TRAVERSE CITY -- "C'mon Mom!"
Friday night, the face-offs at Centre Ice featured four house teams of enthusiastic female players who play hard and have fun doing it.
Starting with White pitted against Gold and then the Red team vs. Blue, the games drew a modest audience of family, friends and fellow players. On ice, hard skating and fierce play mixed with laughs, cheers and pointers.
At the end of the night, the final score is important but not the ultimate goal.
"It's a friendly game," said Gretchen Knoblock, of Traverse City.
Non-traditional cheers from the stands, see above, are often matched with similar cries on ice as four mother-daughter pairs populate the league. Three of the daughters played hockey together during high school, left for college and returned to the area. When they suit up now for weekly Wednesday night battles, there can be some interesting role reversals.
"She gives me pointers -- 'Skate faster!'" laughed Peggy Ferrill, of Traverse City, about her daughter Tammy.
"I wanted to be able to teach her something, to be better at something than her," chimes in Tammy of her mother's first hockey season on the ice.
Like other team members, Peggy Ferrill was a hockey mom for years, in her case putting two children through the sport. After years of watching from the sidelines, when the season began this October she decided it was her turn.
"It's just something I've always wanted to do and could never afford to do with two kids in hockey," she said. "It's a little bit more aggressive play than I thought but I'm doing OK. I am kind of hooked."
Diane Swoverland and daughter Arica, both of Kalkaska, have 23 years on ice between them, with mother outranking daughter in seniority 13 years to ten. Playing on the same team as adults they work pretty well together. An added bonus is sharing time together, both on ice and off.
"We talk all the way home in the car, lots of energy," Diane Swoverland said.
Motivations that draw women into the sport span the spectrum from exercise to camaraderie to the competition, noted Teresa Raffaele of Traverse City. Playing for five years as a member of both a house team and the travel team, Raffaele shares ice time with her daughter, Keanna Carboneau, also of Traverse City.
"This for me makes it even more special because I never dreamed I'd be skating on the same team," Raffaele said.
When Carboneau, in her eighth season, gives her mom some tips, Raffaele listens.
"I'm glad when she gives me pointers -- it's not mother-daughter on the bench, you're just part of the team," she said. "A lot of the women don't even know the game, they just come out and learn as they go. We all support each other."
The women's hockey teams draw players from around northwest Michigan. Traverse City also fields an adult women's travel team with most members also playing on the house leagues.
The number of players is closing in on 60, a number that reflects a growing interest in women's hockey. In the area, the sport has roots dating to the 1970s but the current era really began in 1992.
"Back in '92 when it got started up again, there were about 30-35 players, more or less just one big group," said Marlene Benkowski, a member of that era's resurgence whose daughter, Katie, now plays on her team. "Some of us from that group are still playing."
"I think were on a pretty good upswing now," she added of the cyclical ups and downs of the rosters. "I guess once they start playing they love it."
Hockey is not just for the young as five of the teams' over-50 players will again travel to Florida in April for a tournament that draws women from around the United States and Canada.
"We're really looking forward to it, it's fun," Benkowski said.
For more information on women's hockey teams in the Grand Traverse area, call Marlene Benkowski at (231) 938-2436.
Print this story
E-mail this story
