Females helping Freeport
FREEPORT — One is a sophomore. The other is a freshman. Both are girls on the otherwise all-male Freeport High School varsity hockey team.
And both can play.
Sophomore goaltender Katie Hill and freshman defenseman Cassie Suran have been key contributors to the Yellowjackets' 9-3-2 start on the ice this season.
“We don't cut anybody, but these girls aren't here to fill up the roster,” Freeport coach Dave Hepler said. “Katie has been a goalie in our system for a while.
“Cassie played defense for our freshman team last year and we were entering this (varsity) season with only four defensemen. We asked her to come up to varsity this year and she takes a regular shift.”
Suran has a goal and assist in 14 games so far this season. She had three goals and 12 points for the freshman team last year.
Hill is 5-0 with a 1.40 goals against average and two shutouts so far this year. In her two seasons with Freeport's varsity, she is 10-0 with a 1.50 GAA, allowing 15 goals while making 96 saves, .896 save percentage.
Hill is one of three goalies on the varsity, joining Matthew Huston and Dom DiGiacobbe.
“We rotate all three of them in,” Hepler said. “Katie doesn't always draw the best competition, but all teams shoot the puck. She's a very solid positional goalie.
“She plays her angles well and doesn't give up rebounds. She gets a piece of the puck when it comes at her. That's what good goalies do.”
Hill also plays goal for the under-19 Arrows girls team out of the Belmont Complex in Kittanning and the U-19 Pittsburgh Vipers. She plays for the latter team as needed.
“I'm pretty much on the ice for somebody, praticing or playing, every day,” Hill said. “I love it.”
Her father, Freeport assistant coach Jim Hill, and brother, former Freeport player Jonathan Hill, have been involved in hockey all of their lives. Katie simply followed suit.
“I always tagged along to the rink with them, so I just started playing,” she said. “I played forward when I was younger, but have been a goalie for the last four years.”
While Hill admits the boys game is faster and the pucks come at her harder, she also says the experience is benefiting her as a player.“It slows down the girls games for me,” she said. “I'm hoping to play women's hockey in college and playing for the high school team is sharpening my skills.“I get along fine with the guys on the team. They're like a bunch of brothers to me.”There is no body checking in women's hockey, but Suran has to deal with it when on the ice with the guys.She has no problem with it.“I've been knocked down a few times,” the 5-foot-6 Suran said. “I just get back up and keep playing.”“Physicality is not an issue with her,” Hepler said. “Cassie knows how to tie up a forward along the boards and wait for help ... That's not because she's a girl. That's the way a defenseman is supposed to play it.“She is fundamentally sound. She has the respect of other players on the ice. I know we appreciate her because she gives us that fifth defenseman.”Like Hill, Suran is hopeful of playing Division I college hockey in a few years.“I know my skating has to improve and that's what I'm working on,” she said.Suran plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite women's team — for whom she's scored 10 goals — when she's not skating for Freeport. She also plays for the Steel City Ice Renegades, another boys team.Suran started out playing soccer as a youth before her father decided to let her try figure skating.“They just weren't working for me, so my dad got me hockey skates,” Suran recalled. “I was out on the rink at the Pittsburgh Ice Arena, wearing a hockey helmet in case I fell, and a woman who saw me suggested I try playing hockey.“I've been playing ever since.”Girls playing hockey in the PIHL isn't a new thing. League commissioner Ed Sam estimates up to 2 percent of the PIHL players are female.“A number of teams have one or two girls on the roster,” Sam said. “The PIHL East has a girls league now, about 12 or 14 teams, and there is a girls Flyer Cup that they play for.“Five years or so down the road, I can see the Western side of the league having a girls division. It would probably start out in the Open division, where schools could combine resources to form teams.”Hepler isn't convinced that will come to be.“There just isn't enough girls playing,” he said. “With girls teams now, you have sixth-graders playing with 18 or 19 year olds. That won't work in high school hockey.“But Katie and Cassie have been great for us. They're helping our team and they're helping their own development as players. Girls on other teams are doing the same thing. We've seen some of them.”
