Photo Karen Graham.
Local ladies face off in a recreational ball hockey league on Monday nights in the arena.
Every Monday evening during the summer, it’s the women who are showing their stuff along the boards at the Millbrook arena in a Women’s Ball Hockey League. It began eleven years ago, and organizer Guye Vondette was there from the start. With eight teams playing each week, Vondette is on the floor from 6 to 10 pm for the Women’s League, but he also runs the Minor Ball Hockey League, adding three more evenings a week to his Millbrook commitments in the summer.
The league is open to girls 14 years old and up, and the age range is significant; the teenagers have teammates in their late 50s. Teams generally sign up as a group, but at the beginning of the season Vondette will assign individuals wanting to join will be assigned to an existing team if required. The league runs from April until August.
Most of the players are from Peterborough but there are two teams with formed by local players. Three years ago, a group of Millbrook ladies organized a team and put their pride on the line in this recreational league. Since then it has taken a bashing, as the team sponsored by the Berardi Brothers have only pulled off a single win in their three years, but the members seem to take it in stride. They know they are underdogs, as most of them are hockey moms, not hockey players, but they are heading in the right direction. They are also setting an example for their children, some of whom are tearing around the arena while their mothers tear around the playing floor.
There’s plenty of camaraderie on the bench, and language is clean and good-natured- even when their goalie puts it in their own net. The game requires many skills, not the least of which is conditioning, and the projection of that orange ball seems much less predictable than a regular hockey puck. These women are up to the challenge.
Games consist of two 16 minute periods with a three minute warm up, with 6 runners or 5 runners and 1 goalie on the floor. There are blue lines but they are considered to be “floating” so their relevance is not as consistent as they are in ice hockey.
With full equipment, the players experience few injuries except to their dignity. From the stands, it looks like a fun way to get in shape, bond with some local ladies and set an example for the younger crowd with screen addictions. Game on! KG
