Local rink, global growth: Green Bay to host Para Ice Hockey Women's World Challenge at key moment in sport's development

ASHWAUBENON - Green Bay is welcoming some of the world's top women ice hockey players to Titletown this weekend for a first-ever tournament expected to impact women's para ice hockey locally and globally.

The Para Ice Hockey Women’s World Challenge will bring 400 athletes, officials, trainers and staff to the Green Bay area for a round-robin tournament and medal round at Cornerstone Community Center. The United States team will host teams from Canada, Great Britain and a team of women representing the rest of the world for games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"These athletes participating in Green Bay are world-class hockey players who train just as hard as the men as well as their Olympic counterparts," said Michelle Laflamme, World Para Ice Hockey manager. "They are athletes first, and they just happen to have a disability."

Para ice hockey, also called sled or sledge hockey, follows the rules of international ice hockey and is played on a 200-by-100-foot rink with a couple of equipment and penalty modifications. Players use metal sledges fitted with two skate blades that allow the puck to pass beneath the players. Each player uses two shortened hockey sticks fitted with spike-ends at the top for mobility and maneuverability. There is one added infraction — called "T-boning" or "T-ing" — when an athlete runs into another player with the front of their sledge.

The event will be key to the ongoing development of women's para ice hockey internationally and its push toward a formal women's world championship and a spot in the Paralympic Games.

"Women's para ice hockey has grown drastically over the last decade as more and more women find out about the sport and hear about opportunities in their local communities," Laflamme said. "On the global stage, World Para Ice Hockey has made it a priority in our strategic plan to grow the women's game to ultimately get it big enough to be part of the Paralympic Games program."

Para ice hockey was developed in the 1960s in Sweden by people with disabilities who wanted to keep playing ice hockey. Six decades later, hundreds of men and women with a physical impairment in the lower part of the body play in quadrennial international competitions. Thousands more kids and adults play on local and regional club teams, too.

"This is big. It's new. It's exciting. It's hopefully just a small taste of bigger things to come for women and the sport of hockey," said Brad Roethlisberger, co-leader of the Green Bay organizing committee. "We're making a big, big push to have the (rink) be packed. There's free admission. There's no reason not to come out."

Focus on women athletes and leaders

Para ice hockey's mix of speed, dynamic passing and agility often catches first-time spectators off-guard, Roethlisberger said.

"People don't know what to expect," he said. "Give yourself two minutes to be in awe. Then you will realize it's just another hockey game, just with adaptive equipment."

The World Challenge will mark another first in the development of women's para ice hockey: All eight on-ice officials will be women: Americans Bree Kraut, Sarah Hickman, Bianca Bartolomei, Evonne Fix and Brooke Nunemaker; Canadians Jane Ogilvie and Danielle Williams; and Rachel Hutchinson from Great Britain.

"I am extremely thankful and appreciative that World Para Ice Hockey has committed to putting together an all-women’s officiating crew. I’m a firm believer that if women have the experience, knowledge, and skill level, they should be given first shot at stepping on the ice for a women’s tournament at this level," Fix said in a media release. "I’d also like to give a tip of the cap to all the men who have poured their time and energy into developing women officials at every level. Without them, women’s officiating wouldn’t be where it is today, nor would there be the women officiating coaches out there that there is now.”

From Green Bay to the Paralympics

World Para Ice Hockey lists 14 women's national teams practicing right now, but only three play internationally: the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. In some nations, women may play on the same team as men.

Roethlisberger said women's para ice hockey needs three more national teams to reach the six teams required to host a world championship event. The world championship, targeted for 2026, would enable women's para ice hockey to join the Paralympic Games in 2030.

"We really needed to get (the world challenge) done this year," Roethlisberger said. "We have a three-year time horizon to find three more countries to field a team by 2026."

The Green Bay tournament will help keep that focus on growing a fan base by connecting with with spectators both in-person and also internationally via an online live stream.

"The more people who see the sport, the more people talk about it and the more people get involved," Laflamme said. "As a result of that, there is more exposure and sponsorship opportunities to grow the sport, and that ultimately leads to expanding athlete development pipelines, training programs, media opportunities and much more."

International focus on Green Bay

The Green Bay area will host the event because of Roethlisberger's past work to establish para ice hockey programs in Wisconsin, Cornerstone's history of hosting other USA Hockey tournaments, and the finding of funds needed to update the Resch Olympic Pavilion rink facility.

Joel Everts, sports manager with Discover Green Bay — the region's tourism marketing agency — and an adaptive athlete who golfs, said it has been "a lot of fun" to see the community come together over the past year to host the Women's World Challenge. He said the event has generated interest from the state's adaptive athletes and organizations.

"I want to get out on the ice and see if this is a sport for me to get into. (The Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association) has been talking about this and has been excited about it," Everts said. "It's an international-level competition coming to Wisconsin. It'll be a very fun weekend."

Everts said Roethlisberger and Cornerstone manager Don Chilson played major roles in bringing the Women's World Challenge to Green Bay. Roethlisberger said he simply had the connections and knew the community would support it.

"It was a no-brainer for me to try to get this to Green Bay for the first time ever," he said. "The community is small enough that it supports these sorts of events."

'Let's build a program'

Roethlisberger lives in the Green Bay area and has been involved in hockey as an official and via board roles with the Wisconsin Amateur Hockey Association and World Para Ice Hockey. In 2007, the first all women's para ice hockey game was played in Ottawa, Ontario. At the same time, Roethlisberger was a WAHA board member when the association asked for someone to lead development of a sled hockey program in Wisconsin.

Roethlisberger raised his hand.

"I had no clue what I was getting into when I said 'Let's build a program,'" Roethlisberger said. "I did the research, found mentors, got equipment and connected with players. We only had two or three athletes for those first practices, but slowly built up those numbers."

Cornerstone hosted those first practices and events before the team relocated to the Madison area, Roethlisberger said. Still, the experience proved vital for the Cornerstone team to understand how to accommodate para ice hockey at the Ashwaubenon ice rink.

Now, Wisconsin is home to at least three para ice hockey clubs: Southern Wisconsin Sled Hockey in Madison, the Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association in Milwaukee and Coulee Region Sled Hockey in La Crosse.

Roethlisberger stayed in touch with World Para Ice Hockey officials over the years. In summer 2021, he heard the organization needed a venue to host this year's Para Ice Hockey Women's World Challenge. He conferred with local partners and pitched Laflamme on Cornerstone.

With the event a go, Roethlisberger, Cornerstone and Discover Green Bay spent the next year planning and prepping for the tournament.

Discover Green Bay secured $25,000 in tourism funding so Cornerstone could purchase and install a set of clear boards at the benches that enable players to stay in their sleds on the bench, watch the game and that facilitate line changes for the athletes. The staff also reviewed the facilities to make sure athletes who require wheelchairs can navigate to and from the benches and dressing rooms.

Everts made sure the area's hoteliers offered accessible rooms to accommodate the players and staff. Everts said players have different needs in terms of accessible room features like roll-in showers, so Discover Green Bay developed an inventory of accessible hotel rooms available in the region.

"We were able to find hotels that had wheelchair-accessible rooms with lower counters and roll-in showers. We had enough to satisfy the (teams') needs," Everts said.

A huge advantage for Green Bay

Green Bay area organizers hope the event brings visibility and more opportunities for adaptive athletes in northeast Wisconsin.

Roethlisberger hopes fans pack the stands at Cornerstone for every game, but he also said the event already has had the desired effect on the local community. Last week, he said a person at Cornerstone asked if a relative who uses a wheelchair could visit Cornerstone and try out a sled.

"This is what we want to try and do: Increase exposure and build a local program, as well," Roethlisberger said.

Cornerstone now has the equipment it would need to host future para ice hockey events for young players, women and men. The hope would be to contend to host future world championships as well as national and regional para ice hockey tournaments.

"When this event goes off without a hitch, whether it's a men's Para Ice Hockey World Championship or the women's, we're ready to go," he said.

Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier. 

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay hosts Para Ice Hockey Women's World Challenge as sport grows