Florida Women’s
Hockey League
Proves Hockey is
for Everyone
By Reba LaRose
All across the state of Florida, female hockey leagues are sprouting up and
growing in larger numbers than ever before thanks to the enthusiasm and
determination of a few chicks who really dig hockey. These ladies, who
love to get on the ice and revel in the camaraderie with their teammates,
founded the Florida Women’s Hockey League in 2002. Since then, the
FWHL has revolutionized the game and opened many doors for little girls
and women to succeed both on and off the ice.
A League is Born Zone in Lake Worth, and Linda Belanger who is
The idea to start a league began with a group
of female hockey players’ mutual desire to
promote the sport to girls and women in Florida
of all ages and all backgrounds. While there have
been women playing in men’s hockey leagues
for years, there weren’t sufficient resources for
women to join leagues and play competitively
with other women in the state until the FWHL was
established.
“It started with meeting at a bar and putting
some notes on a napkin,” said Karen Ota-O’Brien,
FWHL co-founder and president, and member of
the Lucky Pucks Ice Hockey Club in South Florida.
With Ota-O’Brien were Debbie Danneman who is
the general manager for the Palm Beach Skate
a former Division I player for Providence College.
Together, the trio contacted players and organizers
of youth and adult hockey programs in South
Florida and throughout the state to form a group
of female hockey players of all ages who wanted
to compete on a larger scale than their local dropins
or adult league rec games.
The Florida Ice Age
In the early 1990s, South and Central Florida
were abuzz with hockey fever. The Tampa Bay
Lightning were established as the state’s first
NHL team in 1992. The next season, the Florida
Panthers entered the league and generated an
interest among Floridians to trade in flip-flops for
ice hockey skates.
It was around this same time that Ota-O’Brien
began playing ice hockey competitively. Originally
from British Columbia, she has skated her entire
life, but never had much of a chance to build
her experience in ice hockey until, ironically, she
moved to Florida.
“I come from a really small town, so there was
no real girls’ program. All the girls had to skate
with the boys. I started playing up there, but it was
pond hockey,” Ota-O’Brien said.
Photos provided by: Karen Ota, FWHL
When she came to the Sunshine State, she was
invited to play hockey with a group of friends,
and after that she was hooked. When there were
tournaments, she and other players would recruit
teams of women to compete with.
“That’s when Canadian girls and Northern girls
started coming out of the woodwork, and I was
able to form our first Sunshine State team to go
and play in the Sunshine State Games,” Ota-
O’Brien said. “Slowly but surely, we heard of
more women’s teams in Florida, and that’s when
I decided we should try to start a Florida Women’s
Hockey League.”
From there, the connections continued to grow,
and the Florida female hockey community began
to thrive.
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