Hockey has a reputation of being one of the bloodiest sports so when people think about hockey players, most likely they don’t imagine a girl underneath the helmet. To be fair, women didn’t start playing in the NHL until 1992 and even after that a women didn’t play again until 2003 according to an article done by ESPN on female hockey players.
While a girl playing hockey is uncommon, it’s not exactly rare either. One of Ripon High School’s freshmen does play hockey and has for the past year and four months. Ashley Espinoza says that she discovered the sport at a friend’s birthday party and since then, she has encountered boys who have underestimated her just for being a girl. After being put down, one has to wonder how she keeps her inspiration.
When asked about inspiration, Espinoza says that there are three people she looks to and those are Hilary Knight, Kris Letang, and her mom. Knight and Letang are both great hockey players in Espinoza’s eyes and she says that her mom is successful, a hard worker, never gives up and she loves her very much.
Hockey isn’t the only male dominated sport out there, there are obviously many sports. When playing one of these sports, Espinoza says that there’ll be a lot of challenges, there will be injuries but to never give up and keep fighting.
Espinoza looks to Wayne Gretzky for “ You’ll miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”
“Don’t forget girls can do just as much as boys can,” said Espinoza
