Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 23, 2008

CHESTERFIELD INLET/RANKIN INLET - Female hockey in Nunavut has been on a steady decline during the past few years and some are worried the game might disappear altogether if more isn't done to attract players to the ice.

Ana Leishman of Chesterfield Inlet said female hockey has become almost non-existent in many communities and it's time to focus on revitalizing the game.

She said Chester and Gjoa Haven still have good programs and Repulse Bay is hanging on, but there's not much more on the go.

"There's lots of women who want to play, but there needs to be ice time made available and people in the communities have to start taking the female game more seriously," said Leishman.

"There must be a way to bring hockey people together and figure out a way to get the ladies playing again."

Leishman said a good first step would be to hold a special day in each community to register female players.

She said the next step would be for rec co-ordinators to make ice time available for the female game.

"It's hard to believe a town the size of Rankin Inlet has no female hockey program, especially a town that loves hockey so much.

"There must be more than one or two girls in Rankin who want to play hockey.

"Even if each community had one specific day a week for females of all ages to get together and have some fun playing hockey, that would be a start, you know?"

The key to reviving the female game may rest in getting girls aged eight to 10 interested in playing again.

Leishman said once a community has its females registered and willing to come out to a designated ice time each week, it can then look at things like equipment sharing and fundraising.

She said there's women in every community who want to play, but they have no idea how to get things started, and that's where hockey organizations and rec co-ordinators have to help out.

"We used to have ice four nights a week and then we had that cut in half by a former rec director.

"One of the times we were left with was 5:30 p.m., and how many women can get away from their households at 5:30 p.m. to play hockey?

"The ice has to be available at reasonable times."

Chester, Repulse and Gjoa Haven take turns hosting the Young at Heart female hockey tournament.

Chester has even helped pay Repulse's way to past tournaments.

Leishman said Chester's lucky to have Linda Putulik and Rose Mullins involved with the female game.

She said female hockey gets to hold a number of bingo games during the year to raise funds for travel and registration.

"This can be done in any community, but someone has to take the lead and get things started.

"Hockey is a great game we can all participate in, and it's a shame to see so many missing out on that."

Hockey Nunavut president Donald Clark said the explosion in popularity of indoor soccer and volleyball has affected the number of younger girls playing hockey.

He said the organization has already decided to pass on a major event to concentrate more on female hockey.

"We were asked to compete in the Aboriginal North American Championship for bantam- and midget-aged players," said Clark.

"But our top priority, before we enter another event that would cost a significant amount of money, is to better serve the 20 per cent of our membership who are female.

"We're going to work to establish a Nunavut female championship in 2008-09 in hopes it will spark interest and get more girls playing again.

"We hope to use the female Arctic Winter Games camp in Baker Lake this coming month to chat it up and spark some interest in a community to host the event."

Clark said Hockey Nunavut knows its female program is not doing well.

He said he can't speak to other communities, but ice time would be made available in Rankin if interest in female hockey began to bounce back.

"If there was a group in Rankin enthusiastic about the game and willing to register, getting ice time wouldn't be a problem.

"Female hockey used to be fairly popular in Rankin not that long ago, but as the girls leading the way got older there didn't seem to be a young group of players behind them who had any interest in carrying on.

"There were exceptions such as Gloria Kaludjak who was, and still is, a solid hockey player, but the influence of indoor soccer seemed to take a lot of female players away from hockey.

"There's more soccer and volleyball tournaments now than ever before, and the cost to play those sports is considerably less than hockey, which is also a drawing point for those sports."