Ice Hockey
Favorite athlete: Megan Keller or Nathan Mackinnon
Favorite team: Philadelphia Flyers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Scoring the game-winning goal for my team to compete in districts and then go on to nationals.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: This season, I accidentally lost an edge and skated into the opposing team's post when we were down by five goals.
Music on Playlist: Metallica, Linkin Park, Aerosmith
Words to live by: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Future plans: Currently undecided
One goal before turning 30: To have traveled to at least two other countries
One thing people don’t know about me: I love to read, especially classic novels. I love going to the gym and have recently started snowboarding.
By GORDON GLANTZ
What started out as a spirited debate between two single people about the virtues of Flyers’ legend Bobby Clarke led to something much more tangible - a marriage and then four girls, all playing ice hockey.
The game is also on television in the Kaminsky home, and Nick Kaminsky, the patriarch, has coached all four young ladies.
“We really are a true hockey family,” said matriarch Karen Kaminsky, who was hooked on hockey since her brother took her to her first game to see the Flyers play the Calgary Flames in 1998. “(Nick and I) met because of the sport, and the love continues with all of us.”
Mandy Kaminsky played goalie for Souderton and then in college, and she now serves as an assistant. Twin 12-year-olds, Jocy and Katy, play for the Junior Flyers.
The second of the brood - Julia Kaminsky - is now a senior at Souderton and does more than just hold her own. She is likely the most impactful female player in the history of the SHSHL.
As for “Jules,” as she is known, the love of the game was apparent from the outset.
“She started skating at 3 and playing at 4,” said Karen. “It was never a question of if, but when. It’s all she ever wanted. When she was little, she would ask me, ‘When can I play hockey?’ From the time she could walk, she always had a ball and a stick in her hands.”
It was like a birthright, and she was actually the first to play, as Mandy followed when Jules’ team needed a goalie.
“That is true,” said Jules, who was on the ice by age 4 and starting playing by age 5. “It has been all through my family. My dad played hockey in high school (at Perkiomen Valley). I first touched a stick at 3 years old and that was it.
“There is a photo of me with a baseball, kind of stickhandling outside. I always knew that’s what I wanted to pursue.”
The Next Step
Standing out against other females, the next bold step – onto the ice in the male-dominated SHSHL -- seemed inevitable.
Although she is looking at a career in the medical field, as either a physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner, Kaminsky argued her case to her understandably anxious parents like a lawyer before the Supreme Court.
After filing a series of appeals, an initial hard no became a tepid yes, and she got the green light to hit the ice as a junior.
“I really wanted to play my freshman and sophomore year,” said Kaminsky. “My mom wasn’t necessarily the one I had to convince. It was really more my dad.
“It was definitely hard to convince both of them, though. In my freshman and sophomore year, I was smaller than I am now. I was still growing. They were worried for my safety. After a lot of convincing, I was allowed to play my junior year.”
Mom remembered when permission was finally granted, and now knows it was the right choice.
“Ultimately, she won the battle, and we gave in,” said Karen Kaminsky. “The smiles are genuine pure joy for her and it’s truly heartwarming to see.”
Kaminsky has gone on to win the war, in terms of proving herself as more than an anomaly.
She entered the final week of the 2025-26 season with 13 goals and 13 assists in 15 games played, which placed her second on her team and 14th in the National Division in overall scoring.
“What Jules is doing, from a numbers standpoint, is just eye-popping,” said Souderton coach Ryan Uchniat. “It’s really incredible. I knew she was going to jump her totals from last year, which was her first year playing varsity, but this is incredible.”
While there may be a bit of a general hands-off policy with some of the other female players in the circuit, No. 28 for Souderton is simply too much of a force for opponents to ignore.
If she is in the corners or driving to the net, she is going to get hit.
The physicality has become a way of life for Kaminsky.
“I pretty much get myself into the mindset that it’s going to happen, and I just have to be prepared for it,” she said. “It’s constant. So, if I’m going into the boards, I have to go in a certain way. It’s a constant reminder in my head that I have to be safe.”
Not wanting special treatment, she does what she can to be incognito.
“Personally, for me, I put my hair up in a bun,” said Kaminsky. “I don’t like the idea of being treated differently for being a female, and most guys probably don’t even know that I am a female, so they’ll hit me like I’m a man, which is fine.”
And when she gets knocked down, it’s all about resiliency.
“It sometimes happens,” she said. “I just have to get right back up and act like it didn’t hurt. It looks bad if you just lay there. It makes you look weaker, and they are just going to come and do it again.
“Sometimes, the hits are pretty big, and you’ll hear the ‘eww’ from the crowd and stuff. I just have to be prepared.”
Kaminsky, who started off playing organized ice hockey with and against girls literally twice her age, has found suiting up with Souderton to be the joy of her life.
“I just love it so much,” she said. “Every time I’m out there on the ice, I have a huge smile on my face.”
Karen Kaminsky can certainly see the love in her daughter’s eyes.
“Although she has gotten her fair share of checks, with numerous bumps and bruises, she holds her own and wouldn’t have had it any other way,” she said. “The happiness her Souderton team and her teammates have brought her has been so wonderful to watch as her parents.”
Courage and Adversity
Beyond her impressive stats, Kaminsky has brought much more to the table, according to Uchniat.
“It takes a lot of courage for a female to go out and play varsity hockey,” he said. “We have all seen that some of these games can get very physical. There are a lot of injuries in hockey, and a lot of these male athletes tend to grow faster and grow bigger at the high school level.”
And it took even more courage to battle back from a severe injury on a check from behind in a game against Council Rock South that cut into a big chunk of her junior year.
“I was hurt for the majority of the season,” said Kaminsky. “I had a very bad knee injury that kept me out for about 2 ½ months. It happened in the first week of December, so I only played about five or six games last season.”
Although there was some “I told you so” on the home front, she prepared to file one more appeal and convinced her parents all over again to let her stick with it.
“I think they knew that I loved it so much and that I wanted to play so bad for my school, because it’s like a rite of passage,” said Kaminsky. “After a lot convincing, they still let me play.”
New and Improved
With her second chance, Kaminsky was more determined than ever to make the type of impact she has made this year.
“I was not real confident before in my skill level,” she said. “I would just pass the puck off to whoever. I wouldn’t try and take over and use my skills to my advantage.”
After scoring just once and adding a handful of assists as a junior rookie, Kaminsky was determined to make it count as a
senior veteran.
“It is such a different game now for me this season,” she said. “I’m second on the team this year in points, which is just crazy for me to even think about.”
The improvement came hitting the gym to add muscle to her 5-7 ½ inch frame -- with a lot of core work as the main focus -- and hitting the ice as much as much as possible in the offseason.
“I was probably on the ice two or three times a week,” she said. “During the offseason, I was consistently working on ways to play bigger and more aggressively.
“Men play so differently than women, so it was definitely an adjustment. I went and practiced constantly, and it definitely made a difference in the way that I think. I definitely see an improvement.”
Heart of Gold
Despite her physical toughness, Kaminsky has empathy for others. She is involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Unified Track with special needs students.
“That’s something that I really love,” she said. “That fills a lot of my time. There are helpers, and I’m considered one of the helpers.
“It’s a very nice thing. I think it’s amazing, what they do. The kids are just so happy, and it builds a community for the kids as well.”
Within the ice hockey team, she has also served as mentor to Souderton freshman Daylin Egan, a female teammate who is a standout on the female club circuit but is naturally overwhelmed at times.
Kaminsky has taken Egan under her wing, and gives her pep talks to in the female-only dressing room.
“She’s very little, but she really tries her hardest,” said Kaminsky. “I think that, as she gets older, she will get a lot better. It just takes time. With me, it took time, too. It really is so different.”
It was only natural for Kaminsky to pay it forward to Egan after the way her teammates have accepted her and made her feel like part of the family.
“I love my teammates,” she said, extending thanks to her family, particularly mom and dad, and all her coaches and all her teammates over the years, as well as the Orlando family of Hatfield Ice. “They are so nice. They have no problem putting me in my place. We’re all friends. It’s a very uplifting team. There is no negativity toward me from anyone.
“I have a lot of friends on the team. They are friends that I truly care about, and they care about me. It’s a great circumstance.”
Earning a Promotion
Because he had coached her older sister, Mandy, who is now a Souderton assistant/goalie coach, Uchniat was already familiar with the next of the hockey-playing Kaminsky Kids.
What he saw from her in preseason practice was enough to convince him that Kaminsky was ready to take on a bigger role as a senior.
“The thing that stuck out was that, when she was making passes, she was saucing the puck,” said Uchniat. “She was always in the right position, her teammates liked playing with her. It was an easy decision.”
Translation: You sometimes only get one chance to make a first impression, and Kaminsky made it with Uchniat.
As such, she earned a promotion to the top line.
“Last year was her first year playing varsity hockey,” said Uchniat. “She had, maybe, nine or 10 points but it was a much different lineup. She was playing on the second or third line. The way things worked out this year, she had the opportunity to play with the first line and she certainly has delivered.”
Kaminsky has developed natural synergy with Max Ryon and Jackson Kelly on the top line, with each complementing the other well.
“It’s amazing to see,” said Uchniat. “She makes things happen. She creates opportunities. She opens up the ice. She opens up looks and she creates her own looks, and she is able to put it in.
“It’s the way she sees the game and the patience she has. She has good hands, and I think a lot of it is just her hockey IQ.”
Uchniat added that Kaminsky does it all with a lot of old-fashioned perseverance.
“She’s doing the work,” he said. “She’s making things happen. She has the ability to win out there and to be competitive on a weekly basis.”
What’s Next?
It would be logical to assume that Kaminsky is more than capable to playing at the college level against other women.
“I think she has the ability to play at the NCAA level, on the female side, 100 percent,” said Uchniat.
While she can’t imagine a life without hockey in it, Kaminsky is also weighing all-important academics into the equation.
“I do want to play hockey in college, though,” she said. “I truly feel like that is where I am meant to be. I really don’t think I’m ready to give it up yet.”
Kaminsky could play club hockey for Rowan University in New Jersey, and she has already practiced with the team there.
The Souderton senior - who takes biology at Montgomery County Community College and plans to continue doing so in the summer to get prerequisites out of way - is also considering Penn State-Berks and Neumann University.
Penn State-Berks does not have hockey, which is a drawback. Neumann, which is a new to the ice hockey scene, has the appeal of a Division III team.
“I want to play hockey, but, for me, I want to prioritize my academics,” said Kaminsky, who boasts a 4.0 GPA and is a member of the National Honor Society. “I’m still undecided on where I’m going to go but I at least plan on playing club hockey somewhere.
“At this point in my life, though, academics are what I want to put first.”
