Not only have women entered sports that were previously the domain of men, they have also become a much larger part of the whole sports scene.
This region has not only kept pace with the changes, but in some ways, has led the way.
We were reminded of that when Deloraine’s Ashton Bell helped Canada win gold in Hockey at the Beijing Olympics in 2022. Her success, which first of all is a direct result of her skill and dedication, is also a tribute to her family and her community - women willing to step outside of social norms - going back several generations.
One of Ashton’s forerunners was Amber Rommelaere. Born in 1974, Amber grew up on a farm just off the road to Lake Metigoshe. She loved skating and since the boy’s team her age needed players, she was asked to join. She took to hockey easily. When her team shifted to contact hockey, she shifted with them. Amber played as a winger and was on the same line as Chris Nielsen from Goodlands who went on to play in the NHL. No doubt Amber’s grit and skill would have influenced him.
Amber’s mother, Ethel Rommelaere, deserves recognition. In the 1990s parents needed to advocate for girls in sport. By arranging games and calling parents, Ethel made sure there were opportunities for her daughter, helping to form the Falcons, a regional female midget team. She then supported Amber and other girls to represent Manitoba in the Canada Winter Games. When Amber’s team won Provincials in 1992, Ethel was their manager. As she says, “Amber wanted to play hockey, so I needed to make it happen.”
One of Amber’s inspirations was her great aunt Martha Rommelaere. Martha was born in Deloraine in 1922; so a generation older than Amber’s parents. Martha worked hard to play baseball professionally. She played on boy’s teams and trained as a track star in high school. At age 22 she played semi-professional women’s softball with the Moose Jaw Royals and then moved onto Edmonton where she was crowned the Most Valuable Player. From there, she was invited to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Wait – professional baseball? Yes! During WWII, men’s professional teams were short players. So women’s teams were encouraged to fill stadiums. The film, “A League of Their Own”, depicts the hardships and prejudices Martha and her teammates faced. Martha was honoured in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. She gave her baseball card to Amber before passing away in 2011.
A Proud History
A generation earlier than Martha, sports-minded women in Manitoba began advocating for themselves as team players. The first women’s hockey team in southwest Manitoba hit the ice in Brandon in 1899. In a photo of the Brandon Ladies’ Hockey Team, their uniforms are black dresses with matching bonnets. Hockey was deemed a manly sport with women unfit for such rigours. The trouble was, men wanted women to skate so they could glide arm in arm on ponds and along rivers. With the essential skill of skating taken care of, they picked up sticks, shot pucks and kept their game focused on speed and skill. They became unstoppable. So now we have a female hockey Olympian in our midst.
Yes, Ashton Bell was helped to Olympic Gold by women over time, but young women from Deloraine also have had great mentors like Bob Caldwell, Don Dietrich, Dale McKinnon and Dan Dekezel; men who invested in both girls and boys. They took on anyone who’d work hard and make sacrifices. Both Ashton and Amber took advantage of the early morning Breakfast Club practices – a now international concept that was the brainchild of Bob Caldwell and has been a staple in Deloraine for decades. Yep. It takes a village!
Sources
Women’s Hockey. A Vantage Points Flashback radio (CJRB) story
by David M Neufeld.
Interviews with Bob Caldwell and Ethel Rommelaere.
Photos: Janice McClelland and the J.A. Victor David Museum
Members of a girls hockey team. “…often the girls played the boys for practice or for real. They won against them once and have a clipping from the Killarney Guide to prove it.“ Mabel
Ashton Bell
