The North Carolina Trailblazers is a women's recreational ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 association founded in April 1995 in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

. It is one of the oldest existing women's hockey programs in the Southeastern United States.

Origins

The Trailblazers were founded by Lise Barley-Maloney and a group of women and girls who held their first practices in Dorton Arena

Dorton Arena

The J.S. Dorton Arena is a 7,610-seat multi-purpose arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the grounds of the North Carolina State Fair...

 on the N.C. State Fairgrounds.

By the 2000-01 season, the organization had expanded to the point of fielding two full teams. Since then, it has fielded at least two and sometimes three teams each season ranging in skill level from B to D/open (under USA Hockey

USA Hockey

USA Hockey is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee as the governing body for amateur ice hockey in the United States and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. The organization is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and has...

 classifications). In the 2009-10 season, it is running a three-team house league and will organize "tournament teams" for specific competitions.

Titles

The Trailblazers' B team won the USA Hockey Women's B Southeast Regional title in the 2002-03 season. They made it to the USA Hockey Women's Nationals Semifinal Game that same season. The Trailblazers' C team was the silver medalist (second place) in the Southeast Regional division in 2009.

Members

Notable current and past players include Lise Barley-Maloney, who has served as C team head coach and on the board of the Carolinas Amateur Hockey Association (the regional USA Hockey affiliate); Julia Zeigler, 1999 national State Games female athlete of the year; Emily Cole, wife of NHL player Erik Cole

Erik Cole

Erik Cole is an American professional ice hockey player currently playing for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League . He has played most of his career with the Carolina Hurricanes. He also played a brief stint with the Edmonton Oilers before returning to Carolina in 2009...

; Sherene Halko, wife of former NHL player Steve Halko; and Kelly Kirwin, member of the Carolina Hurricanes

Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League , and play their home games at the 18,680-seat RBC Center...

' staff whose name is on the Stanley Cup

Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...

as a part of that organization during its 2005-06 championship season.