Play Like a Girl!
Since its creation, the FWHL has now grown to
10 teams of women from Tallahassee to Miami,
and everywhere in between. Every season from
September to February, each of the teams host
a monthly ice hockey tournament for recreational
and C Division women’s teams throughout Florida.
The most recent tournament was hosted by the
Ms. Conduct hockey team of the Tampa-Ellenton
area, and took place at the Ellenton Ice & Sports
Complex from December 14-16. The tournament
welcomed a combined total of eight teams from
the Panhandle to Miami in both the C Division and
the Recreational Division.
The C Division champions were the Lucky Pucks
(Fort Lauderdale – Miami – Palm Beach), with
the Tampa Tribe coming in second place, and Ms.
Conduct finishing third in the division.
In the Rec Division, the Lady Everblades (Fort
Myers – Estero) were named champions, with
the Lucky Pucks rec team placing second, the
Florida Thunder (Jacksonville – Panhandle –
Tallahassee) in third, the Honey Badgers (Central
Florida) in 4th, and the Hockey Chicks (Brandon)
placing fifth overall.
Stephanie Nargiz, who is a Florida Thunder
center and left winger in addition to being FWHL
secretary, didn’t begin playing hockey until her
adult years when she started taking her five-yearold
nephew to hockey lessons.
“After his lessons he wanted me to skate with him,
and after using rental skates twice, I decided it
was time to get my own
skates,” Nargiz said. She
decided on purchasing
hockey skates so that
she could learn a few
things to show her
nephew.
“One thing led to another
and I began to take adult
hockey lessons, which
turned into participating in the Adult Beginner
Hockey League that the rink in Pompano Beach
was starting. I played on that house league and
then when the ladies felt as if we had enough
women skaters out there, we would do something
organized for women as well,” she said.
“It’s now 20 years later, and here I am still
skating, still loving ice hockey.”
Both Nargiz and Denise Masnjak – FWHL vice
president, as well as captain and center for the
Lady Everblades – have skated alongside Ota-
O’Brien and helped to promote and build the FWHL
with her over the years.
Like her league-mates, Masnjak began playing
hockey in her adult years with a friend from
Massachusetts when there local rink started a
women’s league. A native Floridian, Masnjak
wasn’t very familiar with hockey, or ice for that
matter.
“I had never played a sport or skated in my life,
so it has been quite the journey to start at the age
of 32,” Masnjak said.
For the Love of Hockey
Each one of these women have their own unique
story that brought them to the ice, and each one
has found joy and success playing the sport while
discovering a passion to provide an opportunity
for girls like them to take a shot on the ice.
What the FWHL has provided for girls and women
in Florida, and for women’s hockey around the
country, is an opportunity to learn a wonderful, fun
sport in a welcoming and supportive environment.
More than simply proving that ladies can be just
as talented on the ice as the guys, these gals show
that it’s never too late to lace up your skates, pick
up a hockey stick, and have fun playing hockey.
The women of the FWHL expect to have some out
of state contenders from Alabama join them on the
ice from January 11-13 at the Palm Beach Skate
Zone. The women will continue down the road to
Germain Arena in Estero from February 22-24
where they will be competing against teams from
Washington D.C.
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