The Splinters books, by William Whyte

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Second paragraph of third chapter of Splinters and the Impolite President:

“I need to have a word with you,” Coach Prince said. “It’s about your linemates for the tournament.”

Second paragraph of third chapter of Splinters and the Wolves of Winter:

“First,” said Elsa, “a shooting challenge. Second, a skating challenge. You have to pick different players for each. The overall winner gets a medallion. What's that for? Later.” She bounced the puck high in the air, spun round on her skates as it arced above her, caught it perfectly on the blade of her stick, and pointed with her stick at the four nets.

My brother wrote these a couple of years ago, based on characters from a book by Kevin Sylvester

In both books, Cindy Winters, impoverished but talented hockey player, goes to Europe for a tournament with her team, augmented by the unpleasant (and rich) Blister sisters. In the first book, the setting is Iceland, where the President turns out to be a former ice hockey player with a historic grudge and a monster; in the second, it is the central European principality of Luxenstein, where the Graf, his wolves and Alberich the dwarf are maintaining a supernatural secret. Both are great fun and I think could be enjoyed by younger (and indeed older) readers even if they don't know anything about ice hockey – the values of good sport and team spirit are universal. You can get Splinters and the Impolite President here and Splinters and the Wolves of Winter here.

I had foolishly thought that the books were not sfnal, and that Splinters and the Impolite President was therefore the non-genre book that had lingered longest on my shelves. However when the Fairy Goaltender appeared at the start of Chapter 2, I realised that I was mistaken. Be that as it may, the next book in that pile is also by someone I know in RL, The Ice-Cream Army by Jessica Gregson. (She will no doubt now inform me that it's actually about witchcraft.)