Nipissing Lakers ladies’s hockey staff constructing a successful custom

Homecoming occasions at many huge universities on this nation are inclined to revolve round soccer video games.

The standard script goes that the boys of fall take centre stage in late September or early October to grapple on the gridiron with bitter rivals from down the freeway.  Alumni members return from far-flung places to fill the stands and observe the good traditions and historical past of their alma mater. 

However in late November within the snowswept gateway metropolis of North Bay, Ont., Nipissing College is a unique sort of faculty and it is writing a novel homecoming story this season. 

This previous weekend, the ladies’s hockey staff, generally known as the Lakers, acquired high billing and in some ways, displays the rising aspirations of a post-secondary establishment which is small in measurement, however which has already solid an unlimited connection to, and affect over, the encircling group.

So it’s that the ladies’s Lakers, who’re celebrating their tenth anniversary as members of the U Sports activities household, and the thirtieth 12 months of the younger college’s constitution, confronted off on the North Bay Memorial Gardens in opposition to the newly named Toronto Metropolitan College Daring. 

The house squad, resplendent in white, blue, and inexperienced equipment, is the reigning nationwide championship silver medallist and continues to punch above its weight. 

As soon as once more, the Lakers are ranked high 10 within the land. They’re constructing a repute because the “little” huge staff that not often loses a recreation to opponents which skate out of a lot bigger centres.

“Tutorial achievement comes first; however the experiences outdoors of the classroom are so essential to our college students and to our tightly knit group,” mentioned Nipissing’s president, Dr. Kevin Wamsley, as he ushered me into the rink. He paused ceaselessly to greet households with younger kids who stuffed the stands for the homecoming match.

“What these younger ladies obtain every day is nothing wanting outstanding and the complete group is so happy with who they’re and what they’ve completed.”

As soon as within the enviornment I had the possibility to satisfy with the mayor and deputy mayor of North Bay, the chancellor of the college, many school members, and twenty alumni of the ladies’s Lakers who have been all in attendance. This was, it turned out, an enormous deal not just for the staff, however the entire city.

Former NHLer Turcotte is coach

Behind the bench, the chief of the Lakers is former NHLer Darren Turcotte, a local of North Bay who performed 12 seasons within the huge leagues, was an all-star with the New York Rangers, and is a member of North Bay’s Sports activities Corridor of Fame. He is the primary and solely head coach of this staff which, in it is first decade of existence, has missed the playoffs simply as soon as. 

“Profitable begins with satisfaction. Being a small faculty made it tougher in our first years to recruit however now we have been capable of construct a program that gamers wish to come to now,” Turcotte mentioned. “I owe numerous the credit score to those that performed right here in our starting.”

Certainly, the Lakers roster displays a kaleidoscope of expertise from myriad locations. Small cities in Saskatchewan are represented and so are huge cities in Alberta and Ontario. There are gamers from British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, and from the American Midwest. There’s even a ahead named Aki Fujimori from Hachinohe, Japan. A geography pupil in her junior 12 months, Hachinohe additionally performs rugby for the nationwide staff again dwelling. 

The star participant is Maria Dominico, the one first staff All-Canadian the Lakers have produced. She’s a fifth-year ahead, born and bred in North Bay.

“I discovered at a really younger age that I’m very a lot a homebody,” mentioned Dominico, a graduate of Little one and Household Research who needs to be a trainer. “I consider that our staff thrives off the help we obtain from the individuals of North Bay. There was a rising presence of up-and-coming feminine hockey gamers that attend our video games. 

“Seeing these women fill the stands, asking for autographs and cheering the staff on is such a rewarding expertise.”

On the ice the Lakers as soon as once more dominated their opponents and Maria’s sister, Malory, scored a magnificence to make it 1-0  over TMU. The group actually received into it on the Memorial Gardens and the house staff started firing on all cylinders. Early within the second interval staff captain Ally Hayhurst, a nursing pupil from tiny Wapella, Sask., fired some extent drive in TMU’s web to provide the relentless Lakers a 4-0 lead. 

Particular group

The home organ rang out with each aim, prompting the spectators to stand up and start dancing within the stands.

“The group is what makes enjoying in a small city so particular. We get to interact with the followers and get to know them,” Hayhurst had mentioned to me previous to the sport. “Our success is a mirrored image of the group. They help us on a regular basis and with out them, enjoying hockey simply is not as significant.”

Nipissing’s chancellor is Paul Prepare dinner, the retired police chief of North Bay, and because the recreation unfolded, clad in his college staff jacket which bears the college’s coat of arms, he beamed on the impact these ladies who play for the Lakers have on their devoted following.

“When the staff returned to North Bay from the nationals in PEI final 12 months with the silver medal, they have been met on the metropolis limits by the North Bay Police Service and Hearth Division who escorted them with lights and sirens to Memorial Gardens,” Prepare dinner mentioned. “They have been welcomed dwelling by the mayor, college president, group leaders, and several other hundred followers. Many in attendance have been younger gamers from the North Bay Ice Boltz minor lady’s hockey program.

“Watching our staff members take the time to signal autographs, pose for photographs, and share tales was unbelievable. There isn’t a doubt that our Lakers ladies’s hockey staff is an inspiration to the subsequent technology of ladies’s hockey stars.”

Pressure to be reckoned with

Maria Dominico scored the ultimate aim of the sport as she darted off the wing to rocket the puck behind TMU’s netminder and seal a 5-0 victory. The Lakers now boast a file of 8-1 this season. They’re as soon as once more proving that they’re a power to be reckoned with.

“I can play the game I like whereas having the privilege of pursuing a post-secondary schooling in my hometown,” Dominico mentioned. “Being a part of a small college, I consider that we are sometimes underestimated. However every, and each, day, we proceed to point out that we’re a preventing contender.” 

Turcotte additionally acknowledged the significance of what could change into a homecoming ritual.

“I had choices as to what I needed to do after my profession and I positively didn’t assume that it might be teaching a ladies’s hockey staff,” he mentioned. “However I would not change a factor. The dedication and dedication of our gamers is outstanding. Like many others I’d like to see a high stage, feminine, skilled hockey league the place the gamers are compensated for the work they put in.

“I’ve seen first-hand how essential our program is with regards to creating function fashions. Let younger ladies have a chance to idolize feminine, skilled, hockey, gamers.”

Earlier than leaving Memorial Gardens, I wandered by way of the entrance lobby which homes North Bay’s spectacular Sports activities Corridor of Fame. Turcotte’s photograph is there together with legions of hockey gamers and virtually with out exception, they’re males.   

Having been a witness to this hockey homecoming at Nipissing College, I really feel positive that the ladies who play for the Lakers will quickly change all that.