The Metro Toronto Roller Hockey League (MTRHL) has had a women's division since 1995. This league is sanctioned by CIRSA, and the women's division currently operates out of the North York Centennial Arena.
During the summers there are 4 women's teams that compete in the women's house league every Sunday night from May until August. Eventually we hope that there will be enough interest to be able to create two different levels of competition.
Each year the league selects one or more representative teams that compete at tournaments throughout Canada and the USA. This year the MTRHL will have three rep teams: the Franklin Typhoon, the Mission-Kuzak Hurricane, and the Nike Cyclone. Some of the tournaments in which these teams compete include the Rinko de Mayo, the North American Roller Hockey Championship, the CHA Inline Nationals, and the USA Hockey Inline Nationals.
Since 1995, MTRHL has entered women's teams in the North American Roller Hockey Championship (NARCh). The teams are selected from the players who compete in the league. Most of the players are former ice hockey players who have just begun playing in-line hockey during the past few summers.
In 1995, the Toronto Tornado competed at NARCh for the first time. They lost 3-2 against the Chicago Chicks-with-Sticks in the gold medal final, although outshooting Chicago by a very wide margin. Prior to the gold medal game, the Toronto Tornado had a perfect 5-0 record, with 36 goals for and just 1 goal against. Three of these five games were stopped prematurely because of the mercy rule (once a team is leading by 8 goals, the game is stopped).
In 1996, there were enough players to form two teams: the Toronto Tornado and the Toronto Tigers. Most of the players from the 1995 Toronto Tornado stayed on the 1996 Toronto Tornado team, while the newer players were placed on the Tigers team. Both teams faired well at 1996 NARCh, with the Toronto Tornados defeating the Toronto Tigers by a score of 6-0 in the gold medal final game. The league also sent a team to the 1996 USA In-Line National Championship. The team competed as the Toronto Tornado and claimed the gold medal at this Championship.
In 1997, interest in the women's in-line hockey has increased even more; there are close to 60 registered women's players in the women's league in Toronto. The league compiled three competitive teams that competed at various tournaments throughout the summer of 1997.
The league sent a Toronto Tornado team to the NARCh Winternational championship in Huntington Beach, CA in March 1997. This will be the final time, however, that a team will compete under the Toronto Tornado name, as the league decided to create three new equal-strength teams to compete in the remainder of the 1997 season. The league is greatful to the sponsorship packages that have made this possible. The three new teams are listed below (Notice how the "storm" theme was kept in naming these teams!):
Here is the tournament schedule for each of the three representative Toronto teams:
There were three representative teams for the league during the 1998 season. The teams were as follows:
Here is the tournament schedule for each of the three representative Toronto teams:
If you would like more information about the women's league, please contact CIRSA, or if you would like to register (perhaps for the remainder of this season), please use this registration form.
