Ice Hockey’s for Men Only? Don’t Tell That to This Team

Women, concealed by helmets, face masks and uniforms that fit bulkily over pads, scratched the small rink’s ice with their skates as they played a sport almost entirely associated with men.

Intently, they wielded sticks--which had been cut down from regulation size--and slapped pucks as they skimmed between the blue lines at the frigid Norwalk Ice Arena at a practice last Sunday night.

“I’m really physical. I get out a lot of my aggressions here,” said defenseman Connie Marck-Giella, 33, her face shining with sweat beneath white lights as she came over to the boards for a break.

This new all-woman hockey team, likely to be known as the Lady Kings now that the Los Angeles Kings have given permission to use that name, has about 25 players and is seeking more.

Because the team is sponsorless, the players wore their own various-colored uniforms and shared the cost of renting the ice.

It was only the fourth practice, but coach and organizer Matt Duggan was happy with the way the team was shaping up. He said he will take an hour before subsequent practices to explain rules and strategy.

“I was surprised how many girls wanted to play,” said the 31-year-old Long Beach psychologist, a whistle draped over his jersey. “They really want to improve.”

Duggan, who plays for the semi-pro Burbank Jets, became addicted to hockey while growing up in Buffalo, N.Y. Although he did not make the team at Notre Dame, he returned to the ice as an amateur player while earning a Ph.D. at the University of Buffalo.

His idea to form the team was sparked by his girlfriend, Fran Fitzgerald, 34, a food scientist. “I kept bugging him about playing,” she said.

He gave her hockey skates last Christmas, and she began to practice skating. “When she got good enough, I took her to (hockey) clinics,” Duggan said.

Finding an opponent will be a problem. “I’d like to set up a game, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone else around we can play,” Duggan said.

Few women play hockey in Southern California. Those who do are usually relegated to reserve roles on amateur teams composed mostly of men.

“It has always been my contention that women who play on men’s teams miss most of the fun, which is the locker-room camaraderie and banter,” Duggan said.

Quite a few of his players came from those teams, although others, like Fitzgerald, had no hockey experience.

Several of the women are in their 30s, but some are much younger.

Mandy Walker, who just graduated from Jordan High School in Long Beach, came to practice with her brother, Tim, who helped her lace her skates and adjust her pads.

And Andrea Holstein, a junior at Los Alamitos High, was willing but unable to join in the shooting and stick-handling drills because of an arm she broke in a hockey game. She is the only female on a bantam division team that plays at Iceland Arena in Paramount.

Most men, said the aggressive Marck-Giella, “take it strangely in the beginning--’What? Ice hockey? You’re kidding.’ And a lot of men are just intimidated by it.”

She learned to skate as a child in New Jersey, but began to play hockey only a few months ago. She is on a team in Costa Mesa with her husband, Steve Giella.

Giella had accompanied his wife from Fountain Valley to the practice, and was clad in the padded armor of a goalie so he could help out in the nets.

“They’ve got a lot of spunk,” said Giella, watching his wife and her teammates. He said he hoped Duggan can eventually attract about 60 players so that three teams can be formed.

Giella admires women hockey players. “It takes a lot of (courage) for them to play on a men’s team,” he said. “They get checked into the boards; there’s full contact.”

But the idea of crashing into someone seemed to appeal to his wife, who uttered an expletive when Duggan told the players: “We’re going to be a feminine team.”

But Duggan was adamant: “I don’t want people to think these are hard-checking, rock-headed girls. I want people to think they are feminine women. I think hockey should be fun. We don’t have to be a great team.”

Allan Songer slapped the shoulder pad of his wife, Kerrie Aley, as she stepped onto the ice to take her turn at right wing. They live in Long Beach and play on the Voyagers, a National Novice Hockey Assn. team in Costa Mesa that they joined four years ago when they saw a newspaper ad.

“I didn’t realize women weren’t supposed to play hockey,” said Aley, 32, who played intramural field hockey at UC Berkeley and is an engineer at McDonnell Douglas.

“She’s fast and tenacious,” Songer said.

This was a pleasant change for Aley, who is used to male-dominated environments--she was usually the only woman in her mechanical engineering classes at Berkeley.

“I like playing with all women,” she said. “This is refreshing (because) men are a lot more aggressive and competitive. But it’s fun watching (the women) cuss and carry on like little boys.”

After the hourlong workout, the players talked about hockey. Although they sat in a rinkside grandstand, not a locker room, their banter pleased Duggan.

“This is what hockey’s all about,” he said.

It was about hard work, too, from the weary look of Rosaria Locasso of Costa Mesa, a no-nonsense player and the only Lady King who did not wear a face mask. Her unstrapped helmet was pushed back, allowing damp hair to spill over her forehead. Her black uniform was decorated with a skull-and-crossbones patch.

“You should see her biceps,” a teammate said.

But Locasso, a veteran of men’s leagues, did not reveal them. Nor did she disclose her age.

“Might hurt my chances of getting dates,” she said.

The players slowly struggled to relieve the burden of their equipment. They tugged off skates, jerseys, pants, thick socks, pads and protectors, and tossed them into huge bags before going out into the night’s welcome warmth, their femininity uncovered again.

The Lady Kings are seeking more hockey players. For more information, call Matt Duggan, the team’s coach, at 594-0849 or 595-3346.