Color of Hockey: Kampa rediscovers roots with Colombia in LATAM Cup

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Tina Kampa, director of hockey operations for Dartmouth College's women's team, who was a defenseman for Colombia at the 2022 Amerigol LATAM Cup.

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- Tina Kampa had a homecoming playing for Colombia's women's hockey team at the Amerigol LATAM Cup.

The director of hockey operations for Dartmouth College's women's team and former Bemidji State University defenseman was born in Bogota and adopted by a white family in Minnesota as a baby. She knew little about her Colombian roots until she donned the country's yellow, red and blue jersey.

"It's a cool way to kind of introduce myself to Colombia, to the culture, to the girls, and kind of what all that looks like, and having the commonality of hockey," Kampa said. "I see myself in a lot of them ... we're really passionate human beings, we care so much about people, we're just genuine in the way we go about things. There's nothing I can say to truly describe how great it was for me."

The LATAM Cup, a tournament featuring teams representing Latin America, Caribbean and Middle East regions, returned to the Florida Panthers IceDen, the team's practice facility, and ran Wednesday through Sunday.

Sponsored by the NHL, NHL Players' Association and Panthers, the tournament included 44 teams and players representing 21 countries and territories, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

Colombia coaches said it was a great experience for their players to have a former NCAA Division I player and assistant captain as a teammate to help them improve their game.

"I think that was the first time the women's team really saw a true ice hockey player come into the team," said Sam Uisprapassorn, a Colombia coach. "Previously, it had been predominantly roller hockey players coming from Colombia and almost playing a similar style on the ice. Tina was able to come in, with her background coming out of Bemidji, almost teaching them how to be ice hockey players."

Kampa had 33 points (four goals, 29 assists) in 127 games for Bemidji State, located in Bemidji, Minnesota. She had 306 blocked shots in four seasons, fourth all-time in Western Collegiate Hockey Association history.

The 23-year-old from Maple Grove, Minnesota, has been influential in promoting diversity and inclusion in hockey. She co-founded Minnesota Unbounded, a hockey program for girls of color in the state, with Meredith Lang in 2021. Coaches in the program are women of color.

At Bemidji State, Kampa served on College Hockey for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a committee formed in 2021 to create positive cultural change across hockey through communication, education, allyship and advocacy.

Dartmouth hired Kampa as director of hockey operations for the women's team Aug. 31, impressed with her credentials on and off the ice.

"Her passion and energy for the game is contagious," Dartmouth women's coach Liz Keady Norton said. "Tina brings a wealth of experience as a player and coach, and I feel fortunate to have her in Hanover (New Hampshire)."

Kampa said she joined Colombia's women's team at the 2021 LATAM Cup after she learned about the tournament through Color of Hockey stories.

She said she immediately bonded with her teammates, despite a language barrier.

"They tried to get me to say some words in Spanish, maybe a couple of trash-talking words," Kampa said. "I just tell them, 'Here's the deal, I will try to say the words but I'm insecure about my Spanish, I can't lie to you.' Most importantly, they understand, and they want to help give me knowledge in anything that I'm interested in."

Hockey proved to be the universal language that overcame any challenges.

"It was a really cool dynamic because we have so much respect for one another's background," Kampa said. "They were always asking questions: 'You played at university, what does that look like? How does that go?' We're all asking questions back and forth.

"It's just so humbling because you don't realize how fortunate to have what we have here, particularly me being from Minnesota where hockey is, obviously, what you do," she said. "There's no way to truly describe how great the experience was for me."

Photos: BC Photography, BSU Photo Services, Cyndi Nightengale Photography