Minnesota Hockey Journal

December 2018

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You could go on for days with stories similar to that of Brodt Brown and Engelhardt as it seems like pretty much everyone has been waiting for the day that a professional women's hockey team made its way to the Twin Cities. "I thought it was going to be attainable at some point," Brodt Brown said. "I didn't know when. I didn't know if it was necessarily going to be with the Whitecaps. It's been a lot of hard work from everyone involved to keep it going. It's clear that people love the game, that's a big reason it's been sustainable." Founded by her father Jack Brodt and his friend Dway ne Schmidga ll in 2004, the W hitecaps origina lly joined the Western Women's Hockey Leag ue, attracting some of the best players in the world a long the way. After the league dissolved in 2011, Jack Brodt found a way to keep the Whitecaps af loat, operating as an independent team, and filling the team's schedule with games against top-tier Division I opponents. He tried his best to get the Whitecaps into the Canadian Women's Hockey League, though the two sides could never gain enough traction to strike a deal. "They kept finding ways to keep this team alive," Engelhardt said. "They wanted to keep growing it no matter what. They went through so many different leagues and always found a way to get games in." for the Whitecaps The Whitecaps swept the Metropolitan Riveters at TRIA Rink to start their inaugural NWHL season. D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M 23

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