FRANKLIN PARK — Stan Dubicki’s mission was pretty simple when he started forming a club team for girls high school hockey players this year: Give them an opportunity to play.
Dubicki, who is the Chicago Wolves goaltending coach, coaches girls youth hockey in Franklin Park. That’s where he first noticed the problem.
“It would get to the point with girls aging out and they would have nowhere to go,” Dubicki said. “Travel hockey is so hard to make in Illinois and it’s so expensive. We wanted to give these girls an opportunity to keep playing, so we put a team together.”
That’s how Maine Girls Hockey was formed. The team has 18 players with half the girls coming from Maine South. The rest come from other area high schools that have no team, including Leyden, Fremd, Rolling Meadows, Maine West and Prospect.
“We knew a lot of the girls because they played in our park district programs,” Dubicki said. “We had a lot of kids left out and the girls were dying for a place to play.”
According to Dubicki, playing travel hockey can cost anywhere from $5,000-$15,000 a year. And shelling out that kind of money doesn’t even guarantee playing time.
That’s why Dubicki has worked hard to do things differently. He’s kept costs down — the annual fee is around $2,000 — and he makes sure every girl gets ice time.
“I see coaches on other teams and they just put their top kids on the ice,” Dubicki said. “I would never do that. I want everyone to get playing time.”
Nicole Dubicki makes a pad save during the Maine Girls Hockey team’s practice on Friday. | Rob Valentin/for Chicago Tribune Media Group
When he began putting the team together, he didn’t need to look far for his goalie. His daughter, Nicole Dubicki, is a sophomore at Maine South and has been playing hockey for the last six years.
She spent a lot of time tagging along to her dad’s work with the Wolves, watching future NHL goalies including the St. Louis Blues’ Jake Allen and the Vancouver Canucks’ Eddie Lack.
“I’ve learned most of the things I know just from watching them,” Nicole Dubicki said. “I learned positioning and playing the puck, whether to go down or stand up.”
But she wasn’t sure if she was going to put all that knowledge to use this year until her dad put the team together.
“We had a U-16 team [Pink Panthers] last year and there are a lot of girls from Maine South and we all needed a place to play,” Nicole Dubicki said. “I was hoping we’d eventually have a high school team, I just didn’t know when things would fall into place.”
Leyden’s Cassidy Schukat makes a pass during Friday’s practice for the Maine Girls Hockey team. | Rob Valentin/for Chicago Tribune Media Group
Defenseman Cassidy Schukat, a junior at Leyden, began playing hockey eight years ago and getting an opportunity to keep playing this year means a lot to her.
“I just wanted a place to play so I was so excited,” Schukat said. “If I couldn’t play here I don’t know where I would be playing. Playing hockey is something I love and there just aren’t many places for girls my age to play so I’m so glad [coach Dubicki] put this together.
The team is 0-8-2 this season, but Stan Dubicki isn’t too worried about the team’s record.
“I don’t care about the wins and losses right now,” he said. “For us as a coaching staff, we just want every kid to get better every day. You can already see the kids who haven’t been playing long are getting caught up. They’re learning team concepts. A year from now this team will be a powerhouse in women’s hockey.”
The other players from Maine South are seniors Lindsey Anderson, Alyssa Sinatra and Karlie Daniels, junior Michelle Cottrell, sophomore Victoria Odarczenko and freshmen Sarah Hudak, Samantha Szapielak and Amy Gulliksen.
The other two girls from Leyden are senior Brittany Aiello and sophomore Carolyn Chrastka.