UNC hockey program adds new women's team

After seeing the caption on a post from the UNC hockey's Instagram in January advertising a new women's team, then-first-year student Hattie Leasure immediately got to work. 

Leasure played hockey in high school and she, along with many other women, expressed their interest in joining the team. She took initiative, organizing a GroupMe for the prospective players. 

Leasure was eventually elected to be club president and helped organize the team alongside Vice President Leah Shafer and admin Isabel Swindall. The group found a coach and completed the process to join the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II. From there, they applied to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference Hockey League. 

Many of the women who joined the team, like rising sophomore Avery Walters, had no prior hockey experience. Walters was a member of the figure skating club at UNC before joining the hockey team and had to practice a new style of skating. 

“I bought my new skates and that’s definitely been an adjustment,” Walters said. “It’s like having to relearn how to walk because I’ve just been skating so long and it’s just so different."

Others players had prior hockey experience, but have never played in a league as competitive as the ACCHL.

Senior Hayley Minter played for the co-ed Raleigh Puckaneers and said that the new women’s team will be a step-up from the level of hockey she is used to playing, but that it presents a rare opportunity to play with all women. 

“I think that having a team of women makes it a more welcoming environment, makes it a more familiar environment and provides a bit more fairness on the ice,” Minter said. 

Minter believes that there has been an increase in the desire for women’s leagues and teams, a sentiment she says is shared by many of the players. She believes that the new team will attract students who are interested in hockey at UNC because there are so few women’s college hockey teams. 

Despite the anticipation surrounding the team, there have been some bumps in its development. Apart from the individual challenges involved in training, the team had trouble finding a place to play its games. 

“We have struggled finding ice time for us in the area, just because most rinks are scheduled by April and we weren’t even a school organization, let alone in a league, at that point,” Leasure said.

But many other teams have stepped up and will allow the Tar Heels to use their rinks for home games, provided that UNC covers the cost. 

Finding affordable hockey gear has also been a challenge for some of the players. Most of the secondhand hockey stores sell gear meant for men, and women often have to wear youth gear or search for a store with women’s equipment. Many players have shared equipment with their new teammates. 

“As a team, we’ve been kind of pooling our resources and if any of us have extra equipment lying around or something that we’ve replaced, we are very willing to give it to each other for cheap or nothing,” Minter said. 

In its inaugural season, the UNC women’s hockey team will play away games at Virginia Tech and UVA, with the Hokies agreeing to let the Tar Heels be the designated home team during one of the games. They will participate in a fall tournament at Liberty University in November and a spring tournament at The St. James in Springfield, Va. in February. 

“I am very excited for the team," Minter said. "I’m a little sad that it’s my senior year and this is the one season I will be able to play with the team, but I think that it’s going to be the start of a bigger team [and] a bigger hype around the organization." 

@BeckettBrant

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