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Interest is growing. The USA Hockey Women's and Girl's Championships earlier this year at Logitech Ice in San Jose hosted 80 teams and drew upwards of 3000 people. They needed 600 volunteers to take care of over a week of games.

There is a new rink coming to the East Bay, but two rinks have closed in Berkeley and in the South Bay. If only they cross promoted ice skating with roller blading, because that is still going strong and seems more accessible to newcomers.

There is also a massive new park next door to HP Pavilion in San Jose. It wraps around downtown following the Guadalupe River. Throw a roller hockey rink in the park next door to the arena, which is in more of an industrial and commerical zone and would not get many noise complaints, and you would have thousands new hockey fans young and old in 10 years.

Thank you for mentioning my post!

And yeah... my (non-skating) huge-hockey fan now-husband was definitely intrigued when he learned I play. Of course, he set a plate of nachos down on my seat as we were cheering a goal during our first spectator game together - and thus, I ended up with salsa-ass, but I forgave him.

I can vouch for the fact that guys dig chicks who dig pucks (or chicks who check, if you prefer :). I met my husband in a coed locker room at Ice Oasis in Redwood City after a pickup game.

On the east coast, many women's leagues offer "try it out" periods where you pay for the first three or four practices of the season, and if you decide to join the team/league, your money goes toward the league fee. It's a great way to see if hockey's for you without a huge commitment. Not quite as organized or as fun as NCWHL's Give Hockey a Try Day, maybe, but it's still not hard to find loaner or donated equipment (which is the biggest money commitment of all when it comes to playing hockey).

If you're in the Philadelphia area and want to try hockey with the Freeze, e-mail info@philadelphiafreeze.org to find out when the practices start. Other teams I know of in the area include the Baltimore Blizzard, the Delaware Bobcats, the Dover Phoenix, the South Jersey Demons, the Concord Flames, the Lady Senators, and the Washington Wolves. See http://www.mawhl.org/ and http://www.uwhl.org/ for more info!

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