FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 18, 2000
Contact: Tracy Moline, assistant director for media relations: (651) 690-6521, (612) 527-4852 pager
South African national hockey player skating for St. Kate's
ST. PAUL, Minn. — College of St. Catherine freshman Debbie McLoughlin picked up a pair of rollerblades in the early 1990s. She enjoyed blading, messing around on tennis courts with hockey sticks and friends in her native Johannesburg, South Africa. She comes from a family of field hockey players, so her progression into roller hockey wasn’t much of a stretch.
It’s the transition to ice hockey in which McLoughlin is making her mark. For more than five years, McLoughlin has impacted the game, joining the South African National Women’s Ice Hockey Team in 1996. She has competed in the Czech Republic and Hungary in training for the World Championships, and she’ll head back to competition in Hungary for the World Championships in March 2000.
McLoughlin’s experience in ice hockey is unusual, beyond South Africa being a humid, desert nation; it’s only been the past couple of years in which South Africa has been allowed to compete in international sporting competition. In the days of Apartheid, sanctions were common against South Africa, including a ban on international competition.
McLoughlin, 19, has been making a smooth transition to life as an accounting major and ice hockey player at the College of St. Catherine, despite a climate that is radically different from Johannesburg and tough competition on the ice. Women in Minnesota have been playing ice hockey longer than McLoughlin, who at five years is still a relative newcomer to the sport. However, there is more opportunity for ice time in the area, impacting her skills in a positive way.
Her first visit to the United States came on her arrival at St. Kate’s — the Internet aided her college search. Hockey also helped her decide on St. Kate’s. She’s adapting well to the cold winter, with some relief during the holidays, when she headed home to South Africa to spend time with family and friends. She’s back now, enthusiastic about the renewed competition that the remainder of the season brings.
To interview McLoughlin or hockey coach Eric Stacey, call Tracy Moline at (651) 690-6521.
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