1995 North American
Roller Hockey Championship

St Louis, MO

Here is an article that I wrote for the women-in-hockey mailing list. It provides the results for the women's division at the 1995 North American Roller Hockey Championships (NARCh), and a bit of a reflection of our loss in the '95 NARCh championship game. :-) This article was written on August 22nd, 1995.

I just returned from competing in the North American Roller Hockey Championship (NARCh) that was held in St Louis this past weekend. There were 10 teams in the women's division. I played for the Toronto Tornadoes. There were also 10 different men's/boys' divisions in the championship. Congratulations to the Chicago Chicks with Sticks for winning the women's division!

Here are descriptions of the teams in the women's division as per the official NARCh program:

  Group A

   TEAM                LOCATION       QUALIFICATIONS
   San Diego Seahawks  San Diego, CA  California State Champions, 2nd
   Toronto Tornadoes   Toronto, ON    1994 World Ice Hockey Champions ***
   Austin Storm        Austin, TX     1995 USAC National Championships, 3rd
   Fast Forward        Madison, WI    1994 Narch National Championships, 2nd
   MedalCross Checkers Chicago, IL    1994 Narch National Champions

         *** (see above) I don't know where they got that 
             from ... there were only 3 of us from Team Canada!!!
             ... nothing like adding a little pressure! :-)

  Group B

   TEAM                LOCATION       QUALIFICATIONS
   AKS She Devils      Anaheim, CA    California State Champions
   Chicks With Sticks  Chicago, IL    1995 USAC National Champions
   Detroit Blades      Detroit, MI    1995 USAC National Championships, 2nd
   Toronto Rockets     Toronto, ON
   Tour Bandits        St.Louis, MO

Here are the scores for our games in case you are interested.  There 
was an 8 goal mercy rule in effect.  This meant that as soon as one 
team was leading by 8 goals, the game was called:

  Toronto Tornadoes 8  --- Chicago Cross Checkers 0
  Toronto Tornadoes 8  --- Fast Forward 0
  Toronto Tornadoes 5  --- Texas Storm 0
  Toronto Tornadoes 7  --- San Diego Seahawks 1             *
  Toronto Tornadoes 8  --- Detroit Blades 0       (medal round)
  Toronto Tornadoes 2  --- Chicks with Sticks 3   (medal round)

Here are the scores for all other teams (Sorry, I am missing
4 scores.  Please let me know if you know these scores.):

  Friday, August 18th
    San Diego Sea Hawks 3    --- Texas Storm 0
    AKS She Devils 3         --- Tour Bandits 0
    Detroit Blades 3         --- Toronto Rockets 0
    Fast Forward 4           --- Chicago Cross Checkers 0
    
  Saturday, August 19th
    San Diego Sea Hawks 3    --- Fast Forward 1
    Chicks with Sticks 3     --- Detroit Blades 1           *
    Chicks with Sticks 3     --- AKS She Devils 4
    Toronto Rockets 0        --- Tour Bandits 1
    
  Sunday, August 20th
    AKS She Devils 1         ---  Detroit Blades 1
    Chicago Cross Checkers 0 ---  Texas Storm 0
    Chicks with Sticks 6     ---  Toronto Rockets 2
    Chicago Cross Checkers ? ---  San Diego Sea Hawks ?
    Detroit Blades ?         ---  Tour Bandits ?
    Toronto Rockets 2        ---  AKS She Devils 0
    Tour Bandits ?           ---  Chicks with Sticks ?
    Texas Storm ?            ---  Fast Forward ?
    
  Medal Round (Sunday, August 20th)
    Chicks with Sticks 7     --- San Diego Sea Hawks 1
    Detroit Blades 5?        --- San Diego Sea Hawks 7?

Final Medal Round Standings:

  Team                 W  L  GF GA PTS
  Chicks with Sticks   3  0  13  4   6
  Toronto Tornadoes    2  1  17  4   4
  San Diego Sea Hawks  1  2   9 19   2
  Detroit Blades       0  3   6 18   0

NOTE: Games marked with a * were initial Round Robin games between the top two teams of each pool. These games were counted in the medal round results, according to tournament rules.

The Chicago Chicks with Sticks managed only 5 shots on our goal, but somehow ended up beating us by a score of 3-2 to claim the gold medal. Their goalie played amazingly well!! She did everything but stand on her head to lead her team to the victory.

Another excuse :-) that I can think of (this is the normal reaction to a loss, eh!) for our loss is that we really should have taken more players to the tournament. We had an injury so that left us with only 2 subs. Our last game of the round robin was at 6:00pm, the semi-final was at 7:00pm, and the final was at 8:00pm! Wow, talk about tiring!! :-) Who set up that schedule?! ;-)

This was a very disappointing loss for us, needless to say, but the overall experience was very rewarding. Like for example I got to see the St Louis Arch! :-) But seriously, it was very exciting for me because this was my first experience playing in an organized roller hockey game. It was also nice to meet some of the players on the other teams and to see so many women having a lot of fun playing a great sport! Hopefully this tournament will generate more interest in women's roller hockey. It sure was a lot of fun, and it would be great to see interest in the sport increase. Wouldn't that be super if there could be 10 women's/girls' divisions, ranging from Squirt to Senior, just like with the men's roller hockey!

Andria Hunter

P.S. The other 2 members of Team Canada (Ice Hockey World Champions) who played for our team this past weekend were: Cheryl Pounder (defence) and Lesley Reddon (goalie). In case you were wondering, no, Lesley was not the goalie who played for us in the NARCh final.

1995 North AmericanRoller Hockey Championship

St Louis, MO

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1995 North American
Roller Hockey Championship