As the only girl on her varsity ice hockey team, 17-year-old Alyssa Wruble is used to unwanted attention. Spectators routinely cheer louder when she gets hit during a game, she told Lehigh Valley Live this week. But the Pennsylvania high school junior, who practices twice a day and is aiming for a spot on a Division I women’s team, just shrugs it off.
“I laugh at that,” she said. “I take the hit. I know I what I signed up for.”
Last week, though, things went too far. During a championship playoff game, a crude handmade sign appeared on the rink’s glass, suggesting she wasn’t really a woman. “Alyssa gender reveal?” it asked, followed by a blue box with the symbol for the male sex and a pink box with the symbol for the female sex.
Alyssa was so focused on her game that she didn’t even notice the sign, she said. But she did hear the chants coming from fans of the opposing team.
“When I skated over all I heard was ‘Wruble, you’re a dude,’ and apparently my uncle and aunt and also my father also heard them saying that I have a penis,” she told Fox 29 on Monday. “It was really loud. The whole student section had to be doing it.”
The teenager went on to score two goals anyway. Though the rival team is condemning the “bullying” that took place, Alyssa told the station she’s still waiting on an apology from the spectators who heckled her.
An aspiring Olympian, Alyssa began playing hockey at the age of 6, Lehigh Valley Live reported. She belongs to a Philadelphia Jr. Flyers travel team and spends four days a week living in West Chester, Pa., where she attends the Philadelphia Hockey Academy. Every Friday, she returns to her hometown of East Allen Township, Pa., which is more than an hour away. Weekends are spent playing on the coed varsity club team associated with Northampton Area High School, where she’s a junior.
“She just fell in love with this sport,” her mother, Heidi Wruble, told the paper. “It’s her passion.”
On Wednesday, Northampton was facing off against the club team for Parkland High School in Allentown, Pa. The game was the second of three in a series that would determine the winner of the Lehigh Valley Scholastic Hockey League championship. Alyssa told Fox 29 that as soon as she got onto the ice, the jeering and hateful chants began.
“I just kept my head down, I just played and I just kept focused on the game,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let them get into my head and ruin the game for me.”
At some point during the game, the sign taunting Alyssa appeared. Her mother told Lehigh Valley Live she started shaking with anger when she spotted it. “You don’t want to see something like that about your child,” she said. She went and spoke to another parent, who told the rink manager and had it taken down.
Though Alyssa scored two goals, Northampton lost the game and the playoffs. Days later, her family decided to speak up about the “unsportsmanlike conduct” that they had witnessed.
“Competitive banter and egging each other on is all in the spirit of the game,” Alyssa’s aunt, Donna Bloss, wrote in a Saturday Facebook post. “But personal attacks, bullying and borderline sexual harassment has no place in high school sports or anywhere for that matter.”
Bloss posted a picture of the offending sign, which the rink manager had given to Wruble. By early Tuesday morning, the post had been shared nearly 5,000 times.
“As a Parkland alumni who grew up in the rink and saw the rivalry first hand, I am embarrassed,” said one typical response. “This is not okay and I feel terrible for your niece. Tell her to keep killing it and keep her head high.”
Parkland High School responded on Sunday, saying the school’s principal “immediately took the sign down” once it was brought to his attention, and the accusations of misconduct were being investigated.
“There is no place for unsportsmanlike conduct or personal harassment in our school, or any where, and anyone involved will be disciplined according to Parkland policy and procedures,” the school’s statement said. “Furthermore, to Alyssa and her family, we are sorry for the pain caused by the sign. Parkland fully supports gender equity and Parkland is proud to have female players on its own hockey team.”
The Parkland club team’s leaders told Lehigh Valley Live that the sign was posted by a “random fan,” not any of the players or their families. Mike Byelick, who stepped down as president of Parkland Ice Hockey amid the controversy, said he and his family had received threats because of it. He added that female players on the Parkland team, including his own daughter, had also been bullied in the past.
“The Parkland Ice Hockey Club deeply regrets the actions of a group of fans regarding the bullying of Alyssa Wruble,” club Vice President Rob Bilger told Fox 29 on Monday. “We, along with USA Hockey, have a zero tolerance for bullying. Unfortunately, bullying has been an ongoing problem for years in the LVSHL [Lehigh Valley Scholastic Hockey League] and it needs to stop.”
Alyssa and her family are still frustrated. The teenager told Fox 29 that she wanted the person responsible for the sign to come forward and apologize.
“Any girl should be allowed to be as good as a guy, it shouldn’t have to matter what gender they are,” she said. “If they wanna go play a sport you should let them, you shouldn’t bring them down for wanting to do something they love.”