How adult women’s hockey in Seattle traces roots to one woman in 1988

Nothing in her first 46 years had prepared longtime North Seattle resident Patty Rolfe for a pioneering leap into local women’s hockey lore.

But there she was nearly four decades ago, pinning up brochures announcing a first-of-its kind Seattle area hockey clinic for adult women. Never athletically inclined, she’d accompanied her Michigan-born future husband to watch his pickup games at Highland Ice Arena in Shoreline and wanted to try hockey herself.

“My boyfriend at the time didn’t want me trying to learn to play with the men, because he thought it would be too dangerous,” Rolfe, 82, said. “So, the only way to play was for me to go out and create my own team.”

That was in 1988. Women’s hockey had barely gained traction a decade prior among a handful of mostly Ivy League and Canadian universities. The first international women’s tournament had just taken place the prior spring in Ontario, Canada, but was years from gaining International Ice Hockey Federation status.

“There was barely any men’s hockey in Seattle at the time,” Rolfe said. “They had leagues where young men and boys could play, but not much for adults and especially not for girls and women. When we put up the posters, we didn’t know whether anybody would show up.”

About 10 or so players did attend Rolfe’s clinic — working on basic skills with limited game play — and formed Seattle’s first modern-day women’s hockey club. They dubbed themselves “Seattle Wings” — pooling money to reserve ice time for practices and games against each other.

There’d been a couple of local women’s teams the prior 65-plus years, including one in Shoreline from 1972 to 1978 that played exhibition games against Canadian squads. Also, the Lady Vamps from 1921, formed by Seattle Metropolitans founders Frank and Lester Patrick to compete in a three-team women’s tournament in British Columbia. 

Rolfe’s was the first actual women’s hockey club, which soon grew to encompass multiple teams.

Nowadays, the group, which Rolfe officially incorporated in 1997 as the Seattle Women’s Hockey Club (SWHC), boasts 220 adult players, average age 39 and spanning four divisions of skill levels. Their annual spring tournament, dubbed Puck Place Market, took place three weeks ago at the Kraken Community Iceplex featuring 26 teams from across North America.

Rolfe, who is retired from the club but attends tournaments and fundraisers to help out, never imagined her late-1980s endeavor would spawn a second adult lifetime devoted to a sport she’d ignored until middle age. She’d shied away from sports activity, growing up in the 1940s and 50s, largely because there wasn’t much for school-age girls.

“You could play badminton or tennis, but that was really it,” she said. “Given everything I know about myself now with hockey, I think I could have been an athlete. But there just wasn’t any opportunity to pursue it so I didn’t.”

Her initial Seattle Wings club was eclectic, featuring raw beginners and others who’d played some hockey. This was pre-internet, so recruiting after the initial brochure push was done word-of-mouth.

“It would be like ‘Oh, I have a friend that I think would want to join,’” Rolfe said. 

The club soon split into two teams — leaving the Wings for more advanced players and a second “Orcas” squad for beginners and intermediates. There were enough players to put about 20 on each.

Rolfe played for the more beginner-level Orcas, which soon changed their name to Puck Hawks. It was several years before either the Wings or Puck Hawks found opponents beyond playing intramurally. 

There were no women’s leagues in Seattle. And though prohibited from joining Canadian leagues, they were allowed into British Columbia and Alberta tournaments. So, they headed north.

“We lost all the time by maybe 10-1,” Rolfe said, laughing. “They’d been playing their whole lives on the ice. They knew the strategy of the game and had the skill set. When we played Canada, we’d just get creamed.

“But it was all for fun. We were all learning, so it wasn’t a huge disaster. We all kind of expected it.”

They played in U.S. tournaments as well, traveling to Spokane and Portland.

By the club’s fourth year, the Seattle Wings hosted their own spring tournament 32 years ago. It spread over two days in 1992 with seven teams — one from Portland, Oregon, and six more from British Columbia, including a Burnaby Renegades squad that won the inaugural championship. 

By the tournament’s third year, it featured 18 teams across two skill-level divisions.

“We had a pretty good following come out to watch us play,” Rolfe said. “The arena didn’t have much in the way of grandstands, but a lot of people still came. It was very successful.”

The tournaments were played at Kingsgate Ice Arena in Kirkland — now a Sno-King facility — where the club had relocated because of a lack of ice time in Shoreline. The value of ice time had been drilled into Wings and Puck Hawks players by their lopsided defeats.

“There’s more winter ice and outdoor rinks in Canada, the Midwest and the East, so they all can have free ice time,” Rolfe said. “I know that one time it froze here in the Seattle area. I was at home with my husband at the time and a little pond nearby froze over.

“And so, we had about two weeks where we would go out and skate on this pond ice every day. And it made a heck of a lot of difference. So, I could see where people elsewhere would develop ice-skating skills and all that kind of stuff much more readily than here in Seattle where you had to pay for every bit of ice time.”

When the Kraken were awarded their NHL franchise in December 2018, they’d committed to building a $90 million practice facility with three sheets of ice to address the region’s shortage of indoor facilities amid growing demand for hockey. It’s no coincidence the SWHC now holds its annual spring tournament at that indoor practice venue.

Mel Lacson, 58, from Lynnwood, joined the club in 1997 and played several years for the Puck Hawks before graduating to the Wings. She remembers driving to Canadian tournaments every other weekend.

“We knew we were going over there to get our butts kicked,” she said. “But we’d have fun. Just to be up in Canada and play. We’d lose, but we’d be happy just to lose by less than two digits.”

Having fun is why she’d joined. Already in her late-20s, she’d just started playing hockey with friends, renting out ice time so they could practice together. 

“I was like ‘This is so much fun. I wonder if there’s a women’s league?’”

She tried Rolfe’s club and “just got hooked” to where she’s still playing. The caliber of play gradually improved as women’s hockey soared in popularity after debuting at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where future Kraken scout Cammi Granato and Team USA stunned Canada to win gold.

The SWHC expanded beyond just two teams to distribute talent more evenly as better players joined. Some were East Coast ex-collegians looking to keep up with hockey.

“I know a lot of people, when they first move to a new area, they’re looking for a way to connect with people — so we have a lot of transplants in the club,” said Jocelyn Ritchie, a former SWHC president in the 2000s.

Ritchie grew up playing softball and volleyball in the Bay Area before discovering hockey there as an adult. She continued to play upon moving to Seattle, hoping to make friends.

“It was very different from the other team sports I’d been playing,” she said. “And when you come into it as an adult, you’re looking for those bonds that you don’t naturally find in school.”

When she joined, the club had just expanded from four teams to five, but player skill sets varied a bit too widely. Ritchie recognized the need for tiered levels of play — which her California league had utilized.

Not everybody was thrilled. Some worried too much skills classification and separating players into more elite competition would harm the club’s camaraderie.

“There was a lot of resistance in the beginning, but look at where we are now,” Ritchie said. “We’re able to bring in people who are at the advanced level. That’s where we’d always lose people. Once they got past the intermediate level, they’d want more competition.”

And they got it.

The club’s current president, Lena Potechin, 37, is a New Jersey native who played college hockey at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She said opening the club to higher competition reversed the outflow of departing members and actually drew players from coed leagues where women felt less comfortable and worried about possible injury playing among men.

“We’ve seen a lot of players that have played coed and are coming over to the women’s side because they like the community a little better,” Potechin said. “And they feel that, despite the great level of competition, it’s still safer. We enjoy the level of competition and safety.”

Unlike club founder Rolfe, many current members, such as Potechin, are in their late-30s and had extensive exposure to women’s sports growing up. Potechin said the club is an equally welcoming place for newcomers learning hockey as well as ex-varsity athletes who’ve “taken 10 years off to have kids” and realized that, just like the men, they miss playing.

“I began playing 25 years ago and hockey is the only sport I’ve ever really known,” Potechin said. “I played in high school and college and now I’m sort of on my downward slope. But it’s been a soft landing here.”

Which is more than Rolfe ever envisioned when creating a place to try her boyfriend’s sport. Instead, her club has provided not only a sports outlet, but spawned enduring adulthood friendships for many in later life.

“It’s just overwhelming,” Rolfe said. “I’m just really humbled that my wanting to play hockey is what started all of this stuff.”