Chelsea Monahan always saw the sport she loved as a game played on ice. Raised in a hockey-centric family, she spent her childhood chasing pucks across cold rinks, skating hard and finessing her game. After competing in Division 1 women’s ice hockey in college, she figured her days of competitive play were behind her after graduation. But hockey had different plans for her – off-the-ice plans.  

Nine years after her college playing career ended, Monahan found herself in an entirely different arena: standing on a podium in Switzerland, clutching a gold medal – not for ice hockey, but for a version of the sport played in sneakers on asphalt, a sport called ball hockey.

“A lot of people still don’t know about ball hockey, or that girls and women play at such a high level. But that’s changing.”

Ball hockey, also known as street or dek hockey, is a competitive and fast-paced sport that shares many similarities with ice hockey but has key differences. Instead of skating, players run on foot and use a ball instead of a puck. The National Ball Hockey League (NBHL) has deep roots and strong support in South Jersey. It serves as a major feeder league for both the elite men’s and women’s international teams, helping to develop top-tier talent for global competitions.

As a member of the first American women’s team to take gold at the International Street & Ball Hockey Federation’s Women’s World Championship (ISBHF), the Cherry Hill resident is now promoting a sport she barely knew existed just a few years ago. 

“A lot of people still don’t know about ball hockey, or that girls and women play at such a high level,” Monahan says. “But that’s changing. Over the summer, I attended a few girls’ league games representing the team. The girls looked up to us like we were their heroes. It was such a cool thing. I didn’t have that growing up. I didn’t have girl hockey players to look up to because there weren’t any.”

“Ball hockey is still physical. It’s still fast,” adds Monahan. “You need everything ice hockey requires: a hard shot and hockey smarts, but you’re doing it on foot. You need to run hard and make yourself known so that people see you for what you can do.”

Team USA’s victory in Switzerland couldn’t have come at a better time, coinciding with Monahan’s summer break from teaching fourth grade at Horace Mann Elementary School in Cherry Hill.  You could say she went on a victory tour that summer. And in July, Cherry Hill celebrated “Chelsea Monahan Day,” honoring her at a township meeting.

“I felt like a celebrity,” she says.

Monahan’s love for hockey was perhaps inevitable. “My dad played in college and was a ref for the NHL for a few years,” she says. “When my older brother started playing, I wanted to as well. I’ve been skating since I could walk.”

Being one of the few girls in increas-ingly competitive and physical leagues as a teenager didn’t intimidate Monahan. However, after a severe collarbone injury in high school, her father prohibited her from returning to boys’ leagues – and there were no competitive girls’ teams in South Jersey. 

For her senior year of high school, she  and her Canadian-born mother moved to Saskatchewan, where she played ice hockey and was recruited to play D-1 hockey for Holy Cross in Massachusetts. After graduating in 2015, Monahan figured that was the end of her competitive play.

“The year I graduated, the Professional Women’s Hockey League was just starting,”  she says. “But I didn’t want to pursue ice hockey any further. I wanted to get a real job and play for fun.”

That worked for a while. She stayed competitive by running marathons and playing in adult ice hockey leagues. Her boyfriend Tim Ryan, whom she met playing ice hockey, also played high level ball hockey and nudged her to try it. 

 “He was playing in a ball hockey tournament and convinced me to come watch and maybe consider playing,” she says. I had no idea what ball hockey was,” she says. “But when I watched him play, I thought, ‘I can do this.’”

During her first game with a local B-tier women’s team, Monahan, wearing her purple helmet from her days playing at Holy Cross, made an immediate impact. “My team won that tournament, and I ended up winning MVP,” she says. “Suddenly, people started to recognize me as ‘the girl in the purple helmet’ and began asking me to join their teams.”

Monahan soon learned about the international league, which held its first women’s world championship in 2017. In 2019, she began training for tryouts, but the pandemic hit, canceling the 2020 season.

She went out for Team USA when play resumed and was invited to join as an alternate for the 2022 tournament in Canada. Although Team USA’s loss to Canada was disappointing – the team’s third time as runner-up – Monahan enjoyed the experience. “I thought, ‘Ok, this was fun, but I want to play in my position. I’m not done. I have more to give.’”

Determined to secure a spot on the 2024 team, she trained rigorously, shedding 22 pounds in the months before tryouts. “My goal,” she says, “was to go to Switzerland faster and in better shape.” 

Fundraising was also a significant part of her preparation. “We don’t get paid to play. We had to raise money to go,” she explains, noting that a sponsorship from the Washington Capitals helped.

“After we beat Czechia in a shootout in the first game, we realized we could actually win this,” she says. “But then we lost the next game to Canada, 2-0.” 

That loss served as a wake-up call. “It took that energy of losing to realize how hard we would need to work to win, and we wanted it,” Monahan says. 

While only her parents managed to make the trip to Switzerland, Monahan felt the love from America. “I had so many friends waking up at 2 am that week to stream the games,” she says.

After coming home, Monahan took a week off from hockey to celebrate. She is now back to playing for various ice and ball hockey teams and teaching at Horace Mann. While uncertain if she will try out again for Team USA – it was a huge commitment – she feels her team’s gold has made a lasting impact.

“I’m hoping in the future it becomes an Olympic sport,” she says, “and that little girls continue to play.”  

South Jersey & Ball Hockey

Ball hockey’s national status is growing, and its roots run deep in South Jersey. The National Ball Hockey League (NBHL) began as a small, local 4-on-4 street hockey tournament in 2015 in Marlton and has evolved into a major nationwide organization. 

Founded by childhood friends Anthony and Gianni Sanrocco and TJ Janus, the NBHL’s inaugural season in 2021 saw 76 teams competing across 15 states. By 2022, the league expanded to 151 teams with 2,800 players from over 25 states. By last year, it expanded to 165 teams, 27 divisions, and 3200+ players from 30+ states and Canada.

The league’s crown jewel is the Mylec Cup, the sport’s national championship tournament, which was held in Gloucester over the weekend of September 21-22 and featured three men’s divisions and a women’s division.