TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Northern Michigan has its first girls’ varsity high school ice hockey program called the “Bay Reps” and it pulls hockey talent from seven schools in the northern lower Michigan region – Traverse City West, Traverse City Central, Traverse City’s St. Francis, Cadillac, Elk Rapids, Kalkaska, and Mancelona.
Although the program is new, the team members are not made up of beginners. Taylor Lundberg, the coach for the girls Bay Reps hockey program, told 9&10 News that she has high expectations and expected competitive tryouts, which happened at the end of October and beginning of November. She said the girls have to work hard for their spots and for their ice time and added, “We want to enter the league and be number one right away.”
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The girls’ team consists of 16 players, one freshman, nine sophomores, two juniors and four seniors with all schools represented except for Kalkaska and Mancelona. They played their first game over the weekend – a scrimmage against Midland at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City – and won 5-3.
According to the Traverse City Ticker, the program uses funding from families and sponsors to provide the youth team the “opportunity to play competitive hockey throughout Michigan with an emphasis on good sportsmanship and teamwork.”
Lundberg spoke to the Ticker about having to move out of the Traverse City area years ago in order to pursue her dreams of playing hockey because Grand Traverse county didn’t have opportunities for her to play.
Lundberg said, “I had to make a choice. I wanted to get better and develop and be seen by colleges, because I wanted to play college hockey. And I had to leave. There just there wasn’t a high-level team here.”
Lundberg ended up playing for the Lansing Spartans (a 19-year-old and-under team in East Lansing), then played college hockey in Maine and the University of Michigan. Now she’s back in northern lower Michigan and is able to coach girls who have the chance to play hockey. She says, “I just think it’s awesome that we’re giving these girls a place to play competitive hockey here” and adds that girls hockey “as really expanded in the past several seasons.”
Lundberg said about the northern lower Michigan area, “I think we have historically sent away a lot of talent, “There’s way more girls hockey talent here than people think, because a lot of these girls have been leaving and going to play in Grand Rapids, or Detroit, or Lansing. They’re out playing on really good teams and doing really cool things elsewhere, but they don’t show up as players representing northern Michigan. So, I’m excited for the Bay Reps, because I know the talent is here; we just need to keep it here, and I think we can do that if we give these girls an opportunity to use it.”
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Lundberg moved back to northern lower Michigan during the pandemic and joined up with some adult hockey leagues to make local connections in the area. That was where she heard talk about a new program for girls. The Bay Reps program has already existed for boys hockey for many years and includes eight schools: Traverse City St. Francis, Traverse City Christian, Charlevoix, Elk Rapids, Kalkaska, Frankfort, Lake City and Suttons Bay. When talking with the other women in the area who were in the adult leagues, they said they would have loved to have a girls hockey team and have been waiting 25+ years for one to show up in the area.
The season schedule for the Bay Reps girls’ team runs November through February with home games being played at Centre Ice and the Howe Arena in Traverse City. They will be opening their season at home on November 18th against Livonia United.
According to USA Today, girls hockey is one of the fastest growing youth sports in the country and the participation rate has increased 65% over the past 15 seasons.
