The Women's National Ice Hockey Team from one of the last places on earth that you might expect a hockey team to come from, will be in Airdrie for two days of ice sessions, coaching, exhibitions games, and fun.  

The ladies of Team India are coming to the city to get further training and development in the sport courtesy of Airdrie Minor Hockey, the City of Airdrie and local businesses.   

Darrin Harrold, Director of Hockey Operations with Airdrie Minor Hockey says the trip came about as a result of a visit he made to India in 2016.

"I went to India in 2016 with another guy and we took our kids and we went and donated a bunch of equipment and taught people how to play hockey.  We did a couple of coaching clinics.  Last year, Hayley Wickenheiser found out that I went before and she put together a big trip that we did in January of 2018.  It was on a much bigger scale with her star power.  So I went on the trip again and did the same thing on a much larger scale.  The whole premise was we would go there and they would come here for Wickfest.  So now they're here but they have a few days off in between the weekends when Wickfest happens so they're going to come out to Airdrie on Monday and Tuesday (November 19 and 20)."

Wickfest is a Female World Hockey Festival that's held in Calgary.  In Airdrie, Team India will receive six hours of player development ice over two days with Hockey Alberta supplying the expertise and the City of Airdrie donating the ice time free of charge.  They'll also get four hours of coaching clinics run by Hockey Alberta. 

The team will play a pair of exhibition games as well.  On Monday they'll take on the Airdrie Bantam "B" Rockies and Tuesday night they'll play the Midget "B" Rockies.  Both games will go at the Ron Ebbesen Arena and start at 8:30 pm each night.

Donations have made the entire trip to Airdrie possible.  The Airdrie Hampton Inn and Suites are providing rooms for the 22 members and several Airdrie restaurants have stepped up to provide meals.   

Men's hockey has been played in India since 1989 but the women's team only played their first game in 2016.  Playing with only second-hand equipment donated by the men's team and hockey countries like Canada, the women have displayed dedication and passion for the sport and gained global attention when they won their first international game in 2017 at the Challenge Cup of Asia.

Harrold says in the entire country of India, population 1.4 billion, there is one ice hockey arena which is located in a mall in New Delhi.  It's about one-third of the size of a Canadian rink.  The ladies on Team India all come from the Northern Himalaya region of the country where ice hockey is popular if you don't mind playing on natural ice ponds.

"It's really popular during the winter season, which could last only six weeks.  All of the rinks, they're really not rinks, they're outdoor ponds and the ice only lasts as long as mother nature allows it to last.  If it's six weeks great, if they get eight weeks they're super happy.  There are no zambonis, they still brush the ice with brooms and pour water on it at night.  They take care of it because the longer they do, the longer it lasts."

The players are from an impoverished area of the country and all of the trip has been done through sponsorship and fundraising.  Harrold says it was not an easy task putting it all together and is another example of the women's dedication to hockey.

"They don't come from very well-off families at all.  Most of the girls wouldn't have a passport.  They'd have to go to the village elders and say, 'we think this is when this girl was born, roughly,' and they'd get an official government document from there.  We did a fundraiser in Surrey back in April and raised roughly $80,000 to bring them over.  The Airdrie portion has all been sponsored by local businesses."  It's been fantastic to see the support."

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