Four years ago, the number of female players in The Pas Minor Hockey Association was at an all-time low so Morgyn Murphy decided that she was going to do something about it.

Once boasting multiple female teams, The Pas had only 3-5 female players registered when Murphy took on the role of Female Hockey Coordinator back in 2019.

“Even though it wasn’t for my kids, I have always felt that kids need programs and I will find a way to make or get programs for those kids,” Murphy, a teacher and mother of one girl and three boys said. “So I just thought what better way to improve a program then to jump up and volunteer. So over the last couple of years, it’s just been a matter of trying to build our program”

Murphy, 41, began volunteering in hockey six years ago when her youngest boys Sloan (now 12 years old), and Gibson (now 11 years old) started playing at the U7 level (Murphy also has a 15-year old daughter named Emerson and a 14-year-old son named Landon). Her involvement back then was as a volunteer coach. Once her youngest boys graduated to the U11 level, she stepped back and transitioned to the Female Hockey Coordinator role with The Pas MHA.

Murphy focused on recruiting more female players and coaches and specifically increasing participation in The Pas’ female practices on Tuesday nights which are geared towards all female players registered with The Pas MHA. Two years ago, Murphy added Female U11+ practices on Thursday nights for females nine years old and up to work on positioning, game play, and endurance building.

The end result is The Pas Minor Hockey now has 48 registered female players and for the first time in a long time, The Pas Huskies were able to ice an all-female U13 travel team last year featuring players from The Pas, Flin Flon, OCN, the RM of Kelsey, and Thompson.

“We have especially seen growth in the U7 and U9 age groups, so much that parents are asking to have female-only teams for our home tournaments,” Murphy said. “So the female programs are growing in Northern Manitoba which is great but it just seems like it’s taking a very long time.”

Kelsey Paddock, the Head Coach of The Pas Huskies Female U13 team composed of players from the Norman Region and the Assistant Recreation Director for the Town of The Pas, credits Murphy for being the driving force behind recruitment and the rise in female players in The Pas.

“She doesn’t even have any kids in the female program but because she volunteers for her boys teams she is always at the rink, so she is always encouraging females and with her becoming a teacher recently and finishing her Education program, she’s in the schools lots with different grades so she’s been recruiting a lot which is great,” Paddock said “If Morgyn wasn’t involved with female hockey in The Pas,  there’s no way that we would have enough girls for a U13 team at this point. She is the best volunteer you could ask for.”

This year’s all-female U13 team features players from The Pas, Flin Flon, OCN, and RM of Kelsey but not Thompson because they have enough female players to ice their own all-female U13 team. Travel between The Tri-Community (The Pas, OCN, and the RM of Kelsey) and Flin Flon can be challenging for the players and their families but the collaboration between the four MHAS and their willingness to put the players interests first has lessened the burden.

“An example is last week, (The Pas) U13 Co-ed team which has two of the female-only team members on it as well had a game in Flin Flon so they scheduled a practice in Flin Flon right after ours so that those girls could participate,” Murphy said. “There were six girls from Flin Flon that are also on the team so we just have to share ice. We have to have some practices in Flin Flon, have some practices in The Pas. The travelling to tournaments is a little bit of a challenge too.”

This past April, The Pas Minor Hockey hosted their 2nd Annual Female Jamboree for female U7-U15 players and opened it up to all northern communities. Over 60 female players attended, roughly double the amount of girls who participated the previous year. The response to the event was so positive that it was held over two days featuring on-ice practices, a dryland session, daily lunches and a banquet on the second day. 2018 Olympic silver medallist Brigette Laquette of Mallard was a special guest coach and gave a speech to all attendees.

“The goal moving forward is to have more of those girls that are playing more competitive hockey and try to get them to come back and see if they’ll partake in our jamboree,” Murphy said. “Alix Fenner (former University of Manitoba Bison) has come both years. She actually has a niece that plays hockey. We’re going to approach Julianna Herman. We have Ravis Constant-Kuba who played for Pilot Mound. She’s coaching with us this year as well as Abby McKinnon (Yellowhead Chiefs U18 AAA) who played a higher level of hockey. So we have all of these females that have played higher caliber hockey out helping us coach so it’s great for our minor hockey.”

As if she wasn’t already busy enough, Murphy decided to add 2024 Hockey Manitoba Provincials Host Organizer to her docket. Next March, The Pas will host the Co-ed Under-13 A Provincial Championship.

“Typically, I probably wouldn’t involve myself in something like this but I feel like this year we have a really good group of parents that I can coax into helping me volunteer. I also think that our team from last year to this year has the ability to compete in Provincials as well and so what’s a better way to show that than to host the event.” Murphy said.

Murphy hopes that with The Pas hosting Provincials, it will encourage teams and people based in Southern Manitoba to travel up north.

“It’s beautiful up here. Yeah it’s a long drive but there’s stuff that you can do up here, there’s things that you can see,” Murphy said. “Most kids have probably never seen a lake as clear as Clearwater. They’ve probably never been to the caves or something similar to that. It’s nice up here and I don’t think some people realize that.”

Looking ahead to the future, Murphy plans to continue working towards having more all-female teams in The Pas as well as recruiting more female coaches.

“I am of the mindset if there isn’t programs for kids, I will create and be involved in getting programs for kids. If I had to run the whole minor hockey association, so kids can have programs, that’s me, I would do it, I’m a yes person.” Murphy said.

—–

Hockey Manitoba wants to hear your good news stories of coaches, parents, players, officials, and volunteers who are having a positive impact in your communities!

We are asking our members to help us tell these heartwarming stories by reaching out to us. You can submit your community stories by emailing Ezra Ginsburg, Hockey Manitoba Coordinator, Communications (eginsburg@hockeymanitoba.ca).