The Kodiak Storm are no fools on the ice, but by Sunday they hope they become one.

This weekend the Storm, the local female hockey team, heads to Anchorage to particpate in the Alaska State Women’s Invitational “Fools on Ice” hockey tournament.

The tournament consists of 22 teams from Anchorage, Wasilla, Palmer, Homer, Fairbanks and Juneau, and will be held at the Subway Sports Centre Friday through Sunday.

The teams are broken up into three categories: novice, advanced beginners and intermediate. The Storm are in the eight-team novice bracket.

Kodiak is guaranteed three games. They kick off the tournament Friday at 8 p.m. and continue play at 10 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. on Saturday.

This is the second season for the Storm. Last year they went into this tournament as underdogs and wound up in second place with a 2-2-1 record.

The team hopes last year’s improbable run to the championship game develops into a title run this year.

Kodiak has practiced since November to get back to the championship game.

“We are going to look to win it,” Storm coach Aaron Poetter said. “They placed second last season. They have more of a team structure this year. They have really gelled as a team. The lines are playing well together. Defense is playing good. The forwards are passing well. We should be fairly competitive.”

Poetter joined the team this year, along with six new ladies to fill out the 18-member roster.

“I’ve had a blast, these are great women to coach,” Poetter said. “Everybody comes out here with a really positive attitude. They all like the game of hockey for different reasons. They enjoy learning something new and they take suggestions well and incorporate it immediately.”

Storm player Jill Lipka believes Poetter’s coaching will pay off during the tournament.

“We have a lot more experience then last year,” Lipka said. “We are a lot faster. We’re not going into the first game overwhelmed with this thing.”

Until last year, many of the ladies had never played hockey before. However, now they are part of a growing sport that began in the late 1880s.

The birth of women’s hockey is credited to two places Barrie, Ontario, in 1892 and in Ottawa in 1889.

“Total Hockey,” the official encyclopedia of the National Hockey League, documented the first game in Ottawa when the Government House defeated the Rideuau ladies.

The sport took off after that, but declined during World War II. Soon after, the revival of women’s hockey took off.

In 1990, the first women’s Hockey Championship was held. Three years later the NCAA recognized it as a sport. Then in 1998 the Olympics adopted women’s hockey as a medal sport.

“Having them become part of the Olympics drives women’s hockey to the forefront,” said Sherry Anderson, left wing for the Storm.

After the Olympic debut the National Women’s Hockey League was formed in 2000, followed by the Western Hockey League in 2004.

Anderson also believes there is another attraction to the sport.

“This sport has contact and for the women that is a different thing,” she said.

However, in the Storm’s league checking other players is not allowed, but contact is welcome.

“What makes women’s hockey really different from guys’ hockey is when they run into each other they actually apologize,” Poetter said.

Joining Lipka and Anderson on this year’s team are: Sharon Buck, Tina Davis, Sarah Thayer, Mary Linscheid, Angie Chervenak, Kate Wynne, Maureen Butler, Liz Chilton, Heather Norton, Oliva Brito, Alice Levan, Christy Magnusen, Tina Genof, Lisa Schwien, Kathryn Symmes and Heather Finkle.