Nunavik girls make breakaway move into midget hockey

From left, the Nunavik Nordiks’ Saladie Snowball, captain Andrea Brazeau and Julia St. Aubin played in their first tournament last month in Ottawa. (PHOTO BY GILLIAN WARNER)

Four years into her hockey career, Andrea Brazeau can’t remember why she started playing.

But the 15-year-old from Kangiqsualujjuaq is glad she stuck with it.

Brazeau, who plays defence, is now captain of the Nunavik Nordiks girls’ midget team, one of six select teams under the Nunavik Youth Hockey Development Program, which combines hockey with education, and the only girls team.

The team includes players aged 15 to 18 from across Nunavik, including four from Brazeau’s home community of Kangiqsualujjuaq.

She and teammates Saladie Snowball, Minnie Molly Snowball and Julie St. Aubin travelled to Kuujjuaq earlier this winter, where they took part in an intense week of practice, in preparation for the team’s first-ever tournament.

“We did a lot of team bonding to get the team closer together,” she said. “Playing defence is awesome.”

While the team bonded and brushed up on their hockey skills, there was one important element missing. The Nordiks had never played a game against another team.

Until now, that is.

The Nordiks headed to Ottawa last month to face off against other female midget teams in the region, including Nepean, Kanata and Orleans, in a friendship tournament held March 19 to 25.

And despite having much less practice and prep time, the Nordiks made it as far as the semi-finals, where they lost 5-2.

“Everyone was kind of sad, but at the same time we were proud of getting that far,” Brazeau said. “We did pretty damn good.”

Off the ice, the girls celebrated by doing “a lot of shopping,” she joked.

It was a great experience for Brazeau and her teammates, enough so that she plans to try-out next October to play with the Nordiks again.

And as Brazeau sees more girls starting to join hockey teams in Nunavik, Brazeau says she feels like something of a role model for other girls.

“I think kids look to us athletes who travel,” she said. “Some younger kids have started to play hockey, and even though they are still a lot more boys, more girls are playing.”

The goal has always been to develop female players to the same extent as male players, even if hockey has traditionally been a man’s sport, said Joé Juneau, the Nordiks’s coach and coordinator of the Nunavik hockey program, which aims to use hockey as a tool to show youth aged five to 17 about the importance of education.

“In the last 15 years, girls’ hockey has become much more popular,” he said. “Having it as an official sport at the Olympics probably helps. But it’s important for us to include as many girls as possible.”

Across Nunavik, women’s hockey is more popular in some communities than others, Juneau said, pointing to Tasiujaq and Inukjuak, where he has seen a large number of girls and women hockey players.

But there’s still plenty of room to grow, Juneau says, noting that it took three seasons for the Nordiks to find competition.

“The talent is much more developed now,” Juneau said. “We were unable to find a tournament to play in until now.”

A tournament setting has to put players of similar skill on the ice together or there is no competition, he explained; if not, it can be tough on players’ self-esteem.

But the group was fortunate to connect with three women’s hockey organizations in the Ottawa area.

“They [the Nordiks] only had one week to train and prepare, but somehow… they were able to compete against teams that have been together all year round,” he said. “It’s an amazing achievement.”

“They get better every year, and they love the game.”

Juneau hopes the tournament will become an annual event for Nunavik to participate in.

The Nordiks’ story also has the benefit of attracting attention from other southern hockey organizations and media, which Juneau calls a “bridge between north and south.”

“When you read positive things happening to youth, it makes people feel good,” he said.

The Nordiks take a time-out with coach Joé Juneau March 25 during the semifinal match against the Sudbury Her-Icanes. (PHOTO BY FRANCE RIVET)