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.
