VERNON - Most Sussex County boys who want to play hockey have the option of playing in a town league or perhaps for a club team that plays at Skylands Ice World in Stockholm. But for girls like Vernon’s Rachel Colvin, the options are considerably more limited. Colvin, a sixth-grader at Lounsbury Hollow Middle School, began playing hockey at age five in the Vernon Youth Hockey League. All three of her brothers - Patrick, 19, Daniel, 17 and Michael, 15, played hockey before her and Rachel was constantly being brought to one rink or another when she was younger, says mom Janice Colvin. Her dad, Patrick, still plays in a Men’s Sunday morning league in Montclair. But after playing hockey for a few years on mostly boys teams, Rachel, now 11, wanted to play on an All-Girls team. Not because she was afraid of playing with a bunch of rough-neck boys. There was no body-checking at this level of youth hockey, but if there was, says Rachel, “they’d probably miss me anyway.” Problem is, there aren’t enough girls playing in Vernon Youth Hockey to form a team, much less form a league. With no other Girls hockey programs available in Sussex County, Rachel hooked up two years ago with the New Jersey Quarry Cats, an All-Girls team that plays out of Floyd Hall in Montclair. Her closest teammate lives in West Milford. Most of the other girls live closer to Montclair. Even though Montclair is a one-hour ride each way from Vernon, that hasn’t deterred Rachel or her parents from making twice-a-week practices and home-and-away games on weekends. Excluding tournaments, some of the regular-season games can be more than a two-hour drive from Vernon, says Janice Colvin. Because there are few Girls hockey teams in New Jersey, the Quarry Cats often play teams as far away as Long Island and Hartford, Conn. “It’s kind of hard to find girls’ teams to play,” said Janice Colvin. “Sometimes, Rachel’s teams will play boys teams in between Girls’ games.” “I could have continued on a boys’ team but I wanted to play with girls,” said Rachel. The extensive travel has also forced Rachel to become more focused on completing her school work between practices and games. Rachel proudly announced that she’s a straight-A student at Lounsbury Hollow Middle School and is currently sporting a 102 average in Social Studies. Experience as a travel soccer player for the Vernon Zephyrs, a U-12 Girls’ team, has helped Rachel on the ice, too. Playing both soccer and hockey has strengthened her legs, she says. In addition, by playing the two sports, Rachel works different muscle groups in her legs which have helped her to avoid injuries, says mom Janice. When Rachel joined The Quarry Cats last season, one of her coaches, Chris McDonagh, watched her play “and told me I was born to be a left winger,” said Rachel, smiling. She has played that position ever since and even made first offensive line when she was just ten. One of the things that Rachel likes most about playing Girls’ hockey is that each time her team faces a different opponent, she gets to study their strategies “so I can play better against them next time.” The Quarry Cats’ next tournament is at the popular Connecticut Polar Bears Girls Ice Hockey Holiday Tournament Dec. 27-30. The annual event, which will be played across a variety of rinks in the Nutmeg State, is expected to draw more than 250 Girls Hockey teams from across the U.S. and Canada. Each team plays a minimum of four games. Bradford Johnson, General Manager at Skylands Ice World in Stockholm, said the organization is planning to put together a Girls and Ladies Hockey Clinic at a future undetermined date. “There’s probably not enough interest to form a U-10, U-12 or U-14 Girls’ league here at this point,” he added. Playing for The Quarry Cats, whose season runs from early October to mid March, is just fine by Rachel. She hopes to play hockey someday at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn where she intends to study to become a third-grade teacher. Meanwhile, mom Janice and Rachel’s dad, Patrick, are hoping that she follows her brother Daniel’s footsteps and ends up playing hockey at a preparatory school as he does at Kent School in Kent, Conn. “It’s an incredible opportunity,” said Janice. “Academics are the key to everything.”