With the championship on the line, sophomore Tory Boles and her teammates found themselves in a shoot-out. When the goalie saved the last shot, Boles and her teammates exploded into excitement, chanting “we are the champions.”

Boles has played hockey for the past seven years. She was previously on the Tri-City Eagles and currently plays for the Montgomery Blue Devils, both club teams, and the Montgomery County girls team.

“My dad has been playing for a while, and then my little brother started to play,” Boles said. “Then I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll try too,’ and then fell in love with it.”

The Montgomery County girls team is the equivalent of a high school varsity team, and they compete against other local schools. Many schools in the area, including CESJDS, do not have hockey teams, particularly for girls. The Montgomery County girls team allows athletes like Boles who want to play varsity hockey against other schools to do so. Boles has won one state championship with this team so far.

Balancing these two teams, Boles finds herself practicing six to eight hours per week, including both on and off the ice work. A typical on-ice practice begins with skating and then moves into team-based drills and fundamentals, while off-ice practice is more conditioning based.

There are not many technical differences between girls and boys hockey, but the main difference is that checking, the act of hitting the opponent’s stick with your own in an attempt for them to lose control of the puck, is forbidden in girls hockey. This attempts to limit injuries.

Boles’ younger brother, eighth grader Jonah Boles, has been playing for the past 11 years. He describes his and his sister’s relationship as very competitive when it comes to hockey, although their two teams never play against each other.

“Since fewer girls play hockey, there tend to be fewer teams and less variety of competition. Other than that, girl’s hockey is still hockey and it can be just as challenging,” Jonah said.

Both girls and boys hockey are very physical sports, making injuries inevitable. Boles herself has had two concussions along with many sprained and pulled muscles throughout her seven years of playing, but her love for the sport persists nonetheless.

“I love everything about the sport, between the bond with my team, how free I feel when I step on the ice, having something to work for and the feeling of winning after working so hard for it,” Tory said.

Boles believes that her love of the sport will never fade, and she hopes to be able to play at the collegiate level.

“I want to play in college and maybe even after in a league because I love the game so much. I don’t really know what my future holds but at some point I hope to coach a few teams.”

Being a girl playing a male dominated sport, Boles sees herself as someone who can inspire other girls to stand up as well.

“I wanted to go against gender norms and do something girls usually don’t do so I can lead the way for other girls when I’m older, and just prove to myself that I could do it,” Boles said.