Photo Credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America
Each game starts on the blue line with players shoulder to shoulder as they listen to the national anthem, shuffling their skates to keep up their anticipation of the game ahead of them, some with ponytails sticking out under their helmets. The crowd revs up as the anthem dies down and the starting line takes center ice for a faceoff to start the game. The puck drops, and play begins.
The National Women’s Hockey League is in full start of its first season with four original teams, the Buffalo Beauts, Boston Pride, Connecticut Whale, and New York Riveters, to bring a whole new side to hockey at a national level. The New York Riveters are making history in the NWHL as the first female national hockey team representing New York. Like their namesake, Rosie the Riveter, these strong female athletes are changing the sport of hockey and showing the guys the kick they’ve got in their skates.
“I used to dream that I would play in the NHL, but that dream disappeared and I thought there was nothing else left. For me, it was tough to see that dream of playing a professional sport disappear while watching many of my male friends sign professional contracts in various sports,” said Riveters captain Ashley “Stretch” Johnston, also a manufacturing engineer for PVA, via email. “But now that dream never has to disappear. This founding season is about allowing for future female athletes to dream about having their working and their athletic careers combine into one professional environment.”
Before the NWHL, the ladies who spent their college careers lacing up their Bauer skates and taping up the blade of their CCM composite stick were cut short to a brief college hockey career, due to the difficulty and lack of opportunity in pursuing a professional career. Basically forced into retirement after graduation, but now the league will provide these dedicated athletes a place to pursue their sport.
“[Once you’re out of college] It’s very difficult to keep developing largely due to the cost of training at that high level. After a while, this balance beam effort of training and living forces many individuals into retirement. It’s hard to think that you’re at your peak at 21, 22 or 23 years old when you see people like [Jaromir] Jagr still playing in the NHL,” said Johnston. “The NWHL creates an opportunity for female hockey players to continue developing and not peak at such a young age.”
The NWHL gives female hockey players the opportunity to pursue their sport professionally but the dedication of these players does not go unnoticed as these women show themselves, their teammates, and their fans just how in love they are with their game. The women on the the NY Riveters represent 11 states and four countries but when the team pulls their white jerseys down over their pads with Rosie the Riveter decorating their chests and a star on each sleeve, covering them in their vibrantly patriotic red, white and blue, they are one and the same. They merge as a team. They are the New York Riveters.
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It’s the start of the second period. The contagious smell of greasy fries and fresh pretzels faded out because the fan-favorite team is tied 2-2 and the star goal-scorer is leading the team out of the locker room. The crowd perks up again, intermission has ended and the teams take the ice. In that moment the rink rejoices in the one thing that makes them the same, the love for hockey, and “the games coming back!”
“Hockey has helped me grow as an athlete, a student, and a person in ways I never knew possible. The attributes you learn from the sport, such as respect, hard work, determination, perseverance, and loyalty, are developed every time you step on the ice,” said Johnston. “Having a drive to succeed can be developed through the passionate hours spent practicing a slap shot to perfection and then translated into the intense hours spent studying for a tough math test. Hockey taught me to eliminate the word ‘can’t’ from your vocabulary because anything is truly possible if you set a goal and work hard enough for it.”
Gabie Figueroa, former Princeton Tigers hockey player and current Riveters defenseman, also a project engineer for Gilbane Building Company, put the hard work and dedication into her goal early on. As a 5-year-old, Figueroa took the ice for the first time as she watched her older brother and his friend glide throughout the rink. She spent years roller blading over the cement in her driveway before she finally got to call herself a hockey player at age nine.
“Hockey and sports have had a tremendous effect on my life,” said Figueroa, via email. “[I] believe the life lessons taught through sports and ice hockey, such as teamwork, hard work, and discipline, are more valuable than anything else you can learn in school, even more valuable than my structural engineering degree from Princeton.”
For these women, hockey wasn’t just a hobby; it was something they would put their whole lives into. While some might see just an ice rink, these players see a home, a place they burst with passion and adrenaline every time they see a teammate with the puck.
Fritz-Ward found her home in hockey by emulating her twin brother Zachary. She played every sport her brother did, including baseball and track. “Hockey has been a huge part of mine and my family’s life. Since I was 14 and moved away from home, I’ve missed family holidays, family trips, birthdays, school dances, etc. for hockey and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” said Morgan Fritz-Ward, former Quinnipiac Bobcats hockey player and current Riveters forward, via email.” I’ve traveled all of the U.S and been to Europe and soon to Japan for the sport I love. I’ve met some of the greatest people I know who have become lifelong friends and sisters.”
Team sports bring people together; they start with playing catch with your friends on the front lawn and passing pucks with your brother at the rink. The New York Riveters drafted players, each with their own origins, and united them together in one rink, where workouts start at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays and every time you leave the locker room at Aviator Sports & Events Center in Brooklyn, there’s a game to play.
“A team bond is the best bond because of how much we go through together,” said Figueroa. “We battle hard on the ice and have fun off the ice on bus trips and in the locker room. “
The bond doesn’t end with the team; the bond continues off the ice and into the lives of fans. These women not only became the professional hockey players they dreamed about becoming, but they are their own version of ‘Rosie the Riveters’ and have become role models for players and fans alike.
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The third period has already started; halfway through and the team is up one goal. The nimble rookie got the puck off the face off and scored late in the second on a breakaway, taking the lead again. But now, the best defenseman on the team is in the penalty box for hooking and the opposing team is trying to tie the game again on their power play. The crowd is on the edge of their seats, fingers crossed, hoping the game won’t get tied up.
At the start of the season, Fritz-Ward received an email from teammate and public relations director, Jenny Scrivens, telling her about a young fan’s homework assignment in which she discussed the Riveters and called herself Fritz-Ward’s number one fan. Fritz-Ward was elated by the news and got the opportunity to meet her number one fan, a young girl barely aged in the double digits. At the Riveter’s first home game against the Connecticut Whale, the young fan got to warm up on the ice with the team.
“It just melted my heart and really put into perspective the impact this league and players have had and continue to have on people. It was honestly the cutest thing ever and I re-read it before every practice and game,” said Fritz-Ward. “The fans, especially my number one fan Becca, push me every day to be a better person and athlete.”
The girls didn’t expect to be role models, but playing at a national level has given them the chance to inspire their fans. “Being a role model is a really rewarding experience,” said Figueroa. “I remember being in young girls’ shoes and looking up to older hockey players, so now I am happy to give back and inspire the next generation of hockey girls.” Beyond being a role model, the NWHL has also created a wider representation of females in sports, adding another professional sport in which women, and young girls, could be equal to the boys.
“Hopefully [the NWHL] has encouraged females younger or older to continue playing, get started, or even support other female athletes in general,” said Fritz-Ward. “It’s incredible to think that younger players now have actual role models to look up to and say they can’t wait to be a professional hockey player like so-and-so and not thinking like I did that eventually it would come to an end after college.”
An article from the NCAA estimated the probabilities of becoming a professional athlete, where they created percentages for each sport estimating the likelihood of going pro.
“They listed five possible sports where men could become professional athletes [football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, and soccer],” Johnston referenced. “Meanwhile, they only listed one sport where women could become a professional athlete [basketball]. At the professional level, females are so grossly under represented. Creating a new professional opportunity for female athletes in general through the NWHL is huge. It provides role models to encourage females to continue playing sports and experience the personal, athletic, and academic development a sport can provide.”
The NWHL is only the beginning of female representation in sports. The New York Riveters, through each game and each practice, are adding to history and changing women’s sports for the better.
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The New York Riveters exude female power. They’re athletes, college graduates, engineers, community leaders and most importantly strong role models for other strong women.
“It’s an incredible honor. To be able to say I was a part of history is a dream come true,” said Fritz-Ward. “It’s really just a dream come true and I couldn’t thank everyone enough that has helped me along the way and made this league possible.”
The NWHL has already made history in its creation, and the New York Riveters make history every day. This is only the beginning of the history that is to be made. The league’s slogan says it all: “Making History.”
The last few minutes of the first period are always the most suspenseful. A one-goal lead means the opposing team could tie the game up at any second. It’s a nail biter; the players are all over the zone, the defensemen trying to keep the opposing team away from the goal for as long as possible. There it is, that final shot, seconds left. The puck zips to the right of the goaltender, but in a splitting save the puck hits the glove in the goalie’s catch and the buzzer sounds. Game over. Game won. The fan favorite team rejoices as the goalie stands, waiting for the team to meet at the net in victory. The crowd celebrates at the sight of the stick salute.
