If you haven't already,
meet Shelby Saponari.
“She’s a really good player, a good skater,” said Gus Saponari, who also coached her on girls select teams. “She’s a head’s-up player. If you keep your head up, you can avoid some big hits.”
And deliver them. In her Ice Dogs debut, Shelby gave a hip check to a Gator that announced her arrival.
“He went flying,” she recalled. “I didn’t see how big of a hit it was. I heard how big it was. The whole crowd went crazy.”
Hockey wasn't available for me as a sport back in my formative years. But if it were, and it offered a chance to play with badass girls AND a chance to hip check gators, well, I would've given it a shot.
