Then three-year-old Elin Guenther dragged her skates as she made her way into her first ice hockey practice. Guenther didn’t like anything about it. Everything from practice, to being on a team, Guenther despised.
It wasn’t until she got the hang of passing the puck around and blocking shots that she truly grew to appreciate it. After she played in her first real game, her motivation for the sport finally developed. Now Guenther has been playing for 12 years.
“It was our first game of the season where I started to learn to love it,” Guenther said. “I got a breakaway, which is just where you're skating on the ice and everybody else is behind you, and I scored. It was my first goal in [co-ed] hockey.”
Now-sophomore Guenther plays for the Kansas City Storm’s fourteen-plus girls team, but for every other year she’s played with girls and boys, making the experience unique for Guenther, since most teams are separated by gender.
Typically, most girls play on the girls and boys teams until they’re fourteen, then they can choose if they want to branch out into playing on girls only versus the girls and boys team, according to Guenther.
“I'm super close with the girls,” Guenther said. “Then with the right group of guys, it's just a lot of fun, and I’ve played with the same group of boys for almost my entire career.”
This year, if girls are fourteen and over, they will only have the option to play for girls instead of getting to choose. This is a change for Guenther, because she’s used to playing with both genders.
“I like the speed of playing boys more just because it's more physical and faster,” Guenther said.
One constant for her is the sisterhood of her team.
Her best friend on the team, sophomore Aubrey Hoagland, has been by Guenther’s side since 5th grade and has loved growing up together on the ice.Throughout their loaded practice schedule and tournaments, it's uncommon for the two to be separated.
“There was this one Christmas practice and her mom had a video of us just dancing together,” Hoagland said. “It was the funniest thing ever. Everything's memorable with her on the ice just being like line mates and stuff.”
This memory is just one of many of Guenther with her friends, and her favorite part of the sport is the close relationships she’s formed. Not only has Guenther been surrounded by a strong support of friends, but her family is also very involved in her hockey career.
Guenther can’t remember a time where her dad, Christopher Guenther, wasn’t on the sidelines coaching her. While her dad coaches her, her mom is just as involved and busy volunteering during the games, helping with music and standing in the penalty box.
Her dad didn’t play hockey growing up, but always enjoyed watching the sport and encouraged both of his daughters to play since they were young.
“He loves the sport, and he never played it growing up, but he loves just seeing other kids play, and he loves watching us grow,” Guenther said.
Even though Guenther detested the sport at first, she has experienced a sport that “isn’t super popular” in the Midwest, according to Guenther. She attends multiple tournaments a season from places like Des Moines, Iowa, or all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
“My favorite thing is getting to play,” Guenther said. “Then also all the friends that I made, some of my best friends are from it.”
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