Hamber's Girls Ice Hockey Team Dominates Season

Photo Credit: Linh Nguyen

This winter season, Hamber’s Girls Ice Hockey team took to the ice and played a highly enjoyable season. Despite not having a practice and game space on school grounds, they were able to push through with excellent play, conquering many challenges throughout the season.

Part of the dedication required to play on the team stems from the fact that games and practices happen all over Vancouver. Mikayla Chan (11) has been playing for Hamber since grade 8, after being convinced by Ms. T. Macleod (Physical Education) to join the team. Chan shared that having to go somewhere other than Hamber for practices and games “definitely makes things a lot more complicated and inconvenient as [the team] always [has] to arrange rides.”

Making use of community-centre rinks in Vancouver, the team’s practices usually take place at Hillcrest Centre, while their games happen at Killarney, Kitsilano, or Hillcrest. Chan says attending games and practices will be less stressful next year when she can drive herself around. “Very often players can’t make it to practices due to this, which makes it a lot harder during games, so we just try to plan ahead of schedule and communicate,” she shared.

Quin Sayer (10) joined the team more recently than Chan, but she’s played hockey outside of school for 10 years. Sayer isn’t bothered by having to go elsewhere for practices and games since she “already has to travel to get to rinks often and doesn't mind the trek [...] Our team overcomes this obstacle by choosing rinks close to our school. Our practice times are typically right before or after school, so we go directly to the rink from school and vice versa.”

After five years of playing for Hamber, team captain Rebecca Barrett (12) has had lots of experience with the unusual structure of practices and games. She shared that not having practice space at Hamber is difficult, but also understands that it would be a challenge to maintain a rink at the school. “Hockey is a lot different from other sports, whereas in soccer you could just go out in a field to practice, it's a lot more difficult and costly to get ice time to practice [hockey],” Barrett shared.

The team’s teacher sponsor and coach, Ms. Macleod, had never been a part of a hockey program before launching Hamber’s team, a decision that was spurred by one of her students. Ms. Macleod said that the student “repeatedly expressed her confusion about why we did not offer ice hockey at the school.” Her consistency and enthusiasm while advocating for a girls ice hockey team persuaded Ms. Macleod to start the program. “What began as a response to one student’s question quickly became an opportunity to provide more students with access to the sport,” she said. 

Initially, the hockey program faced many challenges due to not having dedicated ice time. According to Ms. Macleod, “The girls often had to arrange transportation to different areas, sometimes at inconvenient times, which added another layer of difficulty for both players and their families.”

A second challenge was establishing their team within the Vancouver hockey community.  Over time, the league became more structured and organized, meetings took place, and the coaches and organizers advocated for space and more attention for high school teams. “Over time, we were able to find a workable rhythm,” Ms. Macleod noted. “We secured at least one practice per week along with one game per week, which provided the team with consistency and stability.”

Since games are not held at the school and many students don’t show up to watch, Ms. MacLeod puts stats, shoutouts, and game results on the morning announcements. With this, she aims to keep the school posted and share the team’s strengths and skills.

Some players don’t mind the fact that Hamberites don’t typically watch school hockey games, such as Eleanor Uy (11), who is the team's goalie and has been a part of the team since grade 9. Uy shared that having games at Hamber may only add “pressure” and “stress” for the players. However, Naomi Duifhuis (10), who has been on the team since grade 8, wishes that Hamber students could watch games to bring the same spirit and attention that other sports get, such as basketball or volleyball. 

The team has performed extremely well throughout the season, winning all their games except for one. Chan shared that even though the season has been busy, it has been fun and she has “noticed that many of our returning players have improved so much since last year, which is great!” Playoffs began on Feb. 27, with Hamber playing their first playoff game Mar. 2. Hamber won their semifinal game against Point Grey Secondary, and proceeded to take down Kitsilano in the championship game on Mar. 3.