Hockey is on its way to becoming a staple in the Valley. It might be slow, but it is growing, and the ASU women’s team is a prime example.
Recently the women’s team announced the four who would wear the titles of captain and alternate captain. Four that will in-part be the face of the team as they embark on an inaugural journey that will offer them highs and lows.
Meet captain KC McGinley
Defenseman, and newly appointed captain, KC McGinley has been around since the beginning. Literally. McGinley made history before she even placed a skate on the ice by being the team's first recruit. At ASU she is majoring in communications and hopes to work for Lululemon "forever." After playing only three semesters for NCAA DIII UMass Boston, McGinley returned home to Arizona for multiple reasons.
At one point in time it looked as though McGinley's college career was over, and that was something that was hard for her to come to terms with - which is why this program means so much to her.
“It is such an honor. It is something that’s been in my goals since I knew about the team, and I was probably one of the first people to know about the team," said McGinley on being chosen, unanimously, as captain. "So it was huge, and the opportunity to be captain gave me way more motivation since I was the first one to know it was a position up for grabs, so it’s been something that I’ve been wanting for awhile.
"With Lululemon we do a lot of goal setting and training, and that’s been my goal since day one. So I’m really excited. This is the first time that I’ll be playing in Arizona since I was 16. This is so surreal to me.”
Meet alternate captain Taylor England
Taylor England is a home-town girl. Although she traveled to Colorado in high school to play a higher level of hockey than what was available in Arizona, she eventually returned home to attend ASU where she is majoring in pre-professional medicine. She hopes to use this to become a physical therapist.
When returning to Arizona, England only played men’s recreational league hockey until the opportunity to join ASU’s program arose.
“It’s very rewarding to be chosen for this because it’s good to show leadership, and it's what brings this team together," said England. "Having all four of us as captains shows that we can help the team by communicating on and off the ice, it’s great.”
Meet alternate captain Amber Galles
Being a captain isn’t something new to Amber Galles. While living in Minnesota before attending ASU, she played on the varsity team at her high school where she was captain. College hockey was something that Galles had the intent of pursing when she decided to attend ASU, but she reached out as soon as she heard about the woman’s program.
Galles is majoring in kinesiology at ASU hoping to go into physical therapy. In the teams first-ever game, it was Galles who scored the first goal in program history and the only two goals of the game, giving ASU its first recorded victory.
“I like it for sure, for the first year. With this team no one is an alumni, everybody is new," Galles said about having four total captains this season. "We’re all on the same team now, and no one’s really played together before this. So it’s really cool to have all four of us coming from all over and playing with so many different teams and getting all different aspects of what those teams used to do, so it’s good to have that variety.”
Meet alternate captain Dannika Borges
Dannika Borges is the lone senior in the group of leaders and is majoring in broadcast journalism. She is from the San Fransisco Bay Area and used to play for the same Anaheim Lady Ducks team ASU faced on Sept. 23-24. As soon as she found about ASU's program, she reached out to the coaching staff and did her best to be a part of it.
Hockey isn't something that she wanted to give up when she went to college, which means that getting the chance to play for ASU is incredible for her.
“It’s amazing, the first year of women’s hockey and just being chosen, it’s unbelievable," said Borges. “We all bring a different kind of leadership to the team. Some of us are more vocal off the ice, and some of us have greater off ice presence.
"But we’re all encouraging, like: ‘Come on ladies let’s step it up, we only have so much time left, we can do this finish it out.' Then others ask things like: ‘Are you doing okay today?' Whatever it takes to get the team to skate the fastest and work their hardest.”
What an honor
While being named captain is a great honor, the women don't want to focus too much on themselves as individuals. Instead, they choose to focus on what opportunities they have this upcoming season and what they all hope to accomplish.
With great honor comes great responsibility or something like that. The point is that these women have become more than just the captains the team will look to. They’ve become ambassadors, role models and a part of history.
This is not lost on any of the captains. They adorn this responsibility and added pressure like they adorn their gear before practice, with the ease and confidence that they will be able to put their all into it.
To McGinley, this is an opportunity to give back to the hockey community she left behind when she pursued a higher level of play in Boston.
"Moving away (to Boston) really put things into perspective and what I want for this community," McGinley said. "This is such a privilege to grow youth hockey, and that is what I've been striving for. That's all I want, since I had the best childhood. Playing hockey was seriously the best thing that ever happened to me, and I want that same thing for our youth. For the girls. I want nothing more than to see this grow."
Her teammates think she's one of the best people to help accomplish just that. The team and coaches chose her to be captain unanimously for a reason.
Each is thrilled at the idea of getting to be a leader on this team in its inaugural season and to be a face of the team. This is something that they have been working towards their entire lives.
"When I was deciding to come here from California, I knew if ASU didn't have a women's team I wanted to make one," England said. "When I realized that this was in the works, I knew I was going to work my butt off to make it. I want to expand women's hockey out west."
Growing hockey out west is a desire that the entire team has in common. Their love and passion for the game are what made them join ASU's program to begin with. So it's only fitting that they want to share that love and that passion with as many people as possible, especially in Arizona.
"A lot of my friends that I had while growing up went on to play DI, and I see them everywhere, and it's amazing," McGinley said. "So for us to get the opportunity to be the face of this program is so special because it shows that it doesn't matter if you're the best of the best. This is so special to each of us, and now we're being rewarded for it.
"It doesn't matter where we're playing. It's huge, it's an accomplishment to make it to the collegiate level, and everyone needs to know that. It's easy for girls to get down on themselves if they play a low level. They need to know that they still made it, and that's so amazing to make it that far."
The players in the women's program will very soon be looked at as role models to younger girls, just like they currently look up to the women playing in the National Women's Hockey League and the Canadian Women's Hockey League.
They're more than ready for that challenge.
"It's hard in Arizona because there's not a lot of collegiate levels at all, so you have little girls now, who are seeing they can do it," Galles said. "There's an opportunity to be successful at this higher level now."
These four captains are working to make something bigger than themselves. Bigger than just this one team, this first year. They want to lay the foundation for the future success of the program and for the girls who will get the chance to be successful in a place where at one point a girl's team at any level didn't exist.
"When boys are growing up, it's very easy for them to say that they want to be like Shane Doan, for a little girl it's a lot harder for her to say that she wants to be like Shane Doan," McGinley said. "That's what this program is to me. We're giving them something to look up to, to aspire to."
Reach the reporter at tsclark5@asu.edu or follow @taylorsedona on Twitter.
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