Betties on Blades
Durango's traveling women's hockey team hits the ice

Kelly Holmes, a member of the Durango Fury as well as the Lipsticks, an all-women's city rec league C team, goes in for the block during a co-ed drop-in game last Sunday./Photo by Todd Newcomer.

by Lainie Lowndes

Desperate housewives they are not, but these seemingly mild-mannered moms, business professionals, teachers, restaurant workers and students do lead somewhat of a double life. By day they can be seen around Durango serving drinks, teaching arithmetic to schoolchildren and consulting for environmental groups, but when the work day is done, they transform into the puck-slapping, speed-skating, hard-hitting, hockey players known as the Durango Fury. The Fury is the city's first all-female traveling hockey team, which will be debuting at its home rink in a doubleheader against the Telluride Box Canyon Beavers this Saturday, Jan. 8.

The Fury started with a short list of names and a heaping helping of enthusiasm. Many of the members had been competing in the Durango co-ed recreational hockey league last year, when a roster was circulated to start up a traveling team. Mike Moriarty, a local regional sales manager and hockey player on a Durango men's team, explains how the whole thing began. "The Chapman Hill rink manager, Matt Morrissey, came up with the idea of starting a women's traveling team, and originally I was just attending the meeting on my wife's behalf," he recalls. "Somehow when the meeting was over ,I was the head coach."

Last spring, coach Moriarty and his wife, Traci, one of the team's defensive players, began calling up the ladies on the list to encourage them to play in an annual national women's tournament in Denver.

"I think a lot of people kind of forgot that they had signed up, so we ended up convincing only about five of them to play," Traci said. Still about 10 players short, the Moriartys persisted in their recruitment efforts and eventually were able to amass 15 adventurous souls willing to go the distance.

With little time to come up with a name, the as-yet-to-be named Fury registered simply under the name "Durango" and set about finding uniforms. As luck would have it, Barb Richter, a women's team member, also helped coach the Fort Lewis College men's hockey team and lined up the blue and yellow jerseys for the women. With borrowed jerseys in tow and no former tournament play, the ladies packed their equipment into a caravan of estrogen and were off. Once in Denver, they played games against women's teams from Steamboat Springs, Greeley and California, losing two out of three. Despite the losses, their passion for play out weighted their need to win. They returned home even more excited to play than before.

"Although we do want to win, like the cliché goes, it's not everything," said center Ayla Moore.

Things have changed since the Fury's humble beginnings last spring. For starters, the women settled on a name, an irreverent nod to the freak tornado that hit Durango last fall. The team also has lined up a schedule of 12 games this season against Telluride and Crested Butte, and jerseys are in the works. In addition, the team began holding weekly practices last fall, open not only to team members but any women wanting to hone their skills. Since November, the team has been hitting the ice at 6:30 a.m. every Thursday - rain, snow or worse.

"Some days it was so cold that your face froze while you were doing warm-up laps," Moore recalls.

Numb faces aside, Mike Moriarty said he is impressed with the influx of interest - the roster now tops out around 30 - as well as what he sees at the weekly practices.

Heather Erb, a forward with the Durango Fury as well as the Cutthroats, a city rec league B2 team, waits her turn for action on a crowded bench last Sunday./Photo by Todd Newcomer.

Numb faces aside, Mike Moriarty said he is impressed with the influx of interest - the roster now tops out around 30 - as well as what he sees at the weekly practices.

"It is so encouraging to see the progress in both ability and the numbers of women showing up," he says.

The women of the Fury vary in age, ability 4 and stature. Some have been playing since they were little girls, while others are lacing up their skates for the first time. They come from a variety of backgrounds, but the one thing they all seem to have in common is a love of the game and the desire to get as many other women to play as possible.

"It's just such a fun sport to play, and when we travel to other cities we get to play with women that we don't know," says Traci Moriarty. "It's a fun way for women to hang out and play without being girlie."

For other team members, hockey is a respite from the daily grind of work and family, a time to unwind and disconnect.

"It's like therapy, only better," says Moore. "One thing I love about hockey is that you can't multi-task. You can't think about anything else while you're out there - you can't think about your kids, your grocery list or any of that."

In addition, there seems to be a camaraderie among the teammates that does not always exist when women get together in other circles. On the ice as well as off, there are helpful hints, encouragement and friendly banter. There also is a spirit of hospitality, whether it be the donated keg of Ska that will make the trip the following weekend to Telluride for a post-game party, or the "Welcome Telluride" sign for the Beavers locker room. The local girls even offered lodging to their competition for this weekend.

"We asked if they needed places to stay, but they said that they knew Durango had plenty of cheap motels," said the Fury's captain, Jen Petersen.

Although the Telluride Beavers didn't have an indoor rink until this past November, they formed their ladies traveling team in 1999 and have been playing together ever since. While the Fury may not be as experienced as the Telluride team, which is rumored to have a sandbagger or two, the hometown team does have one ace in the hole. Christine Fernstrom, who now plays forward for Durango, is a former member of the Telluride team.

"It is going to be a little strange playing against my old teammates, I don't even think they know I'm playing over here yet," she says. "But I know that we will all have a good time."☯