Meet the St. Paul hockey mom working to keep girls hockey alive in the Capital City

Angelique McDonald Flohrs used to be a board member of the St. Paul Capitals Hockey Association, which for 50 years has given boys and girls who want to play competitive hockey an outlet in the city.

Now, she says she's a hockey mom only — with a daughter playing for Cretin-Derham Hall's varsity team. But Flohrs continues helping with a dizzying number of events and fundraisers to attract girls and help the sport survive. It's not easy, she admits.

Decades ago, nearly every St. Paul high school had a boys hockey team. Now there are only two. No St. Paul public high school has a girls team, although the district has a co-operative team with Two Rivers High School. There are about 95 girls in 8U to 12U in the Capitals program.

Eye On St. Paul recently sat down with Flohrs to learn about her passion for a sport that is on life support in the city. This interview was edited for length.

Q: Hockey still exists in St. Paul?

A: It exists. It's tricky though. We have had consistently declining numbers, although the St. Paul Capitals are celebrating their 50^th year this year. Hockey's expensive. There are a number of [city] neighborhoods that aren't as interested in playing hockey. It's a lot cheaper to just go play soccer. We have tons of scholarships available, and yet we just can't get enough kids to bite. It's really getting their parents to bite.

Q: Why is it important to build up girls' youth hockey?

A: It's just a great sport. I look at my kids and what it's done to them. They're still playing the game. My sons are still playing in the old man league, I like to tease them. And they're like, "We're not old."

It's a sport that you can play forever. And it's just tremendous. I mean, my daughter, she got her first goal the other night, and this was the reaction of her best friend on the ice [shows picture of her happy daughter and friend hugging]. There's just so much love, so much camaraderie that go into the sport. It's such a love for the game.

We try to branch out and show them what the girls [who play hockey] are doing. We keep saying, "Stick with it, keep with it. We know it's hard."

Q: Your daughter wants to play college hockey?

A: Yes. We'll start making visits in the spring.

Q: Hockey in the city has really fallen off, but you're helping host a number of events at Highland Arena in St. Paul. Are you trying to spark interest?

A: That's the goal. I work a lot with [Capitals president] Julie Bustos to try to parent the program. Get them excited. The "Skate with the Raiders" [where youth players skated with Cretin-Derham Hall players] is just to get them understanding that, "You guys could do this. You gotta work. It's not going to be easy, but it's real."

Q: Why hockey?

A: Because it's given so much to my family. It's given countless nights of crazy waiting for their schedules to come out, waiting to find out which team they made. The nights in hotel rooms where the parents are having a safety meeting.

It's amazing to watch them go from literally falling everywhere to taking off across the rink. We watch them grow from a kid who cannot stand up on the ice to, before you know it, they're doing circles.

Q: Did you play?

A: I did. I played up in St. Cloud. But I played in figure skates because the boys hockey skates were too big for my feet. And I only played for a little while because it got too hard with the boys. Too physical. We did not have separate girls' teams.

Q: So how old were you when you stopped?

A: I was about 12. In high school, we got a girls team our senior year and I got to play that.

Q: Where do you see girls hockey in St. Paul five years from now?

A: I really am scared by the dropping numbers. But I want to believe that the girls will see what's going on and what we're trying to make of it, and they'll want to be a part of it. Put on a pair of skates and then get out there and try it.

Q: Why stay in St. Paul?

A: Because I love it. I love the community. I love the people I've met. I've met some of my best friends through hockey. They're hockey parents.

They're hockey parents in St. Paul and they're wonderful. They give of their time. I sat on the board for a couple years and it was hard. But for the most part, it was such a great experience.

It is very important to me for girls hockey to remain, to stay consistent. To get the numbers to stay high so we can run programs. So, we can offer an A level for the girls who are really committed and a B level for the girls who just want to have fun.