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
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