Chapter 119
4/20/2006
Ch 119 Women on Ice Girls Just Want to Have Fun
There is nothing wrong or dishonorable about playing against girl’s hockey teams, they’ve been around since hockey was invented. In fact it’s kind of fun drilling them into the boards. Have had a few on and against my teams in the past but had the opportunity this week to play against a whole women’s team, the Saratoga Storm 10-19-09 updatednewspaper story . They were preparing for a tournament in Burlington and we, the Schenectady Silverbacks, were preparing for a tournament in Cicero. Joined this over 60 team on a whim, the kind of thing you are free to do in retirement, if you’ve a mind to. Well, we spanked em 5-1 and we were proud of it.
Sometimes a family affair, like teammate Gary Carter entering rink here with wife and daughter playing for opposition. His daughter playing goalie fresh from graduation at Cornell and came back a day early from Spring break in Florida to play here. Gary coaches their team also. Other situations can be more intriguing like, Diane the 240 pound RPI Goalie who always insists on dressing and showering with the guys.
Teammate with water bottle is retired Education asst commissioner and Troy Midget coach Al Baumis [Tom Quinns bro-in-law] in charge of Professional Licensing (where I go each day).
Leaving for Friday afternoon game. Two on Sat which Mom may attend. Free admission for all fans welcomed. Syracuse Gray Wolves , a Rochester team, Buffalo Old Boys, Central Massachusetts Rusty Blades. Maryland Geri Hatricks [won National Seniors Champions in Lake Placid a few years ago led by 82 year old WW2 Pilot Bill Wellington- lower rt in pic] .
Dinosaur BBQ. Sunday championships. I didn’t join in time for the Virginia or Boston tourneys the Silverbacks participated in.
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Women’s story below (different rusty blades) copied from web- couldn’t tell it better!
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Aged to Perfection
Members Of Vermont Women’s Hockey Team Prove That Rust Never Sleeps
By Ellen Maher
It’s a typical Wednesday night in the foothills of Vermont's Green Mountains.
The Rusty Blades, a local women’s travel hockey team, meet at Riley Rink for their weekly skate, catching up on a week’s worth of news and gossip in the small town of Manchester, in the southeast corner of the state.
They are an eclectic group whose skills, backgrounds and life journeys are as varied as the patches on an antique quilt.
Where else will you find a team whose roster includes women ranging in professions from Intensive Care Unit nurse to German language teacher, from advertising executive to Olympic snowboarder, and whose ages range from 18 to 83 years?
In the corner of the locker room sits Pat Nuckols, her fingers deftly tying her skates for another trip around the rink.
“I was given the gift of coordination, that’s all,” says Nuckols, who at 83 years of age still plays defense for the Rusty Blades. Her modest nature deflects attention from a colorful past that is a virtual roadmap of passionate pursuits.
That gift of coordination, and no small measure of Yankee tenacity, has allowed her to excel in a variety of sports through the years.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Pat attended a Philadelphia-area prep school where she played field hockey. With a family membership at the Philadelphia Creek Club to set the stage, and under the guidance of her coach Constance “the Apple” Applebee, (a British athlete/coach credited with bringing the sport of field hockey to the United States in 1901), Nuckols began her professional field hockey career in 1939.
That same year, she became a member of the first Women’s National Field Hockey team, and competed throughout Europe during the early years of World War II.
Then another calling began to tug at her.
“The only thing I ever really wanted to do was fly, which wasn’t too easy in those days,” Nuckols remembers.
Despite the odds, which included her diminutive build (topping out at just under 5-foot-2), Pat found herself in training as a WASP — the Women’s Army Service Pilots — qualified for the corps and flying a variety of service missions such as flight testing, target towing and ferrying supplies in support of the war effort.
She also found time to marry and have a child, but not until she added another professional sport to her resume, competing as a member of the U.S. National Women’s Lacrosse team in the late 1940s, traveling throughout Europe, South Africa and Australia.
For one with a rich legacy of perseverance and achievement, you won’t hear Nuckols tooting her horn.
“You really should be talking about my teammates; talk to Betsy Shaw and some of the other girls. Now there’s the story,” Nuckols says. She has a good point.
Shaw, a newer member of the Rusty Blades, is a ground breaking female athlete as well. She competed in Nagano, Japan, in 1998 as part of the U.S. Snowboarding team in that sport’s Olympic debut.
At 38, the Bennington, Vt., native relishes the idea of applying her considerable athletic skill to ice hockey. But even she admits it’s a challenge.
“There is a direct connection between snowboarding and hockey,” says Shaw. “It’s the edges. I wish I had learned to play hockey before boarding. It would have helped me, because the commitment to your edges in hockey is extreme.”
After numerous successes on the slopes, Shaw enjoys the challenge of learning a new sport. When interviewed for the newsletter at the high school where she teaches, Shaw described ice hockey as her favorite sport, admitting that she has “so much to learn.”
Another student of the game is Pam Engel, 63 years young, a professional accountant, and the senior partner of a mother/daughter duo playing for the Rusty Blades. Engel came to ice hockey by way of a professional tennis career in her native Canada. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before she found her way to the hockey rink.
Her teammates are glad she did. Engel is credited by her teammates for recruiting Nuckols to the rink. But, says her daughter Susan, there’s more to it than meets the eye.
“Mom, you were just looking for someone older than yourself!” Susan jokes.
That was more than seven years ago, which begs the question, why would anyone try a new sport like ice hockey at age 76?
“Why not?” retorts Nuckols. “I have been lucky. In fact, you won’t meet a luckier person. I had parents who encouraged me to pursue every challenge, and provided me opportunities. And I was born with some coordination, so it seemed natural.”
This can-do attitude seems to underpin all her other pursuits, such as a yearly heli-skiing trip to the Canadian Bugaboos, and continued volunteer work with the Bromley mountain ski patrol.
But if age does matter, it’s clear to the Rusty Blades that it’s only in the best of possible ways. With the average age of the team being somewhere in the mid-40s, these women have only to look across the bench to know they have many more years of hockey in their future.
As they share barbs in the locker room, and friendly gibes on the ice, they recognize just how much they inspire each other, with some of their more senior teammates leading the charge.
No one sees this more clearly than team captain Suzy Hunnewell, a champion college lacrosse player who occasionally is called upon to coach a practice or two.
“We get out there and we forget about age. And no one treats any player differently because of age,” Hunnewell says.
“Pat Nuckols is one of the youngest people I’ve ever met. Sure she represents the past and a rich history in sports, but for all of us, she really represents the future.”
And what a bright future it is.
Ellen Maher is the director of marketing for the Aspen Ice
rink in Randolph, N.J.
photos by Shawn Harper
Where else will you find a team whose roster includes women ranging in professions from Intensive Care Unit nurse to German language teacher, from advertising executive to Olympic snowboarder, and whose ages range from 18 to 83 years?