Scout Watkins Southward, ArtSci ’24, learned to skate at Victoria Park in the University District when she was a toddler.
As a young girl, Watkins Southward would put on her Toronto Maple Leafs jersey and watch the boys in the NHL with her family. She started organized hockey when she was four years old, and though she wanted to play professional hockey, she knew the NHL was out of reach for girls. Instead, she set her sights on the U22 Elite Women’s Hockey League and university hockey.
Mikayla Cranney, ArtSci ’27, similarly grew up in a hockey family. A competitive person, she met a lot of her lifelong best friends through hockey. She too hoped to play university hockey, because other than the women’s national team, that was the top level of women’s hockey.
On Jan. 1, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) began its inaugural season, legitimizing the dream of playing professional women’s hockey for a several female athletes.
A recent survey found that 35 per cent of Canadians believe the inauguration of the PWHL will have a major impact on inspiring a new generation of female athletes to pursue playing hockey professionally. With the opportunity for livable salaries from the PWHL—a first for women’s hockey—there’s a significant opportunity to make the sport more equitable.
Cranney and Watkins Southward of the Queen’s Women’s Hockey team sat down with The Journal to discuss the impact the inauguration of the PWHL has had on them, along with their experiences playing hockey.
Though still a rookie on the Queen’s Women’s Hockey team, Cranney had similar experiences to her captain, Watkins Southward, as a young woman in hockey.
“In elementary school, my friends would be like ‘Scout’s going to play in the NHL,’ and I knew right from a young age, I wanted to go as far as I could with hockey,” Watkins Southward said. “That involves playing with the boys at recess or playing hockey with the boys and I was like, ‘Hey, no, I want to do this with the girls at the highest level.’”
“Deep down, I knew I [couldn’t] play in the NHL, that’s just for men. I was so heartbroken, thinking, ‘Why can’t I go somewhere and play pro or something with hockey? I want play in the NHL, but that’s not realistic,’” she said.
Watkins Southward explained she knew at a young age the NHL wasn’t a space for women hockey players, so she looked for teams, like the U22 Elite Women’s team, where she could continue her game.
“From that team, there wasn’t really any other option. I was like, ‘No, this is just the beginning for me. I just knew there was no way,’” she said.
Watkins Southward said she attended the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association Dream Gap tour, where she met some of these players who’ve been working hard for development and recognition in Women’s Hockey. She explained the struggle female athletes endure to have their game be taken seriously, which is something they’ve been fighting for a while.
“It’s definitely been something that women’s sports activists and pioneers have been fighting for for so long,” Watkins Southward said. “They held all those girls’ dreams and aspirations on their back, and they didn’t quit until they got what they deserved. I’m just so happy, so proud of them, so inspired.”
Cranney shared her gratitude towards those women’s hockey activists who have paved the way for women’s hockey and given female players something to look forward to after university hockey.
“Now younger female hockey players have something to look forward to, [they] have something to push for,” she said.
There’s no doubt the steps made towards further developing women’s hockey have been emotional, especially for women’s hockey players, Cranny added, who attended the PWHL season opener in Toronto.
“To see all the young, female hockey players there with their signs was really cool to me and to now know that there’s another goal I have after university hockey, just made me really happy,” she said.
Watkins Southward also watched the game, but from home with family. She described watching the first game as an emotional experience.
“I couldn’t hold it together. I was crying, I was so emotional. My parents were both crying,” Watkins Southward said. “It was just such a huge moment for women’s sport, and specifically women’s hockey that I think we’ve been waiting for.”
With PWHL arenas selling out and 2.9 million viewers tuning in to the inaugural game in Canada, there’s been a new spotlight on the sport. Both Cranney and Watkins Southward believe the impact the PWHL has made will trickle down into all of women’s hockey.
“I was talking with some teammates about how the men’s hockey team was watching the [PWHL’s] game, which was really cool to see how everyone’s supporting women’s hockey now,” Cranney said.
“I’ve seen so much good feedback on the internet and everything about women’s hockey,” Watkins Southward added. “Women’s hockey is a game that needs to be loved for what it is as women’s hockey. It’s amazing. It’s fast. It’s so, so physical and extremely skilled. The playmaking and goaltending is phenomenal.”
With this new league designed specifically for women, many girls’ dreams can now come true.
“There’s such a wave of confidence [and] empowerment that this league brings with it,” Watkins Southward said. “[If you] have a dream of playing pro hockey, no one’s going to laugh at you.
“When [women] say, ‘I want to play pro hockey,’ it doesn’t mean you want to play in the NHL, it means you want to play in the PWHL and I think having something that they can look forward at and see themselves in is really, really important,” Watkins Southward said.
The PWHL has already fulfilled the dreams of every woman on their roster and staff. It’s going to be an exciting next few years as we see more girls enter the league and reach their dreams for the first time.
“It’s not just inspiring to the ten-year-olds,” Watkins Southward said. “This is inspiring to the 22-year-olds that are coming to the end of their hockey career, or maybe just beginning that kind of path.”
Tags
Mikayla Cranney, PWHL, Scout Watkins Southward, women's hockey
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