Buchan tallies 1st-ever score for new Grand Valley hockey team.

I hadn’t played in a decade and hadn’t been
on the ice but twice in that time…As the day
went by, we improved with each period. I
was exhausted by the end of the tournament.
-Halley Buchan,
Grand Valley women’s hockey team

An injury playing collegiate softball has resulted in a Cedar woman’s return to a childhood pursuit: ice hockey.

Halley Buchan, a 2005 Glen Lake graduate, is playing women’s ice hockey in its first year as a club sport at Grand Valley State University. She scored the Lakers’ first-ever goal in competition last weekend at a tournament at The Summit in Lansing.

“I heard about (the team) and thought it would be something I’d enjoy,” said Buchan, the second of three children and only daughter of Bruce and Cathy Buchan. “It’s organized and has the structure of a varsity sport that I really enjoy.”

As a fourth and fifth grader, Buchan played two years of hockey through the Grand Traverse Hockey Association. As she grew her interest focused on high school sports. A three-letter athlete at Glen Lake, Buchan played basketball and volleyball but softball was her first love. After graduation in 2005, Buchan attended Ferris State University, where she played for 11⁄2 seasons on the Bulldogs’ varsity softball team before being sidelined with an injury.

“I dislocated my kneecap and tore my meniscus (ligament),” Buchan said.

Reconstructive surgery was required.

A return to the softball field proved too painful for Buchan, who transferred to Grand Valley and is studying communications with an emphasis on public relations and advertising. So she turned to hockey, a physically demanding sport which, oddly, doesn’t cause her pain.

“I hadn’t played in a decade and hadn’t been on the ice but twice in that time,” said the college junior.

Grand Valley has 15 team members with differing levels of experience. That was apparent, Buchan said, in the team’s first competition in a tournament that included club teams from Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State.

“It started out a little rough,” said Buchan, who practices at Georgetown Ice Arena about two minutes from Grand Valley’s Allendale campus. “It was the first time we had played as a team. Some hadn’t even played before so those who had, got a lot of ice time . . . As the day went by, we improved with each period. I was exhausted by the end of the tournament.”

Unlike youth hockey, Buchan’s team is all female. And there’s no checking allowed.

The Lakers host the University of Michigan this weekend. And among those likely to be watching from the stands is Halley’s younger brother, Weston, a 2007 Glen Lake graduate — now a freshman at GVSU. Weston is a member of the GVSU track team, which is in training for spring competition.