Oct 25 - Hamilton Spectator

[Becky Kellar]

Girls just wanna play hockey

And now they can be tutored by a couple of Canadian greats

Helping young women Becky Kellar, pictured, had a spectacular 14-year career in hockey filled with championships. Now, she and former teammate Cheryl Pounder have started one of the first hockey schools in the area exclusively for girls.

Canadian Press File Photo

If you are a National Hockey League star who’s just retired after a spectacular 14-year career filled with individual honours and championships, life is pretty simple. You spend your days at your massive Muskoka cottage, play a little golf and basically live off the fortune you’ve amassed.

In other words, pretty much the same thing a women’s hockey star who has just retired after a spectacular 14-year career filled with championships does, right?

“No,” laughs Becky Kellar. “Definitely not.”

Argue about the fairness of it all if you must but the game didn’t inject millions of dollars into her bank account. So what do you do when you are a 36-year-old mother of two young children and you are looking to start building the next segment of your life?

You do what you know. Which is how she and former teammate Cheryl Pounder have started one of the first hockey schools in the area exclusively for girls. Strictly Hockey — strictlyhockey.ca for those looking online — is going after what’s still an underserviced segment of the exploding hockey-school industry.

Most schools have always accepted girls to play with the boys. The two multi-time Olympians are trying to flip that on its head and build an entirely different environment for their students.

“I just think a lot of girls are more comfortable and enjoy it when it’s just girls,” the Hagersville-born Burlington resident says.

Their second career actually started a decade ago when both were still playing on the national team. The two operated summer camps in southern Ontario. Problem was, they still had to train for their own on-ice careers, which meant they had only half-days to run their programs. It limited what they could do and how much time they could invest in building their brand.

Once they retired, though, they had nothing but time. Other than the fact they both have two young kids, of course. Anyway, today they’re operating several summer camps in various cities, operating PA Day programs, doing custom sessions for leagues who covet their input and even offer a daytime course for adults in Burlington. The last item, in particular, has been a revelation.

“We were kind of surprised there were that many women out there looking for instruction,” she says.

So much, they’ll be running a second one starting in January.

Still, the largest segment of their potential business is girls. According to Hockey Canada statistics, participation in the female game has risen by more than 1,000 per cent over the past 20 years. More than 300 per cent since Kellar first joined the national team in 1997.

Ancaster peewee player Bailey Miller is one of those recent arrivals to the game. She’s been to hockey camps that were a mix of both boys and girls. But, after a session with Kellar and Pounder and her team on the weekend, she says it was way different.

“It was more fun because all my friends were there,” the 12-year-old says. “And because nobody was being bad and making them stop and start over again.”

Um, by nobody, do you mean boys, Bailey?

“Yeah.”

That’s not an uncommon comment, Kellar says. She hears variations on the theme regularly. Girls enjoy skating with other girls, and playing for female coaches. Yet, in case that alone wasn’t enough to set them apart, she and Pounder pull out their secret weapons.

They’ll usually wear some of their Team Canada gear to the rink. They’ll bring some memorabilia from their careers, too. And, once every session, the participants are treated to some time with the pair’s astounding collection of medals. For Kellar, that means four gold and three silver from the world championships. Which is just the appetizer for the three gold and one silver from her four Olympics. Including Vancouver.

You want to start up a competing camp? Trump that.

“We’ve had people tear up as we put them in their hands,” Kellar says.

That’s the parents, mostly. The kids generally just think it’s really cool. Maybe even inspiring. And most are surprised by the same thing.

“They were heavy,” Miller says.

Not to mention how much fun they had playing with the girls alone.