NORTH YORK: Women's ball hockey league to kick off action

MICHELE McLEAN

March 28, 2008

Mothers of the North York Lynx Ball Hockey League players are joining in the fun this season.

Starting in April, the league will start the Lady Lynx along with the youth league, which has been running for eight years.

"I thought the (women's) league started out as a joke," said Greg Tedesco, founder of the North York Lynx Ball Hockey League. "And then I realized it was serious and I thought we'd try it. So I sent out some e-mails to the players in the league and thought we see how many women show up and 50 women showed up for registration."

Tedesco said that made enough players for four teams.

"But that soon got upped to eight teams plus some women on a waiting list," he said. "It went nuts."

He estimated that 90 per cent of the women have children playing in the league.

The Lady Lynx will play on Thursday nights at Broadlands Community Centre, an outdoor hockey rink at 19 Castlegrove Blvd., near the Don Valley Parkway and Lawrence Avenue. The league already uses the rink on Friday nights and Saturdays for youth teams.

Even if he wanted to expand the league, Tedesco said he can't because no other nights are available at the rink.

He said he thought he was going to start a men's league before a women's, but there didn't seem to be enough interest.

"All of a sudden I got a call from one of the mothers and it just took off," he said. "Women are also better at spreading the word. It started out with 50 women and now I'm up to 128. If I had more hours (at the rink) I could easily start another team."

Most of the women don't have any experience.

"They have probably held a hockey stick in their driveway playing with their kids," he said.

They might be nervous, but Tedesco said they should have a good time since the sport is fun and there is no contact.

Required equipment is a CSA approved hockey helmet with a face mask, hockey gloves, soccer shin pads and running shoes.

"It's great exercise," he said. "I think that's appealing to women as well. There's a lot of running."

The North York Lynx Ball Hockey League has youth in levels from Tyke to Junior.

Tedesco said he never has trouble filling the spots in his league. And the addition of the new women's league is no exception.

"Ball hockey is huge in Ontario," he said. "The appeal for our league is that it's outdoors."