Families Of Hockey Playing Moms Think They're Crazy
DENVER (CBS4) - Hockey players would most likely describe their sport as being fast paced and hard hitting, but Kaz Moreci sprinkles in a descriptor most wouldn't.
"It's hockey with a little sugar thrown in," Moreci said.
Moreci's description is unique, but then again so is the league she runs.
"My son started playing, he was 6, this was three ago, and I would sit up in the bleachers and watch him play and I would think, 'I would do anything to trade places with him,' " Moreci said. "There weren't a lot of women's leagues. In fact I think there was only one in Denver. So I started a league here. It's for moms like me."
So on Wednesday afternoons during lunch hockey moms tired of playing spectator and women who just want to try out the sport hit the rink at the Ice House in Littleton. It is a beginner's league and some of the ladies have very little skating experience.
"I don't know how to hockey stop, I'm a true beginner," said Maria Gonzalez from Venezuela, who became hooked on hockey after her daughter started playing. "I'm hooked, I'm on it for life."
And as far as knowing the rules of the game, that's a work progress.
"We've got off-sides down, icing I don't quite understand yet," Allison Schoening said.
What the ladies lack in hockey knowledge, they more than make up for in comradery. They offer each other a great deal of support, perhaps out of necessity since their families think they're bonkers.
"They think I'm crazy, my mom thinks I'm nuts, my sister, who lives back east, thinks I'm crazy," Kati Harken said. "It's such a great workout, it's really a lot of fun."
"A lot of people laughed, they thought we were completely insane, but the women who took a chance and tried it loved it and we've just been going strong ever since. It's been growing like crazy, it's just so much fun," Moreci said.
Those looking for intensity and fierce competition should look elsewhere. Fun is the name of the game in this league. There is some hitting -- it is hockey -- but it's all accidental because some of the gals can't stop.
"You won't see us checking each other. If we do it's totally by accident," Harken said.
"This is probably the nicest, kindest, most supportive hockey league in America," Moreci said.
