Girl's Hockey Day Celebration Coming November 16

by Ryan Honl

It’s now been 25 years since girls hockey formed in Roseau. On Saturday, November 16, there will be several events happening at the Roseau Rams Center in celebration of that milestone.

The Holy Family Catholic team will be in town to play against the JV team at 11 a.m. Then the varsity teams will play at 1 p.m. Before the varsity game starts the 2000-2001 Inaugural Team will be introduced and recognized followed by a ceremonial puck drop.

After the varsity game, at 3 p.m. in the Sports Center Lobby, there will be cupcakes, refreshments, 25th season clothing and engraved mugs, and a fundraiser/raffle by Christine Reese of Pampered Chef. At the same time, there will be open skating, as well as an opportunity to skate with the Rams. At 4 p.m. it will be all-girls picture time for teams 6U (ages 6 & under) up to Varsity with photographer Nickelle Johnson.

At 5 p.m. the Alumni Game will be held. A group photo of the alumni in attendance will take place after that at 7 p.m.

Bethany Erickson and Traci Ketring are helping to plan and organize the events. Both of them have daughters that currently play Rams hockey.

“We realized that it’s the 25th season,” Bethany said. “Coach Amanda (Giles) is the one who brought it to our attention. We better do something. We kind of just brainstormed a little. They said let’s have a girl’s hockey day to celebrate all the women that paved the way for our daughters who are currently playing.”

Currently there are about 30 ladies signed up to play the alumni game which Bethany said means there should be three lines on each team.

“With this being 25 years it’s huge,” Traci Ketring said. “Bethany and I are the grunts on the backside making sure it all happens. I think it’s an amazing thing that we have many past hockey players come back to coach within the program. There are so many alumni that have come back and coached. That’s an impressive thing to me. It’s a real testament to the program and how much it’s meant having the original inaugural team with a lot of them being around here or coming back. Roseau being so deep in tradition with hockey and for that also to be on the girls side is a super cool thing. You know you raise your girls to be strong, confident, and independent women knowing that it’s a glass ceiling and you can do anything you want to do. These ladies have helped build that foundation. It’s phenomenal.”

There will also be a history book that Bethany and Traci have been putting together that will be for sale in the Sports Center Lobby.

“Traci and I have been putting together a history book that’s pretty much all the stats, goals, assists, penalties, any goalie stats, anything like that,” Bethany said. “We’re just kind of putting it together with season by season points leaders and that kind of thing. We’ll have pictures of each of the 25 teams. It’s going to be about 60 pages full color. It’s been a little bit of a pet project the last few months. We had a meeting at the start of August brainstorming with coach Amanda and a few other parents.”

Coach Amanda Giles is really excited about the events.

“I’m just so proud of how this community has embraced girls hockey,” said Amanda. “It was kind of rocky at the beginning when we first got the program, but they’ve wholeheartedly embraced the success that we’ve had and the value that we bring to the community. I appreciate their support for those 25 years and I hope we can keep getting them into the rink and have a varsity team that’s worthy of their support.”

Amanda will also be playing in the alumni game.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the ice. It should be fun. I think we have 8 or 9 from the original team which we’re really excited about.”

Amanda is also excited about the Rams girls team this year.

“This will be my fourth season in Roseau coaching the high school team,” Amanda said. “However I’ve been coaching and helping out since 2018. I’ve been coaching since I graduated from college in 2014. I wanted to come back and give back to the community I grew up in. We graduated only two team members off of our team last year which was pretty successful. I’ve got a pretty positive outlook and we should make a good run this season.”

There will be plenty of the coaches from over the years in attendance as well.

“We got coach Brian Bergstrom as the head coach of the alumni game and Steve Huglen will be there too,” Bethany said. “Coach Amanda will be playing. Paul Grafstrom will be on one of the benches as well. Our senior girls, there’s six of them, will be on the benches too. Come out and support the girls program. Over the past 25 years it’s amazing how far they’ve come. We owe it all to those original girls.”

Two also in attendance at the event will be Emily Eidsmoe and Mary Stoe. Emily holds the distinction of scoring the first ever goal in Rams girls hockey with Mary assisting.

“It was a very exciting moment as far as scoring the goal itself,” Emily recalled. “It was an exciting moment for the girls hockey program.”

Except for being away for college hockey, Emily has been a part of the Roseau community and actively involved in girls hockey since the start. She’s coached and now has a daughter playing. Emily will be dropping the puck for the Varsity game as well as playing in the alumni game.

“It’s an honor to be asked,” Emily said. “It’s fun as an alumni to be able to be recognized for how far the program has come. It’s a big part of who I am as a person. Girls hockey is a big part of the community of Roseau. My daughter now plays 12U so she’ll be moving up to high school. When I found out 25 years ago from the vice principal that we were going to have a team I literally jumped for joy I was so excited. It’s really cool. It’s a neat thing to be a part of. I haven’t skated for the last couple of years. It will be a little interesting!”

Mary Stoe lives in Los Angeles now and spoke with the newspaper before her trip to Roseau. She’ll probably get the award for traveling furthest to the events. She’ll knock out two birds with one stone. She’s coming for deer hunting as well.

“We started out playing 15 and under,” said Mary. “It was a club team for us. There were a few families involved. They were really involved in getting a girls team started. We played two or three years and then we started playing regional teams. The program had grown enough to have a high school team.”

“Let me tell you,” Mary laughed. “We were not that great at the beginning! Today they’re winning things and it’s so exciting but in the beginning we were all good skaters and were our whole lives, played a little pick up hockey but we hadn’t learned specific hockey skills. So the coaches really did a lot of work training us and getting us up to speed. Because we were learning them at 12, 13, 14, instead of 4,5, or 6 the game was a lot different back then than it is now. The first game we played against Moorhead and lost 15-1. They had had a team for a long time and we were just getting established. We wanted to work as hard as we could and try as hard as we could.”

Mary shared a funny memory from all those years ago.

“Our high school coaches were Brian Bergstrom and Paul Grafstrom,” said Mary. “Brian had come from the boys program. The funniest thing was the road trips. We were traveling on the bus to all these different schools and Brian had not factored in time to stop the bus for bathroom breaks because the guys never did. I remember being on the way to our first game and we were saying ‘we gotta stop the bus!’”

Roseau girls hockey sure has come a long way. It’s now got decades of experience and a very good program that capitalizes on that history. Come out for a great girls hockey day on November 16 at the Rams Sports Center!