Ten years ago, Bryan Chappell asked a local reporter to devote more coverage to female hockey. "He told me that girls shouldn't even be playing hockey." The attitude was typical. "Even among referees you'd hear comments like 'It's only girls' hockey.' You don't hear that anymore." Chappell is a big reason why. Now in his fifth year as president of the Ontario Women's Hockey Association, he's spent almost 30 years as a crusader for the game he loves. "My biggest goal in life is to get the recognition for female hockey that it deserves." Back when his own daughters were playing in the 1970s and '80s, the biggest challenge was finding other girls to play against. Today, Chappell oversees all 35,000 female players in Ontario. Despite the dizzying growth, though, girls' leagues are still often treated as second class. "They don't always get the best ice, and they're not always encouraged to grow because the more they grow, the more ice they take away from the boys." At last April's provincial finals, he shuttled between 30 ice surfaces as 385 teams played 855 games in three days. He's proud to point out that there were no humiliating blowouts because his board spends gruelling hours making sure the match-ups are even. "When the results of the first seven games came in, they were all ties. When you look at that, you think, boy, we've done our job right." Sometimes Chappell's workload (did we mention it's all unpaid?) makes him long for the 12-hour shifts he put in at Dow Chemical before taking early retirement 10 years ago. Then he feels a tug on his hockey jacket and hears a voice call his name. "You sure get satisfaction when you look down and there's this four-year-old girl - and she's playing hockey." Chosen charity: Canadian Diabetes Association |
