Long before Cassie Campbell, and Haley Wickenheiser …  there was the Father Mac Senior Girls hockey Team.  You can see our team photo in the year book… remarkable for our unmatched and tattered jersey’s, we were a  hodge podge of mature ringette experience, strength and talent plus raw, unskilled novice spirit and enthusiasm and of course,  flanked by loyal and stalwart refs, René Choinere and David Perrault, and coach Monique “Scotty” LeBlanc!      We had some real talent on the  team… and some … less than talented, of which this group I was a member!  But in those fledgling years of women’s hockey, we held our own!  We ended the season with only two losses, both to the undefeated Pierrefonds High School women’s team!  In a championship playoff showdown, and led by Louise “the WALL” Lalonde, we played to a breathless AND scoreless finish!  A standoff!   A rematch of the TITANS was scheduled and the tension was palpable in this, the ultimate showdown game. The details of this game are misty now to this unworthy 3rd stringer, but not the glorious conclusion!  The Father Mac Senior girls hockey team, valiant antecedents of the Canadian Olympic women’s team in every way, blanked the mighty Pierrfonds juggernaut in a 1-0 victory!!  (see page …. In your reunion year book!)      In a gesture of respect and acknowledgement to the 1st place losers, Father Mac and Pierrefonds forged an All Star Team to  play in a tourney in New York.  The mighty team from Montreal faced a medley of Rural American Farm girls and remained scoreless in a humiliating string of games.  In our final game, and blanked yet again in the scoring race, the repeatedly defeated, but not yet daunted Montreal team, managed to break through their scoreless run and put a mark up on the scoreboard.  Akin to the Canadian Olympic champions, we flooded the ice in a victory dance, risking penalization for too many men on the ice,  to bask in the glory of reaching our Holy Grail!!  The team that began the tourney with a ribald round of dirty Ernie jokes from Captain Joanne McNeil and survivors of the police raid on the Hotel of baby doll clad girls, went home, un-chagrined and mighty pleased to have been heard, no matter how quietly in Hockey town USA!      Interesting footnote:  When the season ended I was awarded an MIP trophy.   I understand that’s for being the Most Improved Player but in the telling I have upgraded this accolade to Most Important, Most Interesting and Most Intelligent Player J   It is this trophy that I hold up here today.  FMCHS  1976-77   MIP   M. Bossy.  Note the obviously male figure depicted. This could NOT happen in today’s politically correct world.  In the following year another M. Bossy would make headlines, claiming the NHL Calder Trophy for rookie of the year.  Well Mike, your little cousin just wants to let you know, that along with the rest of the Father Mac senior girls, she was there first!!!!