When I learned to play ice hockey, I searched for a hockey team to put new my skills to use and play. Unfortunately, the previous gay hockey team disbanded a couple of years ago. No other attempts ever materialized to revive another hockey team. I decided DC once again deserved their own inclusive hockey team in the nation’s capital.
With a couple of hockey players, we stitched together past and present hockey players to develop a tangible strategy moving forward over Sunday brunch at Bistro Bohem. In late 2018, Gay Hockey Washington DC (GHDC) was founded.
Due to a lack of formal guidance on building any hockey team, we reached out to more established hockey teams like the New York City Gay Hockey Association and Boston Pride to gauge their own organization’s experiences and understand their partnerships with both the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins respectively. We also tapped our own individual talents and combined hockey experience to form the new hockey team.
Due to the 2018 Caps’ Stanley Cup victory, interest in hockey and ice skating classes for youth and adults increased around the DC-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) area. GHDC offers an opportunity to share the love of hockey with former hockey players as well as other out athletes.
GHDC is an inclusive Q-straight hockey team. Our goal is to promote sportsmanship, elevate individual and team hockey skill levels, join team stick-n-shoot and scrimmage events, hockey skill clinics, engage in outreach and strategic partnerships with other hockey teams to overcome homophobia in the sport, and promote hockey within our diverse community.
Regards,
Justin del Rosario #73
Gay Hockey DC (GHDC), Founder and Executive Director
Ethos
GHDC is a volunteer-led hockey league that offers hockey skill development and social opportunities for members of the gay community and our straight allies to participate in and enjoy the sport of hockey in a positive and safe environment. GHDC’s core mission is to tap in our own diversity, develop the player, encourage sportsmanship, and strengthen our game. Respect is the rule not the exception. Respect starts with me.
The Hockey Brunch Crew
The Hockey Brunch Crew was born out of the Sunday brunches with a bunch of hockey guys with a shared enthusiasm for the game. Meet the Hockey Brunch Crew.
Justin del Rosario
Justin Del Rosario, Founder & Executive Director
Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, hockey wasn’t big where I grew up. My only encounter with the sport was watching the U.S. Olympic Hockey team play every Winter Olympics. When I went to college, I experienced my first ever snow while attending the University of Utah. After graduating from college, I served in the Army for 8-years, got out and entered civilian life. When I moved to the DC area for a new assignment, I was lucky to live in a place with many ice rinks, a strong hockey program, and home to the 2018 Stanley Cup winner, the Washington Capitals. When I turned 40, I acquired a motorcycle license and wanted to play hockey. I enrolled at MedStars hockey program and quickly progressed to adult Learn To Play hockey. While learning to skate, I searched for a gay hockey team only to find out their website outlasted them. In late 2018, I founded Gay Hockey DC (GHDC) to bring together Q and straight hockey players to play a game of hockey in homophobia-free environment where genuine sportsmanship and bonds among players elevate the game even higher.
Media:
Britt Ott
Britt Ott, Membership Director
Britt is a biologist at the FDA, having received her Bachelor’s of Science from Virginia Tech in 2011 and her PhD from West Virginia University in 2016. Her research has included genetics, genomics and microbiology, with a variety of sub-topics. In her spare time, she is an avid reader, writer and crafter, engaging in leatCoher work, wood work, and various yarn-related hobbies. However, her biggest obsession is with hockey. Although she only started on the ice at the beginning of 2019, she slowly built up her skills over the year, taking numerous clinics and participated in Weekend Warriors, an excellent hockey camp. There, she met Justin del Rosario, founder of both No Such Hockey and Gay Hockey DC. They bonded over being “special” people on the ice, as they were both still gaining their skills. She went on to also join the Women’s league at Gardens Ice House, and is Captain of the Hockey North America team, the Sharks, and plays Defense. Britt’s an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, and leans androgynous.
Matt Rosenthal
matt Rosenthal, FOUNDER & DEPUTY DIRECTOR
I’m excited to be one of the board members of our new gay hockey group here in DC. I have been a life long Washington Capitals fan, and I do have experience in the hockey world. I played and coached hockey for the University of Maryland in-line hockey team from 1998-2008. In addition, I was assistant coach and then head coach for the hockey team for the JCC Maccabi Games, which is the Jewish Olympics for Jewish youth ages 13-16. Finally, I did play house hockey growing up in Montgomery County. I am excited to see the gay hockey group get kick started here in the DC Metro area.
Michelle Plampin
MICHELLE PLAMPIN, TRANS ADVISOR
Hockey solidified itself as a central part of my life while I was in middle school, during which time an ice rink was built within walking distance of my house. I practiced skating almost every day after school until I was ready to join a rec league team, and when I wasn’t on the ice, I would often play street hockey until it got dark and then video game hockey until bedtime. During this same period my hometown NHL team, the Colorado Avalanche, won its second Stanley Cup in its first 5 years of existence, and I got to attend the victory parade. The love of the game that was instilled in me from these early experiences continued in college, where I played for the Colorado School of Mines club team. Hockey is the greatest game on earth, and I firmly believe that it is for everyone. As an out and proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, I hope to do my part to set an example for other queer people who want to play but may be nervous to be themselves at the rink. I am grateful that Gay Hockey DC exists for that same purpose.