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“I love the aggressiveness and the fast pace. It’s high<br />
intensity. It’s not your typical girls sport around here.”<br />
Jenna King<br />
SOPHOMORE AT SIOUX CENTER HIGH SCHOOL<br />
and ranging all the way up to girls and boys<br />
varsity squads.<br />
“This is my 11th year playing,” Vander<br />
Werff said. “I loved it from the start. I knew<br />
it was the sport I was going to play.”<br />
The younger groups mix girls and boys<br />
together.<br />
“When you are little and get to play with<br />
the boys, everybody thought that was cool,”<br />
Vander Werff said.<br />
The center is now in her sixth year of playing<br />
girls hockey.<br />
“I like that it’s not the typical northwest<br />
Iowa sport,” she said. “I think there are<br />
only two other girls at Western that play. My<br />
friends are all very supportive. They think<br />
it’s cool that I do it.”<br />
King comes from a hockey family, if there<br />
can be such a thing in a town that’s only<br />
had an arena for around 15 years.<br />
“My brothers got to play on the first<br />
teams,” she said. “I got jealous. At the time<br />
I was a dancer and did all the girlie stuff. I<br />
decided to try hockey. For a year or two I did<br />
both, but eventually I<br />
went away from the<br />
crowd and committed<br />
to hockey.”<br />
King, who is a<br />
winger, said she enjoys<br />
the physical challenges<br />
of the sport.<br />
“I love the aggressiveness<br />
and the fast<br />
pace,” she said. “It’s<br />
high intensity. It’s<br />
not your typical girls<br />
sport around here. I<br />
run cross country and<br />
track at my school,<br />
and sometimes the<br />
hockey player comes<br />
out of me. I got in<br />
trouble at a cross<br />
country meet last year<br />
for shoving a girl out<br />
of my way.”<br />
While the program<br />
is based in Sioux<br />
Center, there wasn’t a<br />
ton of girls following<br />
King’s lead.<br />
“Everyone here<br />
wants to play basketball,” King said. “For<br />
about three years I was the only girl in my<br />
grade playing hockey. There are two or three<br />
more now, but I still wouldn’t say it’s the<br />
popular choice. My friends do like to come<br />
to the games. They are always asking me<br />
questions about it.”<br />
King noted the Sioux Center girls and<br />
boys hockey teams stick together.<br />
“I love to watch the guys too,” she said.<br />
“The teams really support each other.”<br />
It speaks to the family atmosphere of the<br />
sport.<br />
“The rink is just a different culture than<br />
school,” King said.<br />
“Here we’re all one big happy family,”<br />
Vander Werff said.<br />
BETTER TRANSITION<br />
Sioux Center has found its footing quickly<br />
this season. Going into a Jan. 19 home<br />
game against Brookings, the Storm was 5-3<br />
and in fourth place in the league standings.<br />
“Never in a million years did I think we’d<br />
be 5-3 right now,” Vander Werff said.<br />
King said last year was a big boost, but it<br />
still isn’t the same as varsity.<br />
“Our first year in varsity pretty much destroyed<br />
my confidence,” she said. “But all of<br />
the sudden this year we started winning and<br />
so far we’ve kept winning. I was so scared<br />
going into that first game, but it turned out<br />
there was nothing to worry about.”<br />
Koops is not surprised.<br />
“I was kind of the opposite of these guys,”<br />
he said. “I thought we’d be able to compete<br />
with most of those teams.”<br />
There is a long way to go in a season that<br />
starts in early October and runs into March.<br />
“It can be physically and emotionally<br />
draining,” Vander Werff said.<br />
Endurance is a key.<br />
“People ask me all the time why we only<br />
play 30 seconds at a time,” King said. “I<br />
tell them it’s like doing a 100-meter sprint<br />
on ice, running back off and then doing it<br />
again a few minutes later.”<br />
“When you come off the ice you are<br />
gassed,” Vander Werff said.<br />
That means ice time for everyone.<br />
“It’s good that everyone gets to play,” King<br />
said.<br />
“Everyone is valuable,” Vander Werff said.<br />
LOOKING FORWARD<br />
The hope is that the team continues to<br />
have success, and with that success comes<br />
better numbers, which would make the<br />
success sustainable.<br />
“Hopefully everybody sees what we’re<br />
doing and sees this is a sport, that we are<br />
a part of something,” King said. “It hasn’t<br />
caught on with the girls so much, but we’re<br />
working on it. We’re getting there.”<br />
Just to make sure none of the current<br />
players forget, the Storm brings its goal<br />
board everywhere it goes. The goals include<br />
getting at least eight wins, playing with confidence,<br />
placing sixth or higher in the league<br />
and giving 100 percent at all times, even in<br />
practice or dry land workouts.<br />
“We’ve always set goals in the past, but<br />
this gives us a visual,” Vander Werff said.<br />
“To see it helps.”<br />
“We want all those spaces filled,” Koops<br />
said. “The girls don’t want to leave any of<br />
those boxes unchecked.”<br />
JANUARY 2019 | THE SPORTS LEADER 13
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