“It’s just incredible,” said Danna, a 17-year-old goalkeeper from New Jersey. “Just seeing girls that look like you, from the same background, from the same heritage. Growing up, I thought I was the only Egyptian player, apart from her (Malac) of course, but to see a whole locker room full of them is just incredible.”
Malac, a 15-year-old striker, agreed with her sister.
“It was an incredible experience,” she said. “I helped out by looking for Egyptian names on Elite Prospects and different apps. It was really rare to find an Egyptian player because no one had an Egyptian ID on their hockey profile. So it’s definitely crazy to have a team with that many players.”
For the team’s coach, Sameh Ramadan, who is an executive member of the Egyptian ice hockey team in the United States and a forward on the Egyptian men’s team, being involved in the creation of the women’s team was a source of cultural and parental pride.
“If you look around the region, between the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Kenya, the list is endless, ice hockey is being developed everywhere, not only for men but also for women and at the youth level,” said Sameh Ramadan.
“We have started to do some local Africa and Arabia Cups across the Middle East and year after year we see women’s and girls’ camps,” he said. “So it’s also about not wanting to be left behind. We have identified many probably under-10s around the world, including in Cairo,
and it grows and grows.”
