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Girls' hockey program is one for record book
(by Steve Novak - March 24, 2010)
Girls' hockey program is one for record book
By STEVE NOVAK
Gilmour Academy hockey director John Malloy said the addition of a second hockey program at the school began about 10 years ago when one the Lancers was body-checked during a game.
"There was a girl playing for the varsity boys' hockey team. She was tiny, about 4-foot-9. Her name was Andrea Pinchak, and we were watching right there in the front row," Malloy said. "She was on defense and she got hit. She must have flown 7 feet in the air. So I turned to our headmaster and I said, 'I think we need a girls team.'"
A little more than a year later, Malloy had hired a coach and helped him assemble Gilmour's varsity girls' hockey team. It remains the only high school girls' hockey team in Ohio.
The Lady Lancers are in their eighth season, under the guidance of head coach Rick Filaghera. With a squad that includes 19 girls, the team plays in a girls' prep league called the North American Prep Hockey Association. The league includes schools from Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and several cities in Canada.
The quality of play in the North American prep league can be quickly explained by scanning a list of women's college hockey teams on which former Gilmour women athletes have played. The list includes Dartmouth, Princeton, Connecticut and Rochester Institute of Technology.
According to Filaghera, the interest in hockey isn't just something that suddenly comes upon a young lady when she goes to high school. He said that all of the players on his team were in an organized hockey program years before they came to Gilmour.
Filaghera has been coaching at Gilmour for five seasons. He said because Gilmour is one of the few high schools which has a girls' hockey program, the Gates Mills school has continually attracted hockey enthusiasts from all across the country.
"We have girls on our team from California, Kentucky and North Carolina' he said. "They come from areas that don't have a lot of hockey programs for girls. They come here to play, and to get exposure. Quite a lot of our players have gone on to play in college, and have done quite well."
One of the members of this year's team is Camille Corbin, of San Diego, a junior forward, and one of the team leaders in scoring.
Corbin said she first put on ice skates and picked up a hockey stick when she was in the fifth grade. "I was about 10 years old and we were living in Southern California," she said. "It was about an hour and a half drive from San Diego to the rink in Anaheim for me to play. t was a lot of dedication on the part of my parents to get me there."
Corbin said she played on a municipal league hockey team throughout her years in junior high school. Each time for practice or for a game, she said there was always the 90-minute drive to Anaheim.
Corbin said her choice of Gilmour was a combination of considering academics and sports.
"Hockey was like a 50-50 draw in choosing Gilmour," she said. "The other half was about the educational program. When we saw Gilmour, everything fell into place. It's equal in both hockey and education."
Sara Giesenger is one of the members of the team who didn't travel from out of state to play hockey. Giesenger, a sophomore forward, lives in Willoughby.
Among Giesenger's prior hockey experience, her resume includes playing for a season on the Lake Catholic boys' junior varsity hockey team before she transferred to Gilmour.
Giesenger said she liked playing for Lake Catholic, but the prospect of more ice time and more exposure appealed to her.
"I played jayvee, but the skill level was still pretty good," Giesenger said. "I wanted to stay for another year, but then I decided on Gilmour because of hockey and getting noticed."
Giesenger also said she was in the fifth grade when she started playing competitive hockey. She played in a Mentor co-ed league before her jayvee season at Lake Catholic.
"The girls' leagues are slower paced," she said. "With the girls there's more skating and less hitting."
Filaghera said the one big difference between high school boys' and girls' hockey rules is the prohibition of body checks in the girls' games. There is the incidental bumping which occurs when two or more players converge on the puck, but deliberate contact to knock another player out of the way isn't allowed.
Filaghera said that Giesenger is another of the leading scorers on this year's team. The other leading scorer is Taylor Volpe, a senior, from Tustin, Calif. Other members of the team hail from Kentucky, North Carolina and Arizona.
The team finished its regular season with a 16-9 record.
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