PWHL's success inspires young girls to dream of pro hockey career
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In 1994, Minnesota became the first state to sanction girl’s high school hockey — and for 29 years, the Steve Carroll Goalie School has been training athletes ages 6 to 14, no matter their gender.
The weekend clinics focus on fundamental skills for the specialized position, “which goalies don't get a lot of during the hockey season,” Carroll said at a camp at Edina’s Braemar Arena in August. “So when they go back to their teams, they're ready to rock.”
During each session, Carroll ensures the players get off on equal footing by putting players in the same jersey, writing their names on helmets and calling players by their names, which isn’t typical.
“Oftentimes they don't get called by their names during hockey season. It's ‘hey you,’ or ‘hey goalie,’ or ‘hey Bauer’ or whatever,” Carroll explained.
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A player himself since age 12, Carroll said he lacked the instruction and attention other teammates received. He founded his part-time goalie school to fill that niche and has had girls in the camp since Day 1. Now, he’s joined by three other coaches, including his son Dave and former Gustavus Adolphus College player Ashley Checkal, whom he coached.
Throughout her own career, Checkal had just one female coach, and for just one season.
“And I remember her specifically, Nikki, and I always wanted to be her,” Checkal recalled. “So that's why I am coaching. I figured I could be another girl coach to a goalie that used to be me.”
She’s not seen Nikki since and doesn’t know her last name. But if Checkal could share anything with her, it’d be her gratitude.
“Thank you for just showing me that another girl could do this, could get all the way up and be successful with it and still love the game,” Checkal said.
One of the oldest kids of this camp’s bunch was 13-year-old Johnny from Oakdale. He hopes to one day play for the Golden Gophers.
“And if I do make that, I really hope to, like, play in the NHL,” he said, echoing a goal not uncommon among young boys’ hockey players. But for the first time, girls on the ice can also aspire to go pro in a successful North American women’s league.
Alyvia is 10 and came all the way from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for goalie school. Her hockey dream is to play for the Professional Women’s Hockey League and she’s adamant that she works just as hard as the boys on the ice.
“I think I'm no different from being a boy,” Alyvia said. “I thought that I couldn't go very far with it, because there wasn't an older team for me to be on. And now that they have PWHL, I can go very far.”
Eleven-year-old Sylvia from Minnetonka agrees.
“I feel like it should always have been a thing,” she said. “I feel like it should have been around a lot longer ago.”
While girls and women athletes have had opportunities like playing for USA Hockey, Olympic teams or professional leagues abroad for several decades — even the Minnesota Whitecaps — the PWHL puts women on par with the Women’s National Basketball Association and National Women’s Soccer League.
Carroll school alumna Maddie Rooney started playing hockey in Andover at age 5. The two-time Olympian and Minnesota Frost starting goalie says the league has been a long time coming.
“For these young girls to set those goals is huge,” she said in October. “And also the visibility of us being nationally broadcasted and our games being at the Xcel Energy Center, like so much, youth can just come and see us play in person and on the TV screen and have role models.”
Coach Checkal, too, is thrilled about the possibility of the PWHL expanding beyond its inaugural six teams and seeing a new dream emerge among the girls she now coaches.
“It's limitless. Like, I mean, you see the whole pathway. You don't have to give up after just elementary school,” Checkal said. “If people stick with the game and they love it, they can go all the way.”
The star power shown in future Olympians and professional players may not yet be apparent during clinics, but honing those fundamental skills will only help young girls and boys in their hockey careers, no matter how far they want to go, Carroll says. Rooney is a great example.
“She came to this camp when she was a youngster, very early in her career, and she didn't stand out… She was just like the other 20 kids in class,” Carroll said. “But I ran into her a couple years ago, and she mentioned to me how she remembered coming to my goalie school, so we must have done something along the way to kind of keep the fire burning.”
Carroll won’t take credit for the success of players like Rooney. But he is proud to have made a difference in their careers with just a few hours of coaching.
“It’s really rewarding as a coach to see the fact that you can have the impact you have on these kids in the short time we get a chance to work with them, and that's, that's one of the goals of coaching, is to be able to make a difference for the kids,” Carroll said.
Rooney advised young players to be a sponge to any and all coaching they might receive.
“And the journey goes fast. So enjoy every moment,” she said. “Don't take a practice for granted, because these are the times when you're in your older career that you look back on and be like, that was the best time with those young friendships. And just overall have fun and have dreams.”
Digital Editor Anna Haecherl contributed to this story.