West Suburban Girls Hockey Team Heads To National Competition

NAPERVILLE, IL — Most of the 13- and 14-year-old girls on the Naperville Sabres Girls u14 hockey team have been playing ice hockey since were nine or 10, but they still encounter people who are surprised to learn there are even girls who play hockey at all. The team, who credits their camaraderie and shared lifelong passion with their success, is heading to Denver for their first USA Hockey Nationals competition.

Qualifying for the National competition came after a year in which coronavirus made it uncertain whether there would be a National competition in girls' hockey. The previous year's national tournament had been canceled due to coronavirus and the ongoing pandemic left many things up in the air with this year's season.

The team features:

• Molly Salvino, of Burr Ridge
• Isabella Broderick, of La Grange Park
• Francesca Pipitone, of Wheaton
• Emma Vorasorn, of Plainfield
• Carmela Lopataka, of Morris
• Emily Teska, of Naperville
• Bianca Talavera, of Aurora
• Emily Topel, of Naperville
• Piper Noll, of Oswego
• Ella Campbell, of Aurora
• Madison Meyers, of Downers Grove
• Audrey Redell, of Bolingbrook
• Paige Simpson, of Shorewood
• Gabrielle Stoops, of Lemont
• Emerson Girling, of Glen Ellyn
• Nora Rench, of Wheaton
• Casey Turek, of Winfield

Head coach is Michael Campbell, assistant head coach is Michael Broderick and team manager is Marc Noll.

The team of 17 went without practices for three or four months at All-Seasons Ice Arena, they told Patch on a Zoom call. Eventually, they were back on the ice "five days a week," Marc Noll told Patch. When there were tournaments, the girls did not always know whether they'd be able to change into their gear at the rink. Sometimes, the girls would gear up in parking lots and hotel lobbies.

Emerson Girling told Patch it was difficult for her and the other teammates to "stay motivated" without weekly practices. Gabby Stoops added that coronavirus also limited the number of "team-building exercises outside the rink."

When they did get back to the ice, the girls gave each practice and competition their all, even when they weren't sure there would be a state tournament. "We still worked just as hard," Izzy Broderick told Patch.

Overall, their record for the season was 37 wins, three losses and four ties. The Sabres currently rank #8 in the nation.

Despite all their achievements and love of the game, the girls, who started out playing hockey against boys, still face a lot of sexism in the sport, Piper Noll and the other players told Patch. "Boys think we are trash," Piper Noll explained.

When Frankie Pipitone played on a team with boys, they wouldn't pass the puck to her, she told Patch. Something that the other Sabre players confirmed is common when playing with boys. Once the girls had gotten the puck, the boys would demand it back, Pipitone said.

The mistreatment sometimes includes male hockey players asking the girls...and their much younger sisters...for their phone numbers.

The issues are systemic, the girls explained. Piper Noll said, "Their coaches don't yell at them [for hitting on us] because they're boys." Bianca Talavera added that a group of girls once had to petition for a locker room in which they could change because the boys had their own locker room and the girls were changing in a bathroom. They petitioned, but nothing changed.

Girls also have fewer annual tournaments overall than boys, the team explained. And there are still people who find it difficult to believe the girls know a lot about hockey, let alone play it.

It's a shared struggle that brings the already close team even closer together. Izzy Broderick said, "We come together and pull each other through all this."

Since finding out they won the state tournament and headed to Nationals, the team has only gotten closer. "We all get along," Ella Campbell told Patch.

Aubrey Redell explained that she loves "being a team and having that bond. We can all work hard together," she said.

The team's goal had been to make it to Nationals, but the players have grown in ways that extend well beyond the rink. Head coach Mike Campbell told Patch, "They've come a long way, each one of them and individually, as players and as people as well."

The Sabres feel good heading into the tournament, but it doesn't matter to them whether they win or lose. Nonetheless, Paige Simpson told Patch she's "confident in knowing [they] have a good chance of taking the title home."

Either way, they're proving something about hockey —and life in general— that they never should have needed to prove. As Izzy Broderick told Patch, "Girls can be good at anything guys can do."