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The Sirens make noise in their Pond Hockey Championships debut

02/27/2013, 8:15am MST
By Mike Scandura - Special to USAHockey.com

In their first trip to Eagle River, Wis. for the 2013 Labatt Blue/USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships, the Sirens captured the Women’s Beginner Division championship.

When it comes to sports in Indiana, basketball is king. That doesn’t stop the Sirens, who play out of the Midwest Ice & Training Center in Dyer, a city about 30 miles south of downtown Chicago.
 
“A lot of teams we play are in the Chicago suburbs,” Sirens defender Dana Vanco said. “In Indiana, the next closest rink is in South Bend.”
 
Yet in their first trip to Eagle River, Wis., for the 2013 Labatt Blue/USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships, the Sirens captured the Women’s Beginner Division championship.
 
“Four of us had just played in our first pond hockey tournament four weeks prior to nationals, in Wassau, Wis.,” Vanco said. “Luckily, we got into nationals because the tournament fills up quickly.
 
“For the six of us that played on the team that won it, it was our first time together [as a full pond hockey team]. But we had friends who had played in it before so that’s how we found out about it.”
 
The six players on the championship team besides Vanco were Gina Eustace, Leigh Gilworth, Michelle Fitzpatrick, Kelly Cash and Cynthia McClean. Jerry Unold is the coach and Chris Anderson is his assistant coach.
 
“I think the whole purpose of going to nationals was to have fun and see what we could do,” Vanco said. “We were talking about this on the way home. Personally, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I was taking the safer route.”
 
The Sirens trailed BLB 3-1 at the midway point of the championship game before rallying to win, 4-3.
 
“That was exciting because, in our previous games, we had won by a lot,” Vanco said. “But overall, we had mixed feelings about how we would do because we lacked experience playing pond hockey.”
 
The Sirens formed in 2009 strictly as an exhibition team without a league affiliation.
 
“It started with some hockey moms who actually wanted to play instead of just watching their kids play,” Vanco said. “Gina Eustace is the one who got the team started and asked me to play.
 
“I’m a teacher and had done some roller-blading when Gina asked if I wanted to try hockey. I didn’t start playing hockey until I was 37 years old.”
 
The Sirens range in age from 29 through 45 and have played in the Women’s Central Hockey League since 2010. In fact, the Sirens captured the Green Division championship at the end of the 2011-12 season.
 
Prior to that accomplishment, the Sirens annexed the title in the 2011 Brew City Tournament in Milwaukee and finished second in the 2011 Puck Cancer Tournament in Vernon Hills, Ill.
 
“One thing that’s neat about our team is most of us are mothers,” Vanco said. “And we have three teachers, a pharmacist, a lawyer, a veterinarian and a psychologist.
 
“We all have developed a love for hockey and are committed to raising the visibility of the sport for women in the area.”
 
And that means, of course, continuing to play in the Pond Hockey Championships.
 
“We can’t wait to go back,” Vanco said. “We definitely will plan on going and making it a tradition in years to come. It was so much more than I ever expected. Everyone there was amazingly friendly and we made a lot of friends.
 
“To be in a place with 2,000 other people that share the same passion for hockey is indescribable. For all of us, it definitely was so much more fun than we anticipated. And winning our division was the icing on the cake.”
 
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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