{"id":6066,"date":"2026-08-01T20:06:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6066"},"modified":"2026-08-01T20:06:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:06:39","slug":"women-of-colour-hockey-collective-broadens-its-reach-by-introducing-the-game-to-jamaican-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6066","title":{"rendered":"Women of Colour Hockey Collective broadens its reach by introducing the game to Jamaican children"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By John Wawrow | Associated Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Saroya Tinker began considering where the Women of Colour Hockey Collective should hold its first international clinic to promote the sport and distribute free equipment, one destination stood out: Jamaica.<\/p>\n

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Here was an opportunity to give back for the Canadian-born Tinker and many of her WCHC members who have ancestral ties to the Caribbean nation. They did so by holding a three-day series of clinics that attracted about 150 Jamaican girls and boys in the nation\u2019s capital of Kingston last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of gratitude. I mean very emotional,\u201d Tinker said on Friday. \u201cJust looking back and realizing that we got to impact a lot of our roots, and giving back to our community and introducing a game that we love, and we hope they\u2019ll love as much as we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tinker is a former pro hockey player who has turned to broadcasting, and helped co-found what was then called the Black Girl Hockey Club Canada, and rebranded to the WCHC last year. The collective\u2019s objective is making hockey more accessible to women and girls of color, and backed by the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League.<\/p>\n

After holding clinics and offering programs in Canada, the WCHC decided to broaden its reach especially after hosting three girls from Kenya a year ago. The collective members include women of color playing at the collegiate and pro levels, with 15 making the trip to Jamaica, including Canadian national team and PWHL Vancouver defender Sophie Jaques,<\/p>\n

\u201cI think getting kids involved in any sport is great for them,\u201d said Jaques, whose father is Jamaican. \u201cShowing them that people of their heritage are very successful in the sport, and there\u2019s opportunities for them in the sport I think is a great lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

In choosing Jamaica, the WCHC also brought on board Swift Hockey, a Canadian company that specializes in manufacturing and selling hockey sticks at more affordable prices. Swift was founded by Zechariah Thomas, a former minor leaguer who also played for the Jamaican national ice hockey team.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAccessibility is something I speak on very publicly within hockey, where I felt a lot of people around me didn\u2019t have accessibility,\u201d said Thomas, who is from Oshawa, Ontario, and has Jamaican parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of kids I went to school with are now in jail or in prison or dead. And it\u2019s such a big factor in my story noticing that none of them had sports,\u201d he added. \u201cSo anything to make sports more accessible is super important.\u201d<\/p>\n

A majority of the Jamaican participants were new to hockey and included foster children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely very much grassroots learn to play, getting sticks in hands, teaching them how to stick handle,\u201d Tinker said. \u201cAnd then by the end of it they were running with the ball and stick-handling and shooting. So I think it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The WCHC left behind 75 sticks, goalie equipment, balls and T-shirts, while returning home with plenty of fond memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we teach the kids, there\u2019s so much to learn from them,\u201d Jaques said. \u201cTheir futures are so bright. And it\u2019s just kind of opening their eyes to the fact that anything they want to do is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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AP women\u2019s hockey: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/womens-hockey<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Women of Colour Hockey Collective is making hockey more accessible to women and girls of color, and backed by the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nWomen of Colour Hockey Collective broadens its reach by introducing the game to Jamaican children - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6066\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Women of Colour Hockey Collective broadens its reach by introducing the game to Jamaican children - 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