It’s a chilly Sunday morning at the Kenai Multipurpose Facility, where roughly a dozen women are chasing a puck up and down the ice. They’re playing for this year’s Spawned Out Championship trophy.
Marcie Duncan was 38 years old when her friends talked her into skating with the Kenai River Queens. And she’d never played hockey before.
“For me, it's, don't fall down and try to get the puck from the people that have been playing hockey since they were children,” she said.
The Queens are a nonprofit organization that works to get more women playing ice hockey. Each year, they welcome players from around the state for the tournament.
“It’s great fun,” she said. “Everybody’s like family. They treat each other great. Like, it’s a place for women to come get away.”
Duncan, alongside friend and captain Alyssa Vanek, repped Team Skateboarders in this year’s championship game. Vanek agrees that having a good time is the main thing.
“We just lost the championship, but everybody’s just like, ‘Oh that was so fun,’” she said. “You know?”
“We’re number two, whoo!” Duncan cuts in.
“The people that don’t know how to play as well as, like, people who’ve been playing their whole lives, they’re, you know, — it’s all just good fun,” Vanek said. “Nobody cares if you are not as good as the next person.”
Emily Heale started skating with the Queens in 2018. Usually she’d be out on the ice, but this year, she’s pregnant and taking care of work behind the scenes.
Heale says more than 70 women registered this year — that makes it the Queens’ largest yet.
Heale says the event has evolved in the nine years since it started. It used to be called the Summer Solstice Tournament. But it got bumped to autumn after the Kenai Multipurpose Facility stopped having ice in the summer. This year was the second iteration of the Spawned Out tournament.
Multiple players say the timing of the Queens hockey season is important to them.
“It's really great in the wintertime,” Heale said. “Obviously, we have long, dark days, so it's, like, a great way to get out of your house, especially if you don't like winter, and do something physically active. And just like, we really are a family, and everybody's there for each other, yeah? Just such a great group of ladies.”
The tournament is jamboree-style, which means players enter as individuals, rather than as teams. Brooke Ames captained the Artistic Swimmers, who won the championship this year. She says playing with new people is part of what makes it all so fun.
“I didn't know a few of these ladies, and now I feel like we have a huge friendship, and every time I see them, I'm going to be giving them a hard time, or, yeah – I'll be calling your names on the ice, guys,” Ames said.
Players agreed that anyone interested in skating with the Queens should get involved.
“I literally tell every woman I meet, ‘You should play women’s hockey,’” he said.
The Kenai River Queens season started this month. Heale says anyone interested in playing should reach out via the Queens website or Facebook page. Loaner gear is available for players who don’t have their own. The team’s open to women age 18 or older, of all skill levels.