After a breakthrough inaugural season, PWHL Ottawa team captain Brianne Jenner is bringing new opportunities to the city’s young female hockey players.
Jenner launched her girls’ hockey academy this week in Ottawa; an annual hockey camp allowing girls between the ages of seven and 16 to get on the ice with Ottawa’s top female hockey stars.
“I think that’s a big piece of the draw for our camp is that we’ve got a whole staff of female coaches, all playing at the pro or NCAA level,” said Jenner.
Being held at the Jim Durrell Arena, 125 girls signed up for the week-long camp, eager to learn from their idols.
“She teaches us about lifting sticks, edges, skating, and shooting,” said 12-year-old Hannah Thompson.
But beyond the skills required to play the game, Jenner’s hockey camp offers representation for young girls in a sport that has historically been male dominated.
“If you can see it, you can believe it, you can be it,” said PWHL defenceman Zoe Boyd, one of the camp’s guest coaches.
“I was always in boys camps with my brother and I never got to look up to Brianne Jenners or other professional female hockey players.”
“It’s really cool to be able to just be in the same room as them and being taught by them,” said Thompson.
The PWHL wrapped up a successful first season earlier this year, drawing average crowd sizes of over 5,000 fans per game, and accumulating nearly 400,000 in-game fans in total.
It is a new reality that has allowed young girls in hockey to pursue dreams they may not have thought possible.
“I really am aiming for PWHL, PWHL Ottawa to be exact. I’d love to get drafted, but it’s a lot of hard work and dedication to be able to get there,” Thompson said.
“I think that’s the really exciting thing about the PWHL,” adds Jenner.
“They have that example that they can follow and that they can dream about playing in that league.”
Jenner’s hockey camp wraps up Friday, but registration for the Ottawa Girls Hockey Association’s upcoming season is now open.
“I think that these girls, they get to see that; hey, I can be Brianne Jenner one day,” says Boyd.
“I can play for Ottawa and it’s really special.”