Women hockey players hit the ice

Hockey continues to grow in Columbia and a new team has formed – unique to any other.

The Columbia Hotflash is all women players.

The Columbia Hotflash began in November of 2003 and has been sharing the ice with the Columbia Inferno at the Carolina Coliseum.

The team is affiliated with the Inferno Hockey Association, which also sponsors youth and adult league hockey. Even though the Hotflash’s logo is “sugar and spice, but not on the ice,” these women aren’t afraid of the roughness that comes with the game of hockey.

During the day, these women have full time jobs, including a schoolteacher, a radio dj, a nurse and even college students.

The women say people react very positively when they find out they are hockey players. They usually hear, “Wow you’re a hockey player…that’s cool!”

But the Columbia Hotflash isn’t the first women’s hockey team in South Carolina. The Lady Rays of Charleston, who the Hotflash play scrimmage games with right now, is the only other women’s hockey team in South Carolina.

Hoping to get new players, the Hotflash have invited women at least 15 years of age and of all skill levels to come out and take a shot at women’s hockey. Many did and skill levels ranged from women who had never skated before and others who have been skating for years.

Equipment was provided for all who wanted to step out on the ice and all the Hotflash players encouraged and supported all the women.

While women’s hockey is new here in Columbia, it’s been a favorite sport longer in other parts of the country. But women have been interested in hockey since the 1890’s when they played on ponds or outdoor rinks. Women hockey teams are more popular in the northern states but are gaining popularity in the southern states.

The Columbia Hotflash team captain Shelly Gunton is from Manitoba, Canada where she first learned to play hockey and has had a love for the sport ever since then.

However, the increased national interest in women’s ice hockey didn’t catch on until the 1970’s and into the 1980s’.

In 1998, women’s hockey was played for the first time in the Winter Olympics. There the women’s hockey, Team USA, took home a gold medal after defeating Canada.

So whether women are skating for fun or for a gold medal, they are participating in a unique sport that isn’t so stereotypically male any more.

For those who are interested in the Columbia Hotflash and would like more information, go to their Web site at www.columbiahotflash.com.

Reported by:

MeganMincey

Megan is from Sumter, S.C. where she began her college career at USC Sumter then transferred to USC Columbia. Her real love is the weather side of broadcasting. After graduation, Megan will pursue her masters degree in meteorology. She hopes to become a chief meteorologist at a television station in the Southeast. When she’s not in Senior Semester, she loves to dance and she likes to be outside when the weather is nice.