Historic day for Beaufort with Knights Girls competing in their first league game ever

5th November 2024

Beaufort Knights

Fotograféiert vum Esther Lub-Hilgers

Finally, on November 3, 2024 at 12:15 the puck dropped in Deurne when the newly formed Knights Girls team faced off against the Antwerp Phatales in their first ever organized Belgian Women Division league game in the 55 year history of Beaufort icehockey.

The Belgian Women division is a recently introduced development league to grow the game with girls and women. It was so successful that after a first year with 1 league and 4 teams, it was expanded to create a competition league with 3 teams and a development league with now 6 teams.

The Knights Girls team included girls from Beaufort, Huskies and Tornado (the two Luxembourg city clubs) and ranges in age from 12 to 36. Ten of the girls also still play with the boys in the U14 team and it is by far the youngest team in the league on average.

The league format is such that it is a single round robin with home and away games for each team (10 games per team in total) and that no score is counted. Development is the key word.

Antwerp Phatales, a team that also plays in the Competition league, featured a slightly older squad with some experienced and some national team players.

It was a great experience for the Beaufort girls to travel as a girls only team on the Beaufort Knight bus to Deurne and get a chance to play with and against peers.

Tina Moons of the Women's Ice hockey Committee (WIC) of the RBIHF (Belgian federation) said: "I'm very happy to welcome the girls [into the league] and I have seen a lot of potential in the team knowing that it is a young team."

Now that history is made, the outlook is to play 9 more games this season, 5 of which at the Ice Park Beaufort and then look beyond to next season, hoping to be able to compete in the Competition League for the Belgian Cup and then further beyond to become the core of a U18 National team for Luxembourg.

The sport has globally become widely popular with girls and women proof of which is the formation of the first professional women's league in North America. But even nationally, the sport has grown a lot with now two teams in organized competitions (Tornado Women play in the German league) and with Beaufort having 25 girls of all ages under the age of 19 in their ranks in the club. More and more girls sign up for try outs and fall in love with hockey.

Team details and a game schedule can be found on our website under
Beaufort Knights - Knights Girls