2006 – 2007 News Archives
March 7, 2007
Calgary Tops MN Whitecaps in WWHL Championship
The third annual WWHL Championships were held March 2-4th in Kelowna British Columbia. The B.C. Breakers were matched up with the Minnesota Whitecaps in Game 1 and the Calgary Oval X-Treme vs. the Edmonton Chimos.
The Whitecaps got on the board early in the first period with a goal from defender Chelsey Brodt assisted by Ryann Geldner and Rush Zimmerman. Minnesota opened the flood gates with four more goals in the first period by Rush Zimmerman, Jenny Potter, Kristin King and Brooke White. The Breakers regrouped and played much better defense in the second period holding the Whitecaps to one goal by Natalie Darwitz assisted by Winny Brodt. The Breakers finally broke through with a goal at 6:03 of the third period by Breaker, Karen Thatcher, a member of the US National Team. The final goal comes off the steel of Brooke White assisted by Brianna Jentner, final score 7-1 Whitecaps. Sanya Sandahl goalie for the Whitecaps played terrific in the net to lead the team to the second round. Natalie Darwitz was player of the game for the Whitecaps and Karen Thatcher of the B.C. Breakers.
With the win the Whitecaps were matched up with the Edmonton Chimos who had lost Friday to the Calgary X-Treme 10-1. The Whitecaps scored the only goal of the first period late on a power play by Natalie Darwitz. Edmonton came back early in the second period and tied the game at 1 with Ashleigh Schols scoring even strength. There was no scoring till 1:09 left in the second period when Kristin King, a member of the U. S. Olympic team, knocked in a goal with Brooke White and Natalie Darwitz assisting on the power play. In the third period the Whitecaps broke the game open on goals by Brooke White and Kristin King assisted by Brianna Jentner and Kobi Kawamoto. The Chimos took three late penalties that sealed their fates in the Whitecaps victory. The goal tending by Megan Van Beusekom was outstanding saving 27 of 28 shots for the win. Natalie Darwitz was player of the game for the Whitecaps and Ashleigh Schols for Edmonton. The win by the Whitecaps put them into the Championships of the WWHL against the reigning league champions the Calgary Oval X-Treme whose only loss in three years was to the Whitecaps in Minnesota on December 10th by a 2-1 score.
The X-treme led by Haley Wickenheiser, a member of the Canadian Olympic Gold medal team and regarded as the best women’s female player in the world, scored first with Danialle Gozette matching the goal assisted by Correne Bredin and Wickenheiser. The Whitecaps responded immediately with a goal by Rush Zimmerman assisted by Carrie Holldorf and Ashley Albrecht. Monica Dupuis scored late in the first period to give the Calgary X-Treme the lead after one period. In the second period Wickenheiser, Goyette and Duprirs scored unassisted goals to take a commanding lead in the third period. At the end of the second period Caesare Stimson went heavy into the boards and broke her leg which left the Whitecaps short a forward. Despite the excellent goal tending of Shari Vogt the Whitecaps could not hold off the 3 goals in the third period by Calgary and fell 7-1 in the final. Haley Wickenheiser and Natalie Darwitz were players of the game.
The WWHL Tournament All-star team was announced between the second and third periods of the Championship Game. The goal tender was Jennifer Price of the B. C Breakers, on defense from Calgary was Colleen Sostorics, two times Olympic Gold Medalist and from the Whitecaps Chelsey Brodt of the University of Minnesota and two time NCAA National Champion. The forwards were Natalie Darwitz, two time University of Minnesota NCAA National Champion and two times Olympic Bronze Medalist along with Kristin King of the Whitecaps an Olympic Bronze Medalist. The third forward was Haley Wickenheiser, one time Olympic Silver Medalist and two times Olympic Gold Medalist.
At the WWHL League Banquet on March 3rd the League awards were announced. The offensive player of the year was Haley Wickenheiser of the Calgary Oval X-Treme. The Defensive Player of the year was Winny Brodt of the Minnesota Whitecaps, and the League MVP was Natalie Darwitz of the Minnesota Whitecaps. The Minnesota Whitecaps will be holding Team Tryouts May 5th and 6th at St. Louis Park Arena for the 2007 -08 season. For additional information please contact the Whitecaps at 612-414-0362 and visit the Minnesota Whitecaps web site at MinnesotaWhitecaps.com.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
January 26, 2007
Women Pay for a Chance to Play
They certainly looked like professionals, even if they weren’t.
The Minnesota Whitecaps of the Western Women’s Hockey League, field a lineup that has three United States Olympians and three others with national team experience.
So what’s wrong with this picture? The “professionals” part. None of the women earned a dime for playing. On the contrary: Whitecaps players paid up to $1,000 each to play this season, and they also had to pay for their equipment. No one in the organization, from General Manager Rick Albrecht to the players to the team doctor, draws a salary.
The team never practices because there is no money in the budget for the ice time. Players bunk four to a room on the road. Many have full-time jobs, and the coaches never know from night to night who will show up.
The Whitecaps’ situation is not unique in the six-team W.W.H.L., or the more established National Women’s Hockey League in eastern Canada. Minnesota is the only United States franchise in either league. Most teams struggle along, playing before meager crowds and scrambling to make ends meet.
That, says Whitecaps forward and three-time United States Olympian Tricia Dunn-Luoma, is the price for establishing a place for women to play high-level hockey after college.
“It’s fitting pieces together,” she said, “and we make it work.”
Neither USA Hockey nor Hockey Canada, the Olympic governing bodies, offers direct financial support to the leagues. Julie Healy, Hockey Canada’s director for female hockey, also coaches the W.W.H.L. team in Strathmore, Alberta. She said her players contributed $500 each to play.
Even the Calgary Oval X-treme, with the two-time Olympic gold medalist Hayley Wickenheiser heading a roster of Canadian national team veterans and hopefuls, has trouble drawing fans in its home rink, which was the 1988 Olympic speedskating site. Healy said that a Wednesday night game between her team and the X-treme attracted 70 people. Strathmore has had better luck sharing Sunday bills with a men’s Midget AAA team. Those dates, she said, can bring in 250 people.
“We want the leagues to be successful,” Healy said in a telephone interview from Calgary, Alberta. “I would very much like all the teams to provide enough revenue and sponsorships so the players don’t have to pay anything to play.”
The Whitecaps, were formed more than three years ago by Jack Brodt and Dwayne Schmidgall, hockey parents whose daughters and their friends needed a place to play after college. Jenny Schmidgall Potter, a three-time Olympian, and Winny Brodt played together on the United States national team and briefly at the University of Minnesota. Jack Brodt is the Whitecaps’ coach.
Although some Americans have played in the N.W.H.L. — Whitecaps forward Kristin King, a United States Olympian, was in that league for two years — the situation is not ideal.
Roster spots are limited; teams can carry only four players from outside their province. One year, King said, sponsorships covered the players’ fee.
But Canadian labor laws make it nearly impossible for Americans to be hired. Americans of lesser financial means live hand to mouth.
“My first year, I lived in six different places,” King said. “I slept on an air mattress in a lawyer’s office.”
Sensing a need for a United States-based team, Brodt and Schmidgall stepped in. They were among 10 investors who contributed $2,000 in each of the first two seasons to help cover the Whitecaps’ expenses.
Brodt said the team’s operating budget was about $45,000 a season. With 25 or so players chipping in shares, the team broke even the first two years, Brodt said.
After five investors dropped out, leaving the team $10,000 short of operating capital, Brodt and Schmidgall became creative. Instead of securing a home rink, they solicited youth hockey associations around the state to sponsor games as fund-raisers.
The associations keep the gate receipts and the concessions but also pay for the ice time, saving the team a major expense.
The Minnesota Wild has helped with two fund-raising events, Brodt said, and USA Hockey provides referees.
“We need all the help we can get,” Brodt said. “When we spend the stockholders’ equity, that’s not a good thing.
“We’d love to have USA Hockey give us $10,000 or $20,000, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
It probably will not. Michele Amidon, USA Hockey’s newly hired director for women’s hockey operations, said the organization preferred to help individual players in the national development program rather than teams. The United States Olympic Committee gives stipends to such players.
“It’s kind of a tough situation,” Amidon said. “We need to put our resources where it can help the most players.
“I think what the Whitecaps are doing is great. It gives opportunities for girls to compete at a high level after their college eligibility. There are probably four or five girls on the roster in our elite group. I think if we got in a situation where they were taking 15 players, that’s another thing.”
King, a Dartmouth graduate and a 2006 Olympian, lives in Columbus, Ohio, and flies in for selected weekend games. The Whitecaps pay her airfare. If not for this, she said, she would be playing pickup men’s hockey in Columbus. But she wants to make the Olympic team for the 2010 Vancouver Games, and playing for the Whitecaps is the best way for her to improve.
“I can’t say that if I wasn’t training for the national team, that I would be doing this,” she said.
Schmidgall concedes that the team will probably never make money. So he recently registered the Whitecaps as a nonprofit group, which he hopes will better attract potential sponsors.
At games, many pre-teenage girls in hockey uniforms lean over the glass and high-five players entering and leaving the ice between periods. Those girls are why Amber Hegland, a 30-year-old physical education teacher and the girls’ hockey coach at suburban Wayzata High School, skipped dinner and came to play Saturday night.
“The main reason is for the kids,” she said. “We’re trying to create something so they have an opportunity to play past high school and past college.”
An opportunity that, perhaps one day, they will not have to pay for.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
January 17, 2007
The Kitten Club – Lacing up the skates of the future
The Kitten Club is a new program set up through the Chisago Lakes Hockey Association and the Chisago Lakes High School Girls Hockey program. The program is designed to foster relationships and empower girls through the sport of hockey. Each of the girls involved has been paired with a Varsity or Junior Varsity “Big Sister mentor”. The girls will participate in activities throughout the season with their Big Sister such as attending and playing games, picture events, a poster making session and a year end pizza party. There are 81 girls involved in the program. Without the assistance of the High School coaches Jason Mahlen and Mark Gibson as well as the support of our kitten parents this program wouldn’t be possible.
The website for further info is http://chisagolakes.pucksystems2.com/page/show/3863 and that will link to our new site. Thanks for your interest in our program.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
December 1, 2006
National Girls and Women in Sports Day
Nominate Someone You Know!
National Girls and Women in Sports Day
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda
National Girls and Women in Sports Day is a time to celebrate the accomplishments in girls and women’s sports, to recognize our state’s leaders and athletes, and to look to the future.
As part of this national celebration, your school or organization is invited to participate in the 21st Annual Minnesota Girls and Women in Sports Day “Breaking Barriers” Awards program. This program honors individuals and organizations that have broken barriers to provide athletic opportunities for girls and women of all races, all ages, and all levels of ability.
It’s easy to participate in the 2007 “Breaking Barriers” Awards program. Simply follow the steps below and return the enclosed application by December 8, 2006. The individual or organization you select will receive the “Breaking Barrier Award” at Minnesota’s NGWSD celebration at the State Capitol Rotunda in St. Paul, Wednesday, February 7 at 12:00 noon. More than 200 people from across the state will attend this event. We hope you will be there!
Follow these easy steps to nominate someone from your community:
1. Select an individual or organization that has “broken barriers” or made an impact for girls and/or women in your parks department, school or program. This may be a coach, parent, administrator, booster club, etc.
2. Consider these criteria when selecting your award winner:
- significant contribution to girls’/women’s sports in your community
- contribution is over an extended period of time
- positive attitude; an exceptional role model
- attune to the special needs of girls and boys in sports
3. Fill out the enclosed application and return by December 8, 2006 to:
North Country Region USA Volleyball
Judy Praska
4100 Poplar Bridge Road
Bloomington, MN 55437
Fax: 952-942-5584 or e-mail to judy@ncrusav.org
4. Make plans to attend the rally on February 7, 2007 and consider planning your own community event to recognize the award recipient.
Please call Judy Praska at 952-831-9150 ext. 10 if you have any questions or concerns. The 2007 Breaking Barriers Award Application is also available on the Downloads page.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
November, 4, 2006
Women’s Hockey
This is a story about living out your dream. How much are you willing to do in order to keep on playing the game you have loved ever since you could remember. When the only chance to play was with the boy’s or not play at all. You played for the love of the game because you wanted to, even when everyone else wondered why were you playing. Deep down inside something told you that this was the start of something big. This was a dream that was becoming reality where all little girls will want to end up playing for the Minnesota Whitecaps. Keep the dream alive and never, ever stop believing that someday the NHL will talk about this as an example of how dreams can become reality.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
October, 23, 2006
Whitecaps pay a big price to play the game they love
Many professional athletes insist they play for love, not for money. The Minnesota Whitecaps don’t have the luxury of pondering such questions, but they do dream of the day when women’s hockey players are earning checks rather than writing them.
The Whitecaps are the only U.S. team in the National Women’s Hockey League, the highest level of post-college league play available to women in North America. The 26 players on the roster do not get paid. In fact, it’s quite the opposite; all of them, including former Olympians and NCAA champions, are paying about $1,000 each — plus the cost of their equipment — to participate this season.
With money a non-factor, the Whitecaps exist purely for love. And even on that side of ! the equation, they tend to give more than they receive.
The Whitecaps aren’t playing just for fun. They are also playing for the future, to open up the ice for the girls who will follow.
“This is a big part of who we are,” said forward Amber Hegland, who played hockey and softball for the Gophers. “We all share the common goal of creating more opportunity for girls to play, and we want to put ourselves up there as role models and leaders for young girls.
“It’s tough, and it means making sacrifices. But this is a choice I would make 10 times out of 10, because I believe in it. This is going to help women’s hockey grow.”
Last Sunday, about 75 people showed up to watch the Whitecaps finish their first homestand of the season at Schwan’s Super Rink. They defeated Saskatchewan 6-0 to sweep a three-game series, part of a 27-game regular-season schedule that runs from October through February.
The team was born in 2004, when Jack Brodt! and Dwayne Schmidgall hit up several of their hockey buddies ! for the $20,000 it would cost to buy an expansion franchise in the NWHL. When the westernmost teams in that league decided to secede, the Whitecaps joined to form the Western Women’s Hockey League. The two leagues, which now include 13 teams, merged last summer.
As with any fledgling sports enterprise, sponsors, media attention and funding have been scarce. The Whitecaps operate on financial margins as narrow as a skate blade; this season’s budget will run between $40,000 and $50,000. None of the team employees receives a salary, and ice time often is paid for by youth hockey associations that plays host to home games at area rinks.
Team physician Dr. Howard Fidler estimates he has donated nearly $60,000 worth of time and equipment. “It would be nice to be compensated, but that’s not why we’re doing this,” he said. “I’m the father of two girls. This needs to happen for them.”
The Whitecaps roster includes U.S. Olympians Jenny Potter, Natalie Darwitz, Trici! a Dunn-Luoma and Kristin King. Several former members of the U.S. national team, including Winny Brodt, Shari Vogt, Megan Van Beusekom, Brooke White, and Julianne Vasichek, also are on the team, as is Canadian Olympian Caroline Ouellette.
Most of the players have jobs, and not all of them live in the Twin Cities. That makes it difficult to travel to road games or practice regularly. Hegland works around her schedule as a teacher and coach at Wayzata High School; Brodt, as a sales rep for a hockey equipment company, has a sympathetic employer that allows her a flexible schedule.
Yet they also make time to play the role of hockey’s big sisters. The Whitecaps meet their fans and sign autographs after all their games, and they give hockey clinics for youth teams.
“When we grew up, we all wanted to be Larry Olimb or Wayne Gretzky,” Hegland said. “We didn’t have female role models who were playing hockey. We need to pass along our knowledge to the kids,! and maybe five or 10 years from now, they can aspire to be wh! ere we’r e at.”
The Whitecaps are working to quash the adage that you can’t play hockey without a cup — in more ways than one. Adrienne Clarkson, Canada’s former governor general, has commissioned a silver cup that will be awarded annually to the best team in women’s hockey. It currently is held by Canada’s national team, which won the 2006 Olympic gold medal, but discussions are underway that could make it the championship trophy of the NWHL.
As nice as that sounds, it really isn’t what drives women such as Brodt. “If you look at this roster, most of us are pioneers of women’s hockey in Minnesota,” she said. “We took the attitude that if we weren’t first, maybe it wouldn’t get going for a few more years.
“Now we have the chance to do something more, to give girls an opportunity we never had. It isn’t easy. But it has to start somewhere.”
