Posted Mar 8, 2024, 3:12 PM
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FYHA
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Houston - Wichita, KS
Posts: 3,213
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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...rm-thrive.html
Quote:
As Houston courts NHL franchise, local hockey thrives in unexpected places
By Chandler France – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Mar 7, 2024
Three years ago, Eric Kimmel’s then-8-year-old daughter would cry after every hockey game.
Kimmel’s daughter was one of just two girls on a Houston boys youth hockey team. The coach would always put her on defense, and her teammates seldom passed her the puck. Kimmel said she felt like an outcast.
“She was ready to quit hockey and give it up,” Kimmel said, "because who wants to cry after every game?"
It was not long after that, in 2021, that the Houston Girls Hockey Association was formed. It’s the only all-girls hockey organization in the Bayou City, fielding seven teams of different age groups for the HTX Storm. Kimmel immediately jumped in to help the organization, first as a coach and now as its president since April 2023. His daughter continues to play youth hockey, now alongside fellow girls.
“They saved her hockey career,” Kimmel said.
Meanwhile, James Calderone, a University of Houston senior studying sports management, came to the Bayou City from Stillwater, Minnesota, with hockey gear in hand, ready to compete for the Cougars. He quickly found out that the university didn’t have any hockey programs, even though much smaller schools across Texas do.
Take East Texas Baptist University as an example, Calderone said. The Marshall, Texas, university boasts an enrollment of just 1,833 students as of fall 2023, yet fields two separate hockey teams. UH, on the other hand, has an enrollment of 46,676 as of fall 2023.
“I actually assumed that there would be a team at a university this big because there are smaller universities, even in Texas, that have teams,” Calderone said.
That led Calderone to start the UH Ice Hockey Club in early 2023, which now competes in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II Level. The team’s inaugural game in September 2023, played at Sugar Land Ice & Sports Center, was against none other than East Texas Baptist University.
Both the youth girls and college programs are finding success in Houston amid efforts to recruit an NHL franchise for the city. Professional hockey hasn’t called the Bayou City home since the American Hockey League’s Houston Aeros left for Des Moines, Iowa, after the 2012-13 season. However, Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has been the most notable — and vocal — local leader to express interest in bringing professional hockey back to Houston, recently telling Bloomberg that talks with the NHL have intensified.
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