Her eyes open wide with admiration as the cashier hands her brother his hockey skates, and she cannot wait to get her own pair. But she doesn’t. Instead she is handed a pair of pretty white figure skates, like all the other girls. Her eyes are brought back down to her skates, knowing she will always feel different in the rink.
Even at 4 years old, Bella Mosley, freshman, said she knew hockey was for her. After four months of figure skating, Mosley made the decision to switch to hockey. However, Mosley said she will never be seen the same as a girl in a predominantly male sport.
“100% I have been treated differently, sports were made to be open to boys, everyone watches guys’ sports, hockey wasn’t meant for girls,” Mosley said. “Guys can start at a young age, but for girls it’s hard, and people think it’s weird because not a lot of [girls play hockey].”
Mosley said that the standard is different for guys and girls that play hockey. Like most girls at KHS, Mosley said she decided not to play hockey for KHS after hearing about other girls’ experiences.
“I didn’t think it would be very welcoming. Girls in the past that I have known that play for Kirkwood haven’t been treated the best,” Mosley said. “I feel like Kirkwood always tries to make it fair for both genders, but it’s not.”
Unlike Mosley, Chloe Vann, junior, decided to play hockey for KHS after her brother told her it would be a fun experience. She had already played on a guys’ team before and said she thought KHS hockey would be no different. After one season in high school, she was done and stuck to club.
“I played co-ed for three years for club [hockey] and it was fine, they all treated me normally,” Vann said. “High school was different. I was isolated, I was in my own locker room and people wouldn’t pass or talk to me.”
Although Vann said that her first few weeks with KHS hockey were fine, the feeling of being welcomed slowly began to slip away. She said it was like she wasn’t wanted anymore.
“As the season went on it became less welcoming, I started to not like going to practice, because I had nobody to talk to,” Vann said. “Sometimes it was like I wasn’t even there, [the coaches] would talk to people, but they would never make eye contact with me.”
Vann and Mosley both said that they disagree with KHS hockey’s placement of girls. Ava Whaley, freshman, plays for the AAA Blues and is on JV White at KHS. Mosley said that if it were a boy on AAA, he would automatically be on Varsity.
“There is a girl who plays right now, and she is really good but she was placed on the lowest JV team,” Vann said. “She could be really good for [the] team but I think they feel like having a girl on a good team would make them lose.”
Whaley said that in hockey, girls often are overlooked because it is considered to be a guys sport, and is generally less friendly to girls. However, Whaley said KHS hockey has been good to her so far, and gives her the faster pace she was looking for.
“I thought it would be a challenge [and] it just seemed like another reason to get involved in the school,” Whaley said. “All the guys are really nice and they talk to me, it can get lonely sometimes, but they are always super chill.”
