Wallaceburg Girls Get Once In A Lifetime Experience In Michigan

Several Wallaceburg girls had a once in a lifetime experience over the weekend, wrapping up their Janie Puck season on the ice at the University of Michigan’s famed Yost Ice Arena.

Janie Puck is an off-shoot of the successful “Janie Lax” program that introduces girls to Field Lacrosse by making the sport accessible, affordable, and inclusive. The program welcomes girls hockey players from Wallaceburg and Sarnia areas, running out of Mooretown.

“We started Janie Puck last year with similar intentions of providing sport for girls in a much more accessible manner, with an emphasis on fun and inclusion and skill development as it related to healthy child development,” said founder Brian DeWagner. “Every girl that wants to play hockey should be able to manage it, but that’s not always the case in our current youth sport model, so we applied some of our key philosophies and carved out the beginnings of a hockey program that could introduce non-traditional hockey families to the game, and offer easy access to late starters, all with the hopes, like Janie Lax, that this would be about a lot more than just sport. Our ultimate goal is improved self-confidence and a sense of belonging, nurturing leadership skills, and changing perspectives.”

This was the second year the Janie Puck girls, who feature seven Wallaceburg players, got to skate with the University of Michigan Wolverines women’s hockey team.

Earlier this year the group went to Michigan State and skated with the Spartans women for the first time.

“We just wanted to open up the idea of hockey being accessible and less intimidating for newbies who don’t have family connections or have started late. It works. The girls and their families love it,” added DeWagner.