Two 11-year-old girls saved their hockey rink from becoming pickleball courts. Now they’re leading the charge to improve it.

Natalie Van Druff and Lilly Walter became best friends on the hockey rink.

The 11-year-old girls, who live in Gilbertsville, Montgomery County, play dek hockey together — a variation of hockey played in sneakers on a flat, dry surface, typically an outdoor rink.

Dek hockey can help make the game more accessible and affordable for players and more convenient for communities. The Flyers regularly run ball hockey and dek hockey programs over the summer for youth across the region.

Natalie plays forward and defense, while Lilly mostly plays center and wing. They’ve been teammates for two years and regularly play at the New Hanover Community Park hockey dek.

“We built a stronger friendship coming to that dek,” Lilly said.

But a few months ago, they found out that their community’s rink was in jeopardy.

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This past October, Kate Van Druff, inspired by her daughter’s love of the sport, came up with the idea of starting a pickup dek hockey group for mothers and kids at the New Hanover Community Park. Noticing that the dek had only one net, she reached out to the township to offer a second net as a donation, only to be told the town actually was planning to turn the rink into pickleball courts.

It’s not an uncommon story, as pickleball has swept the nation over the last few years. Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the country, with USA Pickleball estimating that the construction of more than 25,000 new courts will be needed in the coming years to keep up with the demand.

USA Pickleball also says the average age for a pickleball player is 38 years old. For the kids who regularly use the New Hanover hockey dek, the planned construction would eliminate a local, free place to play outdoor pickup hockey. Unlike other, farther rinks, the community park doesn’t charge entrance fees.

It isn’t like there’s a lack of pickleball courts nearby — Boyertown Community Park, a 10-minute drive from New Hanover, has three courts.

“This dek can be here for many generations, for kids that want to learn how to play hockey, that have it near them,” Lilly Walter said. “And they can learn how to play, making friends, learn how to win and lose. This dek can be around for 50 years if people keep taking good care of it.”

Coincidentally, the first pickup game Kate Van Druff’s group scheduled turned out to be on the same day that the township was set to meet on the pickleball issue. After the game, Natalie Van Druff and Lilly Walter, along with other players and parents, headed to the meeting — still wearing their hockey gear — to speak to the recreation committee.

“I was really happy that so many people cared as much as we did about the rink,” Natalie said.

Their advocacy, plus a petition that racked up more than 900 signatures, helped sway the committee. Kate and Natalie received a letter in the mail from the township manager, Jamie Gwynn, saying the dek would stay.

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The newly saved rink does need some renovations, even if those renovations won’t include installing courts. There’s a large crack in the middle of the concrete that needs to be repaired. It’s also surrounded by fencing, rather than hockey boards. The girls also said they are hoping to get hockey doors that open outward to replace the current gates that swing inward.

Last week, Natalie and Lilly presented these suggestions at a meeting at the New Hanover Township municipal building to three council members. Their plans, which came together over a few weeks of preparation at Panera, included the costs of incorporating a tile surface, boards, and a scoreboard to the dek. They pointed toward the renovated ball hockey rink in Gloucester Township that was redesigned as part of a partnership with the Flyers in 2021 as inspiration.

It was a new experience for both of them, as both girls said that they hadn’t had done much public speaking before.

“Sometimes if you have a small voice, you can make it bigger with enough confidence and enough support from friends,” Lilly said. “Mostly self-confidence, because that’s what it really is when it comes to presenting in front of people. But it also helps if you have a friend to do it with you.”

The council members told the girls their presentation is set to move on to the next round, where they’ll present again in a meeting with the board of supervisors, set for March. In the meantime, they’re on the hunt for sponsors for the rink.

“We all can be change makers, even if it seems like something small that we need to change,” Natalie said. “Sometimes it can lead up to something bigger.”