By Carol Radin<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They are teachers, business managers, veterinary professionals, physical trainers and retirees. On weekends, though, they pack their body gear and skates and head for the ice. These are the Blades, Syracuse\u2019s only women\u2019s team in the U.S. Hockey League. The 20 women, ages 23 to 61, compete almost every weekend in the season, travelling from Buffalo to Saratoga, from Ithaca to Alexandria Bay, and farther north to Canada, against teams with names like the Sirens, the Sabrettes, and the Arctic Foxes. In 2019, they also have two tournaments: one in Florida in April and another in Massachusetts in May. Home is Sunnycrest Ice Rink at Henninger High School in Syracuse.<\/p>\n
The Blades have been competing as a team for 15 years, although some of the older players go back 10 years before that, when a few played for the now-defunct Syracuse Clippers. Becky Doyle, 61, and Judy Tack, 55, have been playing since college club team days, Becky at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Judy at Oswego State.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears ago, people used to say, \u2018Oh, so you play hockey,\u2019\u201d Becky said. \u201cNow they say, \u2018You\u2019re STILL playing hockey?\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n
For Blade members, whether in their 20s or 50s, ice hockey is a lifelong pursuit. Those who grew up in the late 1950s and 1960s talk about the days they braved pond hockey alongside their brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith no equipment! On figure skates!\u201d Leigh Swanker, 56, recalls. Girls\u2019 hockey skates were just not available in those days. Nevertheless, these women persisted.<\/p>\n
Times have changed since Becky and Judy discovered organized hockey on club teams.\u00a0 Younger team members, like goalie Lynn Baker, 35, and left wing Jenda Kwiatkowski, 29, had access to actual league competition as they were coming up through college. Lynn played for the Hockey League\u2019s Ithaca Sirens, when she studied at Cornell VeterinarySchool, and Jenda was with the U18 Edge, Rochester\u2019s travel team. These days, even NCAA membership is more common. Lindsay Rice, 26, saw that progression with the club team she started at SUNY Canton; it became a Division III team just after she graduated.<\/p>\n
In women\u2019s league hockey, the game and rules are the same as for the men\u2019s teams, except that the women don\u2019t have checking. Practice is \u201ctwice a week for two weeks in October and that\u2019s it,\u201c Becky\u00a0 Doyle said. Each practice covers 60 to 75 minutes of skating, passing, shooting drills, and scrimmage. To stay in condition for the intensely athletic sport, each woman also has her personal regimen along with other seasonal sports: gym workouts, spinning, golf, pickle ball, etc.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to keep moving!\u201d \u00a0Judy Tack said.<\/p>\n
As with any sport involving body contact, injuries go with the territory. In ice hockey, the upside is skates and speed, and the down side is skates and speed. Puck shots to the face, jarring falls, knee and hip problems, backaches and foot bruises \u2014 it all happens sometimes. The Blades take it in stride, including the occasional surgery.<\/p>\n
What do they love about the sport? While words like the challenge, the fast pace, the skill, and the exercise come up frequently, the number one refrain from everyone is best summed up by Lynn Baker: \u201cWe have a phenomenal group of women!\u201d Jenda Kwiatkowski puts it another way: \u201cWe\u2019re like one giant family!\u201d<\/p>\n
Off the ice, the team gathers for summer picnics, bunko, birthdays, and weddings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of laughs,\u201c Leigh Swanker said. And when times get rough, when there\u2019s a crisis like a house fire, or an ill child or parent, the Blades are there for each other, too.<\/p>\n
For the Blades, it\u2019s one sport that fits all generations.\u00a0 The older members chuckle and say, \u201cWe call ourselves the Old Biddies! \u201d<\/p>\n
The younger players, though, have a different perspective. \u00a0As Nicole Hill explains, \u201cFor me personally, I feel really inspired by the older members.\u00a0It\u2019s what I can look forward to \u2014 that I can have a future in the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Carol Radin They are teachers, business managers, veterinary professionals, physical trainers and retirees. On weekends, though, they pack their body gear and skates and head for the ice. These are the Blades, Syracuse\u2019s only women\u2019s team in the U.S. Hockey League. The 20 women, ages 23 to 61, compete almost every weekend in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,101,126],"tags":[730,731],"class_list":["post-2196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-features","category-health","tag-hockey","tag-syracuse-blades"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Blades-2.jpg?fit=5435%2C4348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=542","url_meta":{"origin":2196,"position":0},"title":"Karen DeJarnette","author":"Staff","date":"February 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Empowering Women in the Workforce By Riley Bunch | Photography by Mary Grace Johnson\u00a0 For 2016 Syracuse Woman of the Year Karen DeJarnette, it\u2019s all about the big picture. 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