed to know if they needed to try out other places or the decision to stay in Tavistock."

In April 2023 they received an email from the association telling them the request was denied. McKee said the response was frustrating.

"There's no name, no nothing on it, just from the membership committee that we were denied," she said.

She said the letter from the OWHA letter sent on March 30 offered little information about why they were denied.

The letter said: "Although there are some areas of Ontario with limited opportunities for girls and women, there are also areas with established programs. New applications and name changes are reviewed based on the application submitted and current state of female hockey in the area."

McKee said they were denied their own team because the OWHA felt it could negatively impact all-female teams already established in surrounding areas.

CBC News reached out to the Ontario Women's Hockey Association. They did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

'They don't want to leave their hometown'

There are currently five female players on Tavistock's U13 co-ed team with another that often comes out to practices. Head coach Jeff Lafleur says he believes there are enough girls to have their own team.

"We actually lost three players last year because they chose to go the all-girls route. I know that those three players would love to come back and play in Tavistock again if we can get the ball rolling," he said.

"They don't want to leave their hometown to go play in Woodstock or Stratford, there are some preferences to stay local."

There are currently five girls playing on Tavistock's U13 team. From left to right: Lyric Brighton, Peyton Rader, Maisy Moore, Addison Smith and Presley Lafleur. (Jen McKee)

Tavistock athletes commuting to play on Stratford's teams have to pay an out-of-town fee of $75, on top of seasonal registration fees, he said.

Lafleur also has a 12 year-old daughter on the team and says she was heartbroken when she heard they wouldn't be getting their own team.

"She would love to play girls hockey but she wants to play out of Tavistock. We go to Junior C games and Senior A games. Her little brother plays there, her older brother used to play there and there's banners on the wall in Tavistock," he said.

"There's a lot of small town but hometown pride and they were excited about the fact of being able to potentially have an all-girls team in their hometown and get their banners on the wall as well."

Concerns about co-ed

Lafleur says there are other concerns beyond location. Right now, female players are on co-ed teams. It means when they travel, they sometimes have to share a changeroom with girls from the opposing team.

If no room is available for the female players, athletes are sometimes asked to share a room with the referees.

"We're talking about girls that are entering into the ages of puberty and everything else and they don't want that. They don't want to run the risk of a ref walking in when they're in the process of getting into their gear," Lafleur said. "The boys just don't have to deal with that."

He says there are also safety concerns as children become teens and the players grow at different rates.

"Mixed hockey works out fine when the bodies of the players are of similar size. But, more often than not, boys become much bigger than girls and hockey is a physical game," Lafleur said.

"There's no hitting involved at the level they're playing at but if they wanted to level up and play rep, there would be hitting involved and that's just not realistic."

After receiving interest from families within Tavistock Minor Hockey, officials sent a formal application to the Ontario Women's Hockey Association (OWHA) in January 2023 but were denied. (Jen McKee)

Plans to move forward

The denial letter is not dampening Tavistock Minor Hockey's spirit for an all-female squad in the future. McKee says she has already applied for a U9C team, U11C team, U13C team and a U1C team for the 2024-25 season.

McKee says she has also been in contact with nearby associations to potentially have a team registered under their umbrella.

If that were to happen, the team would still practise and have home games in Tavistock but they would be registered under another team's name as part of their local league.

That option would get the female players on the ice together, but it doesn't address Tavistock's ongoing challenges.

"Our girls want to be competitive," McKee said.

"So while local league is great, there's still lots of competitive levels above that and if we have a group of great girls at say the U11 age group, they would like to stay in Tavistock and still be a C or B [team] rather than have to settle for either the choice of a local league in Tavistock or they have to leave still to go to a different organization to play at their competitive level."

Currently, there are co-ed teams but Lafleur says as players get older, there are some complications such as safety and the need for different changerooms that need to be considered. (Jen McKee)

Following the recent success of the inaugural Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) season, Lafleur says the denial of an all-girls team was even more disappointing. He says if there is desire to grow the game, it needs to be grown at all levels because there's a demand for women's hockey.

"There's such a big push for equality between men's and women's sport. That all started at the grassroots when kids start growing up," he said.

"If you want the talent and you want the involvement with that PWHL, you have to involve the kids because that's where it all starts. None of those teams — whether it be NHL or PWHL — none of those teams exist without youth sports."