In Warroad, hockey isn’t just for the boys. The Warroad Warriors girls team has only been in existence since the 1999 season, but in that time, has earned a reputation as one of the finest programs in the state. They have qualified for the Minnesota State High School League tournament 14 times and have won four state championships.

At a time when girls hockey was just gaining traction in Minnesota in the late 1990s, Warroad knew it needed to be on the front lines of establishing supremacy. Enter Ron Tveit, a long-time boys youth hockey coach and teacher in town who happened to have a seventh-grade daughter at the time.

The first 15U girls team included six girls who had been seeing regular playing time with the boys teams. Their first season success led the coaches to realize they were ready to become a varsity high school team after only a single year. With no other teams in close proximity, the travel schedule for the first girls team was brutal, as their bus travelled nearly 4,500 miles in year one. The Lady Warriors had unwavering support from the community, and in time, it became a model program in Minnesota.

David “Izzy” Marvin took the head coaching job in 2006 and remains so today. It’s championship pedigree has proven the program is strong and can compete with any team in Minnesota.

As of 2022, 16 girls players from Warroad have played Division I hockey, while another two dozen have reached the Division III level. Two Lady Warriors have won the prestigious Ms. Hockey Award, given annually to the top senior girls player in the state.

As influential as Cal Marvin was to Warroad hockey, his grand daughter, Gigi Marvin is equally important to the success of Warroad Girls Hockey. A three-time Olympic medalist, Gigi won Silver Medals at the 2010 and 2014 games before finally reaching the pinnacle of women’s hockey in 2018, when she won Gold with Team USA in PyeongChang, South Korea.

In doing so, she became the first Warroad native to bring a Gold Medal home from the Olympics since Dave Christian in 1980.

In addition, Gigi was a part of five gold medal winners and three runners up with the United States at the women’s world championships.

When she hasn’t been competing on the international stage, Gigi brought a nationally renowned hockey camp to Warroad called Rink Rat 19, one that has brought families from coast-to-coast to Northern Minnesota just to get ice time with this local legend.