Islanders' elite travel program gives girls an outlet to play hockey
Megan McCarthy referred to herself as quiet — as the girl who only two years ago lacked confidence. But though her demeanor is pleasant and understated on this night in Uniondale’s Cradle of Aviation Museum, there’s nothing apprehensive about the way she carries herself.
As if to drive home that the Megan of back then isn’t the Megan of right now, there’s a “C” stitched to the top of the 14-year-old’s hockey jersey — a silent indicator of the ways the sport has changed her life.
“She’s not one of those captains that likes to take over the entire team,” said Adrianna Morabito, her teammate on the U14 squad with the Islanders Girls Elite Travel Hockey team. “She’s a very selfless person . . . and such a great player and puts everyone before her. She has a great personality.”
Added McCarthy: “I got more confidence. My grades got better. I got into a better school.”
McCarthy of Malverne and Morabito of Wantagh were on hand Wednesday as their travel hockey program celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the federal legislation that prohibits sex-based discrimination from any entity that receives government funds — a law often tied to equality in female athletics. The event included a four-person panel, moderated by the NHL Network’s Jamie Hersch.
More than that, though, Wednesday also was a way to honor how a sport that’s so often considered traditionally male has shaped the lives of young girls from around Long Island. In the past, girls who wanted to play hockey locally often had to muscle their way into an overwhelmingly male sphere or just pick another sport. But Elite Travel Hockey, started in 2016 by Alexis Moed, general manager of the Premier Hockey Federation’s Connecticut Whale, provided another outlet. And for girls like McCarthy, who’d dabbled with playing on boys teams in the past but didn’t like the environment, it remains a conduit to a life she would have otherwise been locked out of.
“Once you get to the high school level, that’s when you start to notice a significant difference in size and speed and strength,” Moed said of co-ed hockey teams. “So for a girl to continue on in hockey back then, she had to tolerate that or adjust to it or cross her fingers and hope she didn’t get hurt. Now, with this program . . . they can play with the same level of competition. Colleges, knowing that there are girls programs, they’re scouting girls programs, rather than going to a boys game and hoping that a girl pops up.”
Added McCarthy, simply: "I don't like playing [with boys]. They judge me and I just feel uncomfortable, out of place."
And a safe place to land is no small thing. Both McCarthy and Morabito would like to play in college and have aspirations of going pro. There are benefits, too, for players who don’t necessarily look to make a career out of the sport, said Maddy Smith, 16, who wants to go to college to study neurobiology, but is interested in potentially playing for a Division III or club team.
Smith has been playing hockey since third grade, mostly against boys, but this program is a special sort of fit, she said.
“I don’t have to get out of the locker room,” when she’s playing with the girls’ team, the Wantagh native said. “I really wanted that locker room environment — it’s fun, you know, throwing the tape around, talking, indistinct chatter. And it really killed me to have to step outside.”
Morabito and McCarthy echoed the general concept: This allowed them a sense of belonging. Morabito, who’s played on boys’ teams, said she grew frustrated when teammates would go intentionally easy on her, or scapegoat her if a game went poorly.
It’s also gifted them with more focus — they both applied to Sacred Heart Academy, the private Catholic high school in Hempstead, and were accepted.
“I feel like once I got into hockey, it puts you straight,” said Morabito, 12. “It’s more of a routine. When I started, I enjoyed public school and I wanted to be a party kid . . . [Hockey] puts you under a good influence. I started to study more and I got my grades higher.
“It definitely helps.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
