Maple Ridge's Samantha Hill, local hockey coach and owner of Enhance Sport and Wellness, will be a keynote speaker at the premiere of a documentary on women's hockey.
Rylee Cawthorne, who is also from Maple Ridge, is the co-director and co-producer of "It's Been a Long Time Coming," with Emma May Beckett. The show will open on Monday, March 10 at Parkside Brewery in Port Moody, in an event that starts at 6 p.m.
Hill is not in the documentary, but at the opening she will speak about her life growing up playing female hockey, the lack of opportunity she encountered, and how far the sport has come.
Cawthorne grew up in Maple Ridge and played for the Ridge Meadows Barracudas Hockey Association. Hill coached her during her later years of minor hockey, and had an influential role in her hockey career. Cawthorne now works at her clinic as the social media manager.
The 22-minute doc tells the stories of the female hockey players, coaches, parents, and important female hockey figures of the Toronto Leaside Wildcats – one of Ontario’s most prominent female hockey associations.
Hill grew up playing ice hockey, and notes "my family lived and breathed it."
She played female hockey in the fall and winter season, and then boys hockey most springs.
Hill said the documentary produced by Cawthorne and Beckett had a profound impact on her.
"Not once in my minor hockey career did I have a female coach, which made my time later in life as a hockey coach very important to me," she said. "Coaching became more important and rewarding than being a hockey player, being able to mentor young female athletes became a passion of mine and still is."
She said if the Professional Women's Hockey League had existed, she would have strived to play at that level, and believes she might have lived that dream.
"As I sat at the first ever Vancouver hosted PWHL game this January, I was hit with so many emotions, I cried, and smiled, and was extremely overwhelmed with how far female hockey has come," said Hill. "I can't really explain how it felt to see a sold-out stadium and all the little girls at that game, who are now dreaming of one day playing professional women's hockey, a dream that can come true!"
