Usually “boarding school” has a negative connotation. That’s why when I tell friends I chose boarding school at 13, they appear shocked.

Long Island girls’ ice hockey is a organization that is, sadly, slowly declining. I played since I was 8, but in eighth grade I wanted a change. With college hockey in mind, I started the process of finding a school that could further my education and my ice hockey skills as well. That is when I decided to got Wyoming Seminary, a small prep school in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

For two years I was able to continue this dream until the winter of my sophomore year. The girls’ ice hockey program was cut from our school, and left many of us stranded and unsure of what to do. So I returned to Wantagh and left behind many friends and opportunities.

The fact that a program could be stripped away so suddenly makes me wonder why people don’t rally behind women’s ice hockey in general. The NWHL lags behind the NHL by light years, and it creates a segregation for female athletes. In a society that should value qualities of women, why are we still treated as inferior?

My old school still runs the boys’ ice hockey. They spend thousands of dollars on recruiting boys for their team, paying for the financial aid as boys get shipped from Canada to the campus in Pa.; but this action is always so ironic because they told us our program could not be funded anymore. It suddenly seemed they just “ran out” of money, while the field hockey team recruits many girls to go to states each year.

The inconsistencies make me, and many others, angry and confused. So many individuals do not pay enough attention to the female side of a sport they love and it is offensive. Do we just patiently wait our turn until justice is served for our unfair treatment? It seems we are making some progress. Considering we are 46 years after Title IX (which gave women the legal right to the same athletic opportunities as men), it still seems we have a long time to go.