Volunteer organizers are putting out a call to the community in search of any girls interested in forming up an all-female hockey team for the 2017-18 season.
Sundre resident Katie Jo Munro felt there should be a local option for a girls' hockey team, and recently began an informal process of asking people who might be interested in getting together to start making plans.
"I was very lucky to have sports growing up," said Munro, expressing her gratitude for the volunteers and coaches who steered programs like ringette, which she was actively engaged in as a teenager in the 1990s.
Essentially wanting to pay it forward, the avid sporting enthusiast told the Round Up during a phone interview while she was walking local trails with her dog in freezing weather that having local sporting options for young girls provides a variety of benefits.
"It definitely gives them the reality of how strong they can be."
Gender roles tend to typecast young girls as delicate, and Munro wants to challenge such stereotypes.
"They don't just have to be polite little girls. They can be strong sporting women."
Additionally, team sports like hockey not only offer a physical outlet to stay active, but they are also a great way to create and establish a supportive network. Having a support group of girls around helps to build up young women's confidence and self-esteem, she said.
"It makes for stronger women in the world."
So far, the initial interest in starting up a girls' hockey team in Sundre for next season has encouraged Munro, who said about a dozen youths aged 5-15 have already expressed a desire to play. The Sundre Minor Hockey Association's president, Dorothy Thengs, did not hesitate to support Munro's efforts.
"She's the one that's done all the fact finding ó it's good to have strong volunteers like Dorothy."
The minor hockey president immediately got behind Munro's push.
"We were totally surprised that there's this many girls that want to play on a female team," Thengs told the Round Up.
So she approached the minor hockey board, which decided to pursue the initiative and will be applying for a spot in the Rocky Mountain Female Hockey League through the local association. That application has to be in by April 1, and the association should hear back in June, she said.
"As soon as we hear word from the Rocky Mountain Female League, we'll go from there."
Registration events will be held in the coming months, and she said to keep an eye out for dates to be advertised.
Munro, who hopes to be among the team's coaches, said anyone who wants to either get involved or find out more is welcome to contact her by email at [email protected].
