It was a family affair as the Bowie Rink Hockey Club’s world class ladies team won the 2023 Rink Hockey Nationals last week.
Hosted at Lubbock’s Sk806 Events Center on July 29-Aug. 4, it served as the culmination of the best teams in rink hockey across America.
The Bowie club is led by sisters and Bowie High School graduates Janae and Jasmine along with their mom Dara serving as backup goalie and father John Jones Sr. as the coach.
Brother John Jones Jr. also plays, but was on the 15U and 18U teams for the Cumberland Raiders, a club team from Maryland. He helped the 15U team to a third place finish and the 18U team won its age group championship.
The Bowie club had previously won the event in 2021, but was unable to defend the title due to a lack of competition in 2022.
The one wildcard for the team was their first team goalie, Francisca Labbe, was going to have to miss the tournament due to recently giving birth. Dara had to step in, hoping she could hold up for both the team and her family.
With teammates Javiera Ramos, Camilla Roldan and Francisca Caceres filling out the roster, the team had had a good year competing in tournaments this year.
The team had wins in two previous tournaments earlier in the year. They also had a second place finish in another one only because Janae suffered an injury to her face and was not allowed to play in the championship game causing them to forfeit. With these results the team was feeling confident and a little over prepared.
The first game was against a club from New Jersey who had what many people considered the best goalie in the tournament. Bowie felt confident they could score on her, but knew it would be tough. In the end, the game ended in a 4-4 tie.
The next game against United Florida did not go the team’s way as it lost a close one 3-2. It was a wake-up call for the team now, knowing it would have to take the harder road once bracket play started.
The last game in pool play was against the familiar and geographically close club team from Decatur. Bowie easily won 8-1 to finish pool play 1-1-1.
Tied for second place with the New Jersey club meant the two faced off again in bracket play, with the winner going on to play in the championship game.
It was another closely played game. The score was tied 3-3 heading into the final minute with overtime looming.
With time winding down, Bowie upped the pressure on defense. Janae stripped New Jersey’s defensemen, deked past the remaining defender, faked out the goalie and scored on a spinning back hand with 30 seconds remaining.
The goal ended up being the game-winner as Bowie won 4-3.
This set up a rematch against the United Florida team they had lost to during pool play. The United Florida team had not lost a game yet this tournament, but Bowie believed this time it would be different.
It would be as Jasmine came out and scored a hat trick in the first 16 minutes of the game, putting Bowie up 3-0 along with a lot of momentum.
From there, the team held on as United Florida made a spirited comeback in the second half, cutting the lead to one goal with 4:33 left in the game. Still, they did enough to secure the win 3-2 to earn its second straight national title.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. Full games from the tournament can be watched on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@RinkHockeyLive.