February 7, 2010
The VOSHA Lady Coyotes are bringing girls hockey to a whole new level
The VOSHA Lady Coyotes call Phoenix's Arcadia Ice Arena home. This month, Full Strength, a diversified training facility catering to elite athletes, kids and adults, will open on the second floor of the building. (Dave Getz/A-ZPhoto.com)
It's hard for Gayle Shalloo to believe that the VOSHA Lady Coyotes, the premier all-girls travel ice hockey program in Arizona, are just four years old.
"It's scary," she said. "We're going to have a bunch of former players next season who'll be going into their junior year playing in college."
Maybe time really does fly when you're having fun, and it's easy to have fun when you can see success straight ahead. And one would be hard-pressed to find any of the Lady Coyotes players, under the direction of Shalloo, assistant coach Jen Lipman and a host of dedicated volunteers, administrators and on-ice support, not having fun - not with the Lady Coyotes program on the fast track to becoming one of the nation's best all-girls hockey organizations.
"We've done a lot already," Shalloo said, "and that makes me think we still have a lot for our girls to accomplish going forward, too."
In the four years Shalloo has been the director of the Lady Coyotes, the program seems to hit some sort of new milestone after milestone every year.
The program has proved it can play with the boys, competing annually - and being one of the top junior varsity teams - in the Arizona High School Hockey Association, and proved it can play at the national level, with the then-U14 team winning a Rocky Mountain district championship and earning a trip to nationals in 2008.
Last summer might have been the best example of where girls and women's hockey is going in Arizona: a record nine Arizona girls were selected to participate in USA Hockey National Development Camps. Only six boys from Arizona were selected - a crowning achievement for Shalloo's program considering seven of those girls spent time wearing a Lady Coyotes jersey.
Now, Shalloo says, the program is set to graduate its largest class ever, with a big chunk moving onto play at the college level.
"I feel like for the first time, these kids are really starting to see success in other areas than just the improvement in practice," Shalloo said. "I think they're really starting to see that their hard work is starting to pay off where everyone can see it."
Leading by Example
Shalloo admits that during her playing days, which stretched from national camps to prep school and eventually into the opportunity to play collegiately at Providence College, she was always coached by men.
Not that it was a bad thing by any stretch, she contends, but Shalloo said that among the best parts of being a woman coaching a team of girls is that there are very few situations her players will face - on or off the ice - that she hasn't experienced herself.
"I've never been coached by a female coach, and I look at these kids and see how they respond to me and (Lipman)," explained Shalloo, still only 27 herself, yet with quite the lengthy playing and coaching resume. "It's made me realize we're more than just coaches to these kids. We've been there ourselves, so we're showing them that we know what they're going through."
Shalloo said it also helps that she and her fellow female coaches can serve as walking, breathing examples of what the girls have to strive for.
"I've done realistic things that all of these kids can aspire to do," she said, "and I think that makes it much more realistic for them to think they can do that."
National Exposure
"This is also the first year that we've had so many kids from out of state," Shalloo explains. "Including Arizona, our (U19) team has kids from four states."
Shalloo said she's as dedicated as anyone to developing hockey within Arizona - and that includes the development of Arizona players.
The one caveat to that, however, is that success breeds interest.
"But on the flip side, I want to give other kids the option of playing for us from out of state. In places like Montana and New Mexico, they don't have programs like this.
"We want to give any female hockey player in the Southwest the same opportunities."
Shalloo said she also thinks that by putting the best team on the ice, earning the Lady Coyotes brand more national and local recognition year-in and year-out, more young Arizona girls will grow up with the game, thus improving the local pool of talent even more.
"I 100 percent want to support in-state players. If in-state players are here, we 100 percent want them to be playing for us," she said.
The Olympic Ingredient
Shalloo is naturally excited - and suspects her girls are, too - for the opportunity this month to see women's hockey at the forefront of the sporting spotlight.
The women's ice hockey tournament at the XXI Winter Olympic Games are slated to kickoff on Feb. 13 in Vancouver, with the championship match set for Feb. 25 with Canada, the United States and Sweden likely holding the best chance to medal in Vancouver.
"I think it's awesome," she said. "You can turn on the TV at any given moment and see NHL hockey. But when it's international-caliber women's hockey, it opens up a whole new window to these kids."
Shalloo acknowledged that seeing the sport regularly on television - not to mention at reasonable times of day with the games being played in North America as opposed to the other side of the world - is good for the growth of the women's game as the sport continues to try and attract more fans and players.
But, to the same end, Shalloo sees the televised Olympic games as the perfect opportunity to heighten the spirits and drive of players already entrenched in the game.
"It's not your norm to turn hockey on and see the top 20 or so women in the country playing hockey," she said. "Seeing female athletes they can relate to with 'USA' across their chest - I think that's huge inspiration to all of these girls."
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