Just a few short words to acknowledge Cassie Campbell, the retiring captain of Canada's Olympic women's hockey champions.There's not much left to add on top of the tributes and accolades that have been pouring in for Campbell, as she moves on to the next phase of her life. What should be remembered is how much she and the other 30-somethings who will all be moving on from the national team between now and Vancouver 2010 (some voluntarily, some not), is how much they invested themselves in growing the women's game.
What Campbell did -- being the public face of a team, making all the appearances and speeches and coming across as almost too good to be true -- is probably as important as what she did on the ice or in the dressing room for Team Canada. Not that that should be trivialized: She did plenty there too, especially in the run-up to the Salt Lake 2002, when she and her teammates failed time and again to beat the U.S. in pre-Olympic play (they went 0-for-8), but held it together and beat the Americans in the one game that mattered, despite some of the worst officiating in modern history.
Some will remember that, but it's better to keep in mind the sacrifices made by Campbell and her generation of players who could have easily said to hell with it -- I remember Sami Jo Small, a Stanford engineering grad, saying that she literally lived out of her car at times -- but kept on with hockey. They knew if they quit, there might be a much longer wait for the opportunities female hockey players are getting today.
Campbell's generation, many of whom deferred motherhood and lucrative careers, did so for a worthy cause, and she was willing to be the public face of that movement. Not to get all prolix, but that's why there's the sense that for women's hockey, Cassie Campbell is going to somewhat like what Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman or Jean Béliveau were to the people who skated with them and saw them play: The captain, forever.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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