Traverse City Women's Hockey House Leagues
The House league provides a safe and positive playing environment in a non-contact recreational women's hockey league. We play games at Centre Ice, located at 1600 Chartwell Dr., Traverse City, MI 49686. Our goal is to provide a recreational yet , competitive league for women skaters of varying levels and abilitie to participate in as an athletic activity and skill development. You're never too old to start! We skate at 9:15 pm on most Wednesdays and Thursdays at Centre Ice and coordially invite anyone to come and watch our games. If you are thinking about joining, please contact Marlene for more information, or go to the House League page. See the House Game Schedule for dates and times. Also check out some other informational hockey links for better play. Periodically, we offer skills improvement skating sessions, and work with private skating coaches.


Traverse City Women's Hockey Travel Team
The Chiefs Travel Hockey team is a competitive women's hockey team that participates in Tournaments in Michigan and Canada. We most recently won the Midland Rainbow Tournament in January 2008, and took the first place honors in Wawa, Canada in November of 2007.Our coaching staff includes previous semi-pro player, Denny Beinkowski. If you are interested in playing travel hockey, please contact Marlene.


Traverse City Women's Hockey Cherry Chill Tourny
The annual Cherry Chill Women's Hockey Tournament will be held March 14-16, 2008 at Centre Ice in Traverse City. To sign a team up, please download a printable pdf file of the TEAM APPLICATION, and mail to the address listed on the application. And get the tournament RULES here.

A Little History by Marlene Beinkowski
One comment we hear often is, "I didn't know there was women's hockey in Traverse City!" Well, there sure is! Traverse City Women's Hockey in it's current form began in 1992. One of the boys' hockey teams in the Grand Traverse Hockey Association had a "Parents and Kids" game and a couple of the hockey moms had so much fun, they thought that other women should get a chance to play hockey, too. They put up a little 3 x 5 index card on the bulletin board at Howe Arena asking for women who would be interested in learning to play hockey. With just that card about 30 women came out to give it a try.

That first year was quite interesting. Most of the women who came out to play were hockey moms. Many could skate...sort of. Most had very little, if any equipment and had to borrow it from their kids, rifle through their husbands' old gear, or make due with whatever they could find. There were even a couple who shared with their sons, and would patiently wait while their boys finished up their practice. Anyone who's witnessed a young man's hockey gear after practice knows that these moms were dedicated indeed. A couple of the ladies had played as younger girls with the first group of Traverse City female players at the Glacier Dome. Not suprisingly, many of those girls who played at the Glacier Dome grew up to be hockey moms and now had a chance to play again.

The hockey skills of most in that group of '92 were pretty limited. Several couldn't stop except by crashing into the boards for the first few weeks. But with the help of patient coaches, our skills improved and before we knew it, we weren't hanging onto the boards to stand up and we could all stop without crashing into anything...or each other!

With practice every week, usually very late at night, we got better and better and then the time came to play some real games. But without another women's team in Traverse City, it was necessary to travel around just to play with other women's teams. In those days the closest team was in Big Rapids and we happily made the trip to get to play the game we love.

Since those days, things have continued to change for Traverse City Women's Hockey. When the time came that it was determined that some of the players wanted to play at a more competitive level , a travel team was formed. That team went on to practice twice a week and play at various tournaments around the state and in Ontario...with a pretty decent level of success. The ladies who opted not to travel practiced and scrimmaged among themselves at home. As players came and went, things kept changing, and then TC Women's Hockey began to grow again.

The 2005-2006 season was a pivotal year for us. It was the first season that we were able to put together a women's league here in Traverse City. After a summer when Centre Ice offered a women's drop-in session, it was apparent that there was a real possibility of having three women's teams here in Traverse City. TC Women's Hockey provided an Intro to Hockey session for women who hadn't played hockey, or in some cases even skated much. The new skaters who came out to give it a try stayed on and we were able to have three teams in our league's initial year. It was a dream come true for many of the women who'd only been able to play by going out of town or inviting out-of-town teams in.

The travel team, now called the "Chiefs", continues to play at tournaments although the roster changes somewhat from year to year. And now with our recreational league at home, everyone gets to play at a level they're comfortable with.

Centre Ice continues to offer the Women's Drop-in Hockey throughout the summer and TC Women's Hockey will continue to offer the Intro to Hockey in the fall right before the beginning of the regular season. Both the summer Drop-in and the Intro sessions are great opportunities for new skaters to try out the game and for veterans to tune up their skills...and help the new skaters along.

For information about Traverse City Women's Hockey, call (231)938-2436 or email Marlene