Hockey, Team, 2022 |
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The Coquitlam Satellites were formed in the mid-1960s despite a lack of ice time and the prevailing attitude that girls just didn’t play hockey. But these Coquitlam pre-teens and their parents persevered to become the forerunners of what is now an internationally popular sport.
While the local boys teams were called the Comets, the girls also looked to the stars and saw Satellites as the perfect moniker – a Coquitlam Sputnik of sorts.
With a goal to reach the upper limits, the team, led by devoted coaches and parents, scrabbled together a schedule in 1965 against fellow girls’ teams from South Delta, Killarney, New Westminster and Esquimalt. Uniforms were emblazed with the team sponsor, Del Rio Sporting Goods of Burquitlam.
Equipment, at least for the formative seasons, saw some players use driving gloves, taped up magazines for shin guards, figure skates and no helmets. Others used hand-me-down equipment from their brothers.
The Lower Mainland Girls Hockey Association was born. Eventually, regulations and fundraising resulted in them using regulation tube skates and padding. Their original practice time was 5 a.m. on Sundays.
Tied in points with Esquimalt after the regular season but trailing by a goal in goals-for, Coquitlam expected to place second due to the tie-breaker rule. But both teams agreed to play a one-game, winner-take-all final, which the Satellites won.
As players aged out, new ones followed, and the Satellites remained in orbit into the late 1970s.