Sunday, February 10, 2008

From Girls Hockey to Women's Hockey

The LaCrosse Tribune had a couple of nice hockey articles today, both on girls and women's hockey. The first article is on forward Ashley Paulson who played for Onalaska High School prior to playing at Culver Academy. She now plays for the University of North Dakota.

The second article talks about the growth of both girls hockey in Wisconsin and the growth of women's hockey nationally. It also talks about the road Rachel Bible, Ashley Paulson, Kelsea Martalock and Sandra Felten took to get to college hockey. I will take dispute with the statement that girls cannot go directly from Wisconsin girls high school hockey to college hockey as I can name more than a handful without even searching who are playing and thriving early in their careers in Division III. There also is a current Badger, Jinelle Zaugg, who went directly from boys high school hockey to Division I hockey. Finally, I know of a Wisconsin girls high school hockey player who walked on to a Division I team and made the roster. It will take some time for growth and improvement in Wisconsin girls hockey before there are players regularly able to make the jump to Division I schools, but with the meteoric growth currently underway, it may not take as long as some think.