Toronto Star Sports
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Information highway opens an on-ramp for women's hockey
By Josh Rubin, Sportsnet
October 16, 1996 

URL: http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/sports/961016SPD03_NET16.html


When Andria Hunter started searching the Internet for information on
women's hockey in 1994, she realized in an instant that something was
terribly wrong.

In a word, she found nothing.

Fortunately for the rest of the world, Hunter was uniquely well-suited
to rectify the situation.

Hunter, who had been playing hockey since growing up in Peterborough,
was a member of Canada's world championship gold medal winning dream
team, which had just beaten the U.S. 6-3 in the world final.

She was also in the early stages of pursuing a master's degree in
computer science at the University of Toronto. Hunter decided to
create a kind of one-stop shopping spot for women's hockey
information.

``For me, it's a way to put something back into a sport that has
provided me with so many wonderful opportunities,'' said Hunter, who
has been forced into giving up her national team duties because of an
injured groin.

From Hunter's home page (http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~andria/), you
can get information on the state of women's hockey in the 19 countries
that have domestic leagues. A brief history of the game in each
country is provided, along with standings, game results and, in some
cases, team rosters.

The hunger for information on the sport has skyrocketed since it was
decided two years ago to make women's hockey an official medal event
for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Two weeks ago, for
example, one of Hunter's pages attracted visitors from almost 700
different locations - in one day.

And where are the visitors coming from? As far away as Sweden and the
Netherlands.

And with this week's Three Nations Cup featuring Finland, Canada and
the U.S. taking place throughout eastern Ontario, Hunter expects her
site to see lots of heavy action.

The Cup, which is one of several international tournaments covered by
Hunter, is a tuneup for the next world women's championship, which
takes place in March at Kitchener.

Manon Rheaume, arguably the most well-known women's hockey player in
the world, is even given her own page on Hunter's site
(http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~andria/Manon.html).

You can also find out why Finland is still considered a threat for the
Three Nations tourney and the world championships, despite having
finished third at the 1996 European championship.

The Finns, Hunter's page tells us, were winners of the four previous
European titles.

A little closer to home, there is the Central Ontario Women's Hockey
League, which features current and former national members from
Canada, the U.S. and even the Netherlands. Hunter, although unable to
play for the national squad because of her injury, suits up for the
Newtonbrook Panthers.

But, aside from being a research tool, Hunter hopes her pages will
serve as inspiration for a new generation of stars.

``If just a few young girls read the pages and decide to start playing
hockey and then have some of the same experiences that I have had,
then organizing those pages was time well spent,'' she said.

_________________________________________________________________

Josh Rubin can be reached on the Internet at sportsdesk@thestar.ca


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