14th annual All-American Girls and Women’s Hockey Tournament at the National Sports Center, November 16-19, 2006
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: November 6, 2006
Media contact: Barclay Kruse, NSC Media Director, 763.785.5634
Tournament contact: Sanya Sandahl, Tournament Director, 763.717.3210
Blaine, Minn.(November 6, 2006) — A pioneering event in female ice sports in Minnesota, the All-American Girls and Women’s Hockey Tournament, will celebrate its 14th anniversary November 16-19 at the Schwan Super Rink at the National Sports Center.
Sixty-six youth and women’s teams, including 26 from out-of-state, have registered to participate in this year’s tournament, which is the largest and one of the oldest female-only hockey tournaments in North America. Registered teams hail from California, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Manitoba and Ontario.
Eleven different divisions will be held: U10 A and B, U12 A and B, U14 A and B, U19, Women’s B American and National, Women’s C, and Collegiate Club.
From its inaugural year in 1993, the All-American Tournament has been a pioneering event for female hockey. The original tournament was an eight-team collegiate tournament, with northeastern collegiate teams making up the bulk of the field.
“Back then, even the college women’s teams in the Midwest were club teams, not varsity programs,” recalls Paul Erickson, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC), the founder of the tournament. “The NCAA didn’t get involved in women’s hockey until years later. And it’s amazing to remember, especially since girls hockey has grown so large, but at the time there were no more than a handful of youth girls playing hockey in Minnesota. And nearly all had to play on boys teams.”
“We were on a mission to stimulate interest – and growth – in female hockey,” says Erickson. “And if anything, we were ahead of the curve. We created the event before there were any girls’ teams to play. But it was important to take a leadership position. At the MASC, we take a considerable amount of pride in the role we played in helping to get girls’ hockey off the ground, and to create new opportunities for female athletes.”
By 1995, a small number of youth teams entered. This year, youth teams will make up the majority of the tournament – 44 of the 66 teams.
“Most of the players in the tournament have no idea about the pioneering history of the event,” says Sanya Sandahl, tournament director. “It’s an indication of how far the sport of female hockey has come. Now the players just want to win games and help their team play to its potential.”
While the tournament was created by the MASC, it is now owned and operated by the National Sports Center. It has been an anchor event at the Schwan Super Rink since the facility opened in 1998.
Spectator admission prices are $18 for an adult all-tournament pass and $12 for a youth and senior all-tournament pass. Daily passes are priced at $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Children under 10 are admitted free.
The Schwan Super Rink is on the campus of the National Sports Center in Blaine. With eight sheets of ice in one facility, the arena is the largest of its kind in the world.
The National Sports Center is the largest complex dedicated to amateur sports in the world. In addition to the Schwan Super Rink, the 602-acre NSC campus features over 50 soccer fields, a youth and family golf course, an indoor sports hall, a track and field and soccer stadium, a cycling Velodrome, and a sports convention and meeting facility, the Schwan Center. With 3.3 million visitors, the NSC is the most-visited sports facility in Minnesota.