It’s time for the girls to shine on the ice this weekend.

The Homer Hockey Association girls hockey team will battle five others from around the state in a three-day hockey tournament during Homer’s winter carnival.

The first all girls team in Homer has been skating together since November and is comprised of hockey players age 8-16.

“You’ve got to be proud,” said team manager Blake LaRue. “It’s amazing, they never quit.”

LaRue has two girls on the team and said he saw a need for an all-girls team as soon as they picked up the sport.

They first tried playing on predominantly boys teams, LaRue said, but the girls were continually getting beat up by boys who didn’t like the idea of playing with girls.

“I saw the need for a girls team because of how they were treated by the players,” LaRue said. “It was incredible the lack of respect (from) these teammates.”

LaRue proposed the idea of starting an all-girls team next year to the Association’s Kevin Bell.

“He said ‘We’re not waiting for next year, you are doing it this year,’” LaRue said.

Now there are 16 girls on the team.

Girls have played a small but important role in Kenai Peninsula hockey at the high school level, but they are still a minority on teams dominated by boys.

In Kenai, Lauren Baldwin is the starting goaltender for the North Star Conference Champion Kardinals. Other girls have made varsity rosters on teams from the peninsula and the Mat-Su Valley.

But LaRue hopes his girls will eventually have the same opportunity Anchorage girls now have.

“What I’d like to see is a girls high school team,” he said.

In a game where speed and position is as much, if not more important than toughness, girls have thrived, LaRue said.

“They’re not near as big muscle-wise, but they counter that with being smarter,” he said.

Perhaps those are the words of a proud father. Perhaps not.

But Homer will get a chance to see this new brand of hockey beginning Friday at the Homer Ice Arena.

Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@homer-news.com.