“We have a women’s ice hockey team?”
It’s a ordinary remark made by way of Filipinos after they pay attention in regards to the Philippines bagging a silver medal on the 2024 World Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Girls’s Asia & Oceania Cup – a global festival for international locations creating the game.
For a tropical nation these days affected by a warmth flow, it’s dry to consider it’s been breeding champions in iciness sports activities.
The rustic’s males’s ice hockey workforce was once first shaped by way of accumulating native membership participants and foreign-based Filipino ice hockey gamers who unofficially represented the flag in regional tournaments.
The lads’s workforce become a member of the IIHF in 2016. Ultimate occasion, the workforce certified for the sector championships and is these days ranked global quantity 54.
The ladies’s workforce, then again, has been carving its personal trail. Since its world debut within the 2017 Problem Cup of Asia, the workforce, referred to as the “Philippine Eagles”, has been construction its squad of homegrown gamers.
Within the 2024 Girls’s Asia & Oceania Cup’s silver medal-winning workforce, 9 of the 20 workforce participants have been beginners.
“That was actually the first time we competed again since 2019 because of the pandemic,” captain Danielle Imperial mentioned.
“With the new girls coming in, I think they brought a lot of good energy to the team and I love their attitude and their character just showed with the way that they played.”
Even though they fell to champion Iran 4-0 within the ultimate, the silver medal is the rustic’s easiest success within the festival.
“Of course we wanted to win the gold, but Iran was just a very experienced team and that’s the kind of team that we want to be playing with,” Imperial mentioned.
“But with how we played in this tournament, I feel like we’re on a very promising path.”
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On find out how to the sector championships
With its luck at the world level, the Philippine Eagles are running in opposition to qualifying for the sector championships.
The Philippines has already established a learn how to skate program for ice hockey – an eligibility requirement to earn an international rating.
This system is a recreation changer for the game as veteran gamers like Imperial needed to play games with and towards males after they have been coming during the ranks.
“For girls, it might be intimidating since hockey comes off as a very physical sport like the way you see it on YouTube,” Imperial mentioned.
“And if girls shy away from hockey, it’s because of that. But then I think once they watch women’s hockey that goes away, and many girls want to try hockey as much as boys.”
Even though there’s travel in getting ladies into ice hockey during the learn-to-skate methods, the nearest problem they face is the get right of entry to to the venue and gear.
Metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines, handiest has one skating rink, positioned in a buying groceries centre.
Ice hockey gamers can handiest get ice moment nearest the mall closes at 9pm.
For the reason that nation formally introduced its males’s and girls’s groups, the Philippines hasn’t been in a position to supply ice hockey apparatus for its groups in the neighborhood, important gamers to depend on world shipments.
“The only thing that we’re having a problem with is when they enjoy the learn to skate and want to pursue ice hockey, we don’t have enough equipment for them to rent and try out,” veteran participant Georgie Regencia mentioned.
However the Philippines is one step clear of changing into eligible for the International Championships as it is going to be kicking off its inaugural league, the Girls’s Hockey Philippines League, in July.
“So with this new women’s league, we’re hoping that it encourages girls to play the sport and draws someone in because we really do want to focus on growing our numbers and women’s hockey in the Philippines, have a bigger pool of players to develop and prepare for world championships – that’s the goal,” Imperial mentioned.
Beatrice Travel is a contract journalist and researcher from the Philippines and the founding father of Atleta Filipina, a startup for Filipino girls in sports activities.
She is a member of ABC World Building’s Girls in Information and Game Initiative, funded by way of the Australian Section of International Affairs and Business during the Crew Up program.
