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Alumna Homecoming Stirs Excitement in San Jose

By Tom Robinson - Special to USAHockey.com, 10/27/15, 6:30AM MDT

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Sharks girls program grows with special events

The San Jose Jr. Sharks got a head start on IIHF World Girls Hockey Weekend this year. They received a boost from the homecoming of an alumna, and built the weekend around that.         

Former Junior Shark Lexi Romanchuk is now a senior defenseman and team captain with Providence College. Her Friars opened their season against third-ranked University of Wisconsin in San Jose, California, on Oct. 2-3.               

The women’s college hockey series was one more way to introduce the sport to new players, while also serving as a special treat for the girls already involved in San Jose hockey.                

“The stands were full of girls from our 8U team up to our 19U team,” said Sheela Mohan-Peterson, a member of the Junior Sharks hockey advisory board and the organizer of the program’s annual Martin Luther King Weekend tournament.                

The attention both college games received also helped fill two Girls-Give-Hockey-a-Try sessions with about 50 players each on Sunday, Oct. 4. 

Mohan-Peterson said previous try-hockey events encouraged nearly 30 percent of the participants to begin playing for the Sharks. That’s one of the main methods of growing a girls program that added a team for the second straight year.                

This year, the Sharks have two 16U teams, bringing their total to nine. There are two teams each at 12U, 14U and 16U, along with one each at 8U, 10U and 19U.

Mohan-Peterson credited top-to-bottom help in explaining the program’s growth.

“The NHL Sharks have been wonderful,” she said. “They advertise us and they really support us and try their best to get the word out to girls in the area.”

In recent years, the Junior Sharks have set up a table at a Sharks NHL game to distribute information, been promoted on the Jumbotron and had their players skate between periods in exhibitions.

With Romanchuk’s presence and the efforts of her father, Rod, who played hockey at Wisconsin, the college series was another way to spark interest.

It does not stop there, however.

“Some of it was organic,” Mohan-Peterson said of the ongoing growth that now has about 130 female players in the Junior Sharks programs. “We hold these Girls-Give-Hockey-a-Try sessions twice a year.”

Most of the new entries that emerge from those sessions come in the 8U to 12U age range

“It’s been a concerted effort to get the girls out there,” Mohan-Peterson said. “ … All of our parents have been absolutely wonderful. They spread the word throughout the schools, the coffee shops, grocery stores, and everything.”

The teams draw most of their players from the Bay Area. There are players from as far away as Santa Rosa, 100 miles to the north, and Stockton, 70 miles inland, and even one who comes in on weekends from Lake Tahoe, making about a four-hour trip each way.

With few girls teams available to play, the Junior Sharks girls play non-checking games against boys in a 20-game Northern California League schedule. They also seek tournament opportunities, including early-season trips to Boston and Detroit.

The program spells out expectations for commitments on its website. The 10U and 12U teams travel once to Los Angeles and once out of state each year. The 14U, 16U and 19U teams plan one trip to Los Angeles and three or four out of state trips each.

The teams hold two 75-minute practices a week, one weeknight and one weekend morning, plus one-hour, off-ice training sessions.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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