When the puck dropped on PWHL Ottawa’s inaugural season at TD Place Arena Jan. 2, there was so much more at stake than the final score.
“I think you’d be remiss to walk into an evening like tonight and be worried about the scoreboard,” said Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod post game. “It wasn’t going be about the result tonight — it was going to be about the experience.”
While MacLeod was talking about the long-awaited arrival of a platform for female hockey players, her words carried even more weight for female hockey players of colour.
“It’s a huge opportunity for representation and to be able to highlight that Black women can play hockey and play hockey very well,” PWHL Toronto forward Sarah Nurse said following a 3-1 loss to Ottawa on Jan. 23.
Accounting for less than three per cent of the league’s players, there are only four Black players in the PWHL’s inaugural season: Nurse, Ottawa forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis, PWHL Boston defender Sophie Jacques and PWHL Minnesota defender Nikki Nightengale, who is a reserve player. Reserve players don’t travel with their team on road trips.
The overwhelming majority of the league’s players are white.
The participation rate of men versus women in sports is most pronounced among Filipino and Black populations, according to Statistics Canada. Sixty-six per cent of Black men participate in sport compared to just 42 per cent of Black women.
Still, Nightengale and Grant-Mentis can confidently say hockey is more diverse than it used to be.
“Growing up, I only played with maybe two other minorities,” Nightengale said, who grew up playing in Bloomington, MN. “I think only one of them was Black.”
“It’s not a lot, but it’s more than what I saw when I was a kid when there was nobody of colour playing,” Grant-Mentis said. “The more we promote ourselves and the more girls can see Sarah Nurse, me, Sophie Jaques on the ice, they all see that they can play here so hopefully they continue [playing] during their younger years.”
“[Being on the cover] was huge,” Nurse said. “I think that really set the stage for young boys and men to be able to come up to me and wanna talk hockey and truly value us as professional athletes.”
“I definitely think that turned the game in the right direction.”
Nurse hails from a family of successful Black athletes including Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and Women’s National Basketball Association Seattle Storm guard Kia Nurse.
“We’ve always wanted to make ourselves proud, our families proud,” Nurse said. “The fact that we’ve been able to work our way up to this point really shows kids everywhere that you can do anything you set your mind to.”
Building on the success of a female cover athlete, the advent of the PWHL has given Nurse and other players a larger and even more important advocacy platform.
“It feels amazing,” Grant-Mentis added. “It’s nice for younger girls of colour to see that they can be in this league and they can play too.”
The Black Girl Hockey Club (BGHC) is a non-profit organization with the expressed purpose of promoting Black women’s hockey. Its programming is aimed at developing the grassroots game, which BGHC made a point of clarifying is a year-round effort.
“Our volunteers and the families we support are Black all year round and we don’t want to limit any important programming to one month of the year just because that’s when most folks choose to pay attention to our work,” BGHC administrator Isabel Graham wrote in an email to the Charlatan.
Nurse said it’s special to be one of four Black PWHL players, but the work is far from over.
“The number is still very small and I’d love to see more Black athletes be integrated into the sport not only on the ice but behind benches and business ops, being involved in hockey in every way possible,” Nurse said. “There’s still a long way to go.”
On Jan. 31, the PWHL named Saroya Tinker, BGHC’s executive director and recently retired professional hockey player, as the league’s manager of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“I am proud to be working for a league that has been revolutionary in every respect,” Tinker stated in a press release. “Our goal is to be the most progressive sports league in the world, and I cannot wait to contribute.”
Featured image provided by the PWHL.
