2023-11-17 07:30:23
When I was little, theOna Domènech (2005), like so many girls her age, she played with boys because a Girona there were no grassroots women’s ice hockey teams. “I was 11-12 years old and there were no options. Hockey was not as enhanced as it is now. I was delighted, with my boys’ team, but it’s true that when I was offered the chance to be part of an all-female dressing room, I accepted it straight away. I didn’t stop playing with the kids, because I combined it, but I was very excited to share the sport I love with other girls. My parents, at home, had already warned me that it wasn’t long before they forced me to stop playing with children. There is a limit, by age, at which they tell you enough. I could have been left hanging”, explains the now player of the Girona first team, established in National (the other Girona team in the category is Palafrugell), that in 2017, just five years ago, she was forced to live her experience a Fig trees. “I understood, but it hits you. I was wondering what the reason was that there were no teams in the city, forcing me to go further. But thanks to the boys I’ve learned to wake up, to know that if it hurts you have to get up and that’s it, you can’t stay on the ground. When you’re a girl, you have to find your place, because children, especially when they’re small, walk over you”, describes Domènech.
His partner in goal Palaul’Elia Blade (2004), he looks at her closely and affirms everything, word for word, with a slight nod. She has experienced it too. “Yes, I know what it is. It’s normal for me to have been brought up with boys on the court. And honestly, if I could I still would, today. It’s much better, they have more strength. I started to Mataró and there were girls playing there. But I was having a good time, I didn’t give a damn. He played with two teams and that’s it.” You don’t need to ask either of them which gender was preferred. Unfortunately, the answer was untouchable. “Girls have always had it more complicated than boys, that’s the truth,” admits Bladé. “They are always at the front and we are the second course. Fortunately, it happens less and less. How do we claim back? Striving daily, making a space for ourselves. We also deserve it, and not just the boys.”
Lack of girls in the nursery
The conversation is accompanied by their coach, theAlbert Bou (1978), an experienced man who remembers that in Girona, historically, the women’s senior team has existed for many years. Even, a decade ago, they had reached the end of the European Cup. The plant, however, was not taken care of. By the end of 2023, there are three teams in competition plus girls mixed with boys in the smaller categories. “We are twenty-something girls. But we try to work to obtain results later on”, confirms Bou. “It’s a very low number”, says Bladé. It is developed by Domènech. “As the girls who came from below have grown, the teams have disappeared because there was no continuity underneath. Now, for example, there are fry, benjamin, pre-benjamin and escoleta girls. But there’s still a long way to go before they grow up.” “You have to cut a lot of stone”, insists Bou, who continues: “You have to go to schools and do extracurricular activities. Try to get two or three girls from a class to come to you, hook them up. This works a lot for friendships and acquaintances, and only with the sum of it all can you build a team. We also need the luck to attract a strong group to have the maximum possible categories, as many clubs have».
The dressing room, a family
Girona women’s team is having a great time after the painful relegation ofOK League, the 21/22 course. It is fourth in the classification, with six victories in nine games, in places of play-off promotion, and goes on a seven-game streak without losing. “We have a fantastic group of people, that’s what would stand out the most. We all get along well. We have to be friends to make things work, on and off the court. Because if things didn’t work, everything would go wrong,” admits Bladé. “One hundred percent, yes,” says Domènech. “When everything goes well and you win, it’s very easy, but when you start to lose, there would be bad news, without this union. When we have a bad match we don’t get angry with each other; on the contrary, we support each other. And that’s the most important thing about sport.”
Tragedies also help bring a locker room together. What should have been a brutal experience, like passing through the elite of a group of teenagers who didn’t even have a driver’s license, turned out to be a frustration. Girls used to winning in leagues of their age, champions of Catalonia on several occasions, suddenly they stopped doing it: they only added one point in the whole season. “The luck we had is that we didn’t just play in the OK League. A First Catalan we were champions and with him fem-17 we did the championships”, points out Domènech. The years pass and the fact of playing with different teams at the same time continues to be part of his identity.
“Without that, we wouldn’t have managed it in the same way. Because seeing yourself lose when you’ve always won… When you row, row and row, but you can’t, shit,” he recalls. “It wasn’t our category and it affected us a lot, but we played good games. And the learning was beastly, think we were playing against world champions. Yes, they painted our faces, but we were being instructed”, the goalkeeper makes it clear. “They faced people they admired, idols they had had as children. A mountain was made for us, it is the reality and what happened to us. Two years have passed and we have matured it”, says Bou. “Without the pineapple they have created, when it came down here there would have been no one left”, says the coach. “I can’t swear to it, but I’m very sure of it.”
And the future?
“Whoever really wants to and sacrifices himself, ends up finding opportunities”, recites Bou, as if it were the commandment of a team that can boast of having been in the elite of a sport of which they are aware that in the future they will surely will not allow them absolute dedication. “We have to hit the ground running, you can’t make a living from hockey and we don’t think it can be fixed. It’s a minority sport and more so, for the girls”, both proclaim.
Domènech studies Primary Education in Girona, while Bladé does nursery in Mataró The goalkeeper’s schedule does not give any respite. “The earliest day I get home is at 11 p.m., because I am fromArgentona. But when we train late, they give me 1 in the morning». “I have it better”, announces Domènech, “but as I train the little girls, I come to the pavilion earlier”. Like other clubs in the city, Girona suffers from the lack of facilities, with the internal logistical problems this causes them.
“Returning to the OK League is not the main objective. One day we will achieve it, but it is not essential”, formulates Bladé. “Hopefully we’ll get there, yes, but not going up is no drama. We are still training”, maintains Domènech. “Maybe we’re a little afraid to go back there. Individually, I don’t want what happened to us to happen again”, considers the goalkeeper. “I think it won’t happen again,” says her colleague. “Not at all, true,” replies Bladé. “They have to decide things and know what goals they want to set for themselves. What is clear is that we don’t want to crash again”, reflects Bou. “When we are ready we will not look for it, it will come alone. Everything must flow, in this life. We would like to do the play-offs, yes, and feel that we can compete. After that, whatever has to happen will happen.” “And don’t lose the good atmosphere there. We can never lose this”, they conclude.
#Girls #complicated #boys