Hannah Waterhouse captains Manchester’s first professional ice hockey women’s team Manchester Storm
With the winter Olympics kicking off on Friday it’s exciting to see what elite UK players will be competing for Italy. UK sport has predicted an expectation of eight medals to be won by some of England’s most high-achieving athletes.
Yet closer to home, with dreams of potentially making the elite leagues themselves, is Manchester’s first professional women’s ice hockey team.
Manchester Storm Women have skated off to a brilliant start to their first season. Except for one draw, they have won all prior games within the 25/26 season. Their most recent match against Leeds Thorns (24 Jan) resulted in a 10-1 win. Storm Women are just beginning to showcase their superb on ice talent.
Hannah Waterhouse team captain for Manchester Storm women’s ice hockey team said: “I would love to be on the GB team myself. I’m absolutely not there yet. I don’t know what I need to do to get there, but that is the only slightly realistic major hockey goal for me.”
With Storm’s head coach James Ashton, who previously coached for Great Britains Under-18s women’s team, spear heading the coaching and training for Manchester Storm Women. Theres no doubt that many of those within the team have high ambitions to try out for the elite leagues.
Despite Englands women’s elite ice hockey team narrowly missing out on competing for England in the Olympics. The qualifiers were held in Sheffield England, which drew in some of the largest crowds on record to watch the women’s teams compete in the fast, tactical and highly skilled games.
Growing interest in women’s ice hockey introduced the idea of a more diverse audience and players making it a more accessible sport.
James touched on trying to make the sport more accessible for everyone: “We have nearly 40 registered players, so what we’re able to do is reduce the monthly subs, and then we’ve been donated probably four or five kits, which helps people get started.”
Despite only training one hour a week with each other, Storm Women’s co-ordination and hunger to win lays solid groundwork for their future success. Yet, with over six more matches to come in the following months, the league title is still up for grabs.
NQ spoke to Hannah about being chosen to be captain and how quickly she’s excelled within the sport: “I started playing ice hockey quite a bit later than most, so I’ve only been playing hockey for about three years, I’d say, not even that long. I’ve always loved it. I loved watching Mighty Ducks growing up.”
Hannah also spoke about what it was like to be back on the ice for the first match of the year: “It was nice, we missed it. The score line never really reflects the effort that’s put into it. It seems like quite a big win, 10-1, and I’ll admit it’s a nice win, but it’s only won like that because there’s been a lot of hard work put into training. Leeds weren’t an easy team to beat.’
‘I don’t think any team that we’re playing against is easy to beat. We’re playing against some really good teams. We’ve got some really good goal scorers and some really good defensive players. Our goalie is brilliant. She just doesn’t let pretty much anything in.”
Julia Wills, Storm’s assistant team captain and treasurer, spoke about the first match of the year: “It was one of the highlights for me so far because I was awarded MVP for our team [Most Valued Player]. Which is the first time I’ve ever been awarded it on any of the teams I’ve played on, so it’s quite a big thing for me.”
Manchester Storm aren’t short of fantastic players, not to mention their goalie Tegan Lavery who previously played for GB. The team alone has a vast age range enabling advice, tips, and tricks to be shared and passed on.
Hannah reminisced on what she considered one of her harder matches in the season, in which the Storm women drew with Steel Queens in December.
“It was a really tough game. It was definitely the hardest game I’ve played probably ever in hockey.” she confessed.
“The rink in Caledonia is tiny. It’s kind of notoriously disliked by our team. It’s used for curling mainly, so all the markings are off in it. You know, as a hockey player, who typically plays in the same rink week in, week out. It’s very confusing for us to play in such a different rink, so we ended up drawing that game.
‘But we’d all tried so hard and it was quite tough. I think it humbled us a little bit that game because we’d been doing so well and having such success, winning by such high numbers that actually it made us realise, you know, we can’t take the foot off the gas and we really need to keep, you know, pushing forward.”
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Manchester Storm Womens team warming up: Image Credit Scarlet Chambers
If successful in winning the league Manchester Storm would garner recognition of league champions and possibly rise into another league to compete in higher competitions or championship playoffs. Enabling players or the team to be considered for elite level ice hockey in the future. Getting there however, is easier said than done, with multiple challenging teams and tough rinks, aiming to continue to show off their own skills in the coming months.
Manchester Storm are in WNIHL Division 2, meaning they sit just below the Elite Ice Hockey teams. Being within this division means the teams compete in regions of North Vs South England, enabling more competitive high stakes matches.
Manchester Storm’s next match is at home on March 15 against Kingston Diamonds. With all home matches being free to attend, it’s an opportunity to go out and support the up and coming ice hockey women’s team!