Growing Girls Hockey Starts With Something Bigger Than Recruitment

🏒 Growing hockey isn't simply about convincing more kids to try it.

Getting a stick into someone's hands matters. Giving a young girl her first opportunity to step onto the ice matters. Bringing professional women's hockey into a market that has never experienced it matters.

But those moments are only the beginning.

If a player falls in love with hockey on Saturday and has nowhere affordable or welcoming to play on Monday, have we really grown the game?

That question sits at the heart of this conversation on Our Girls Play Hockey, as Lee Elias, Mike Bonelli, and Olympic gold medalist and PWHL Walter Cup champion Hayley Scamurra examine what sustainable growth actually requires.

And the answer has less to do with creating another elite team than many people might think.

It starts with access, belonging, community, fun, and a reason to come back.

Growing the Game Means More Than Getting Kids Through the Door

Youth sports organizations love participation numbers.

How many kids attended the free clinic?

How many tried hockey for the first time?

How many sticks were handed out?

Those numbers are worth celebrating. A first experience can change a child's life.

But sustainable growth requires another question:

What happens next?

A try-hockey event needs somewhere for those players to go afterward. Families need information. Players need equipment. Communities need programs. And perhaps most importantly, kids need an environment that makes them want to return.

That is where retention becomes every bit as important as recruitment.

Imagine introducing 60 kids to hockey, discovering that they love it, and then quickly separating out the 15 strongest players for an expensive elite program.

The game may have added another travel team.

But did hockey actually grow?

Not necessarily.

If the other 45 players gradually disappear because there is no recreational pathway, affordable option, or place where they feel valued, the sport has lost far more than it gained.

Growth isn't simply creating more teams. Growth is creating more hockey players.

Hockey Doesn't Have to Start on Ice

One of hockey's biggest traditional barriers has always been access.

Ice is expensive.

Equipment is expensive.

Rink availability is limited.

And skating is one of the most difficult fundamental skills in youth sports.

That is exactly why street hockey, deck hockey, roller hockey, and floorball can be so valuable.

A child does not have to learn crossovers, stopping, edgework, and backward skating before experiencing what makes hockey fun.

Give them a stick.

Give them a ball.

Give them teammates.

Let them play.

They can experience passing, shooting, creativity, competition, celebration, and teamwork almost immediately.

The technical format might be different.

But to that child, it's hockey.

That mindset dramatically expands where the game can exist.

Lee's experience helping grow hockey in Puerto Rico illustrates what that can look like. Introducing kids to hockey is powerful, but creating infrastructure—including places and programs where they can continue playing—is what turns a memorable event into sustainable growth.

The lesson applies everywhere.

The goal should never be simply:

“Come try hockey.”

The better question is:

“If you love hockey, where can we help you play next?”

Girls Need More Than Access. They Need Belonging.

For girls entering hockey—particularly on co-ed teams—the barriers are not always financial or logistical.

Sometimes they are social.

A girl may be one of only two or three female players at a camp.

The boys might automatically line up together.

Partners might repeatedly choose other boys.

The girls may be assigned to a separate space away from the main locker-room environment.

None of those moments individually seems enormous.

Together, they send a message.

You are different here.

Coaches have tremendous influence over whether that message develops.

Hayley highlights how simple coaching decisions can change the environment: encourage players to mix into different lines, pair with different teammates, provide appropriate and comfortable locker-room accommodations, and—most importantly—coach girls like hockey players.

Don't unnecessarily coddle them.

Don't automatically treat them differently.

Don't assume they need an entirely separate coaching approach.

Set expectations.

Coach them.

Challenge them.

Support them.

As Lee explains in the episode, one useful mindset is remarkably simple:

They're athletes. They're hockey players.

That shift matters because players notice how coaches treat their teammates.

When the coach treats everyone as part of the team, the players are far more likely to follow.

Retention Is Also a Coaching Responsibility

Youth hockey has a tendency to become obsessed with identifying talent early.

Who made the top team?

Who's playing AAA?

Who is ahead at nine years old?

Who looks like the future college player?

But development rarely follows a perfectly straight line.

The awkward eight-year-old might become an outstanding high-school player.

The player who struggles to skate at ten may eventually become a captain.

The kid who isn't considered “elite” today might be the one who loves hockey enough to still be playing years later.

We'll never know what those players could become if we push them out first.

That's why one of the most meaningful ideas from this conversation is also one of the simplest:

Don't be a kid's last coach.

A coach's job isn't merely to maximize the strongest players on today's roster.

It is also to protect players' relationship with the sport.

Especially at young ages.

Keeping another girl excited about coming to the rink might ultimately do more for hockey than winning another youth tournament ever could.

Professional Women's Hockey Creates Possibility

Visibility matters enormously in girls hockey.

When a young girl watches professional women play, something powerful happens.

The possibility becomes real.

Hayley describes the impact of PWHL takeover games in markets that don't regularly have professional women's hockey nearby. Players get to see the game up close, meet athletes, participate in events, and imagine themselves on the ice.

One story captures the impact perfectly.

At a camp in Rochester, Hayley met a young girl from Raleigh, North Carolina, who had recently started hockey.

Why?

She had watched the Minnesota Frost play the Ottawa Charge in Raleigh.

One game.

One experience.

One new hockey player.

That's how growth happens.

The next generation doesn't necessarily need a lecture about women's sports.

Sometimes they simply need to see women playing extraordinary hockey.

Put the game on television.

Take your daughter to a PWHL game.

Let young boys watch too.

Make women's hockey part of what your family considers simply hockey.

The Best Growth Programs Build a Pathway

Exposure creates interest.

But pathways create players.

That pathway may begin with:

Street hockey at school
A free learn-to-play session
Borrowed or donated equipment
Recreational hockey
An affordable developmental program
A community league
Eventually, competitive or elite hockey for those who want it

Not every player needs the same destination.

That's important.

Growing hockey does not mean turning every eight-year-old into a future Olympian.

Some kids may eventually pursue college or professional hockey.

Others may play recreationally through high school.

Some may eventually become coaches, officials, volunteers, hockey parents, or lifelong fans.

They all matter to the ecosystem of the game.

And when we prematurely define success only by who reaches the highest competitive level, we unnecessarily shrink that ecosystem.

Older Players Can Help Build the Next Generation

One of the easiest opportunities in youth hockey might also be one of the most underused.

Have your older teams spend time with your younger teams.

Once.

That's it.

Take one practice during the season and let the 16-year-olds skate with the six-year-olds.

Let them help at learn-to-play.

Let them demonstrate drills.

Let them pass to a beginner.

Let them celebrate when that beginner scores.

To the youngest players, those teenagers can look like NHL or PWHL stars.

But something equally important happens to the older athletes.

They gain perspective.

They experience leadership.

They recognize that they are part of something larger than their current season.

There was a team before them.

There will be a team after them.

Right now, they are the team.

That creates organizational identity and community in a way another systems practice rarely can.

As Hayley points out, you're not only developing better hockey players by creating those opportunities.

You're helping develop better people.

Parents Can Grow Hockey Without Adding Another Job

Hockey parents are busy.

Practices.

Games.

Travel.

Equipment.

Work.

School.

Meals in the car.

Nobody needs another enormous responsibility added to the calendar.

Fortunately, growing the game can be incredibly small.

You see a new family at the rink?

Say hello.

Maybe they're completely unfamiliar with hockey culture.

Maybe English isn't their first language.

Maybe nobody in their family has played before.

Maybe they simply feel like everyone else already knows one another.

Introduce yourself.

Answer a question.

Show them where everyone changes skates.

Tell them where the team usually meets.

It may feel insignificant to you.

It might completely change their experience.

Hockey loves talking about “community.”

Community begins when someone acts like a neighbor.

Growing the Game Helps Your Own Hockey Community

There is also a practical reason to care about grassroots growth.

Your child's hockey future depends on having other kids around to play.

If your community stops recruiting and retaining young players, eventually older age groups become thinner.

Teams disappear.

Travel increases.

Families have to search farther away for programs.

Costs can rise.

Growing the youngest levels of the sport isn't charity disconnected from your child's experience.

It strengthens the hockey ecosystem your child will eventually inherit.

A larger, healthier base creates more opportunities for everyone.

Don't Forget the Most Important Ingredient: Fun

Adults are extremely good at making youth sports complicated.

Development models.

Skills sessions.

Rankings.

Systems.

Position-specific training.

Tournament schedules.

All of those things can have a place.

But particularly with young athletes, Hayley's advice is worth remembering:

Let them play.

Play games.

Compete.

Laugh.

Chase the puck.

Try something creative.

Score a goal.

Celebrate with friends.

Skills can be learned through play.

A young player who loves coming to the rink will keep developing.

A technically polished ten-year-old who stops enjoying hockey may not be there long enough for that development to matter.

Fun isn't something that distracts from player development.

For young athletes, fun is often what makes long-term development possible.

One Challenge for Every Hockey Family

You don't need to build a rink in Puerto Rico.

You don't need to be an Olympian.

You don't need thousands of social-media followers.

You don't need a professional hockey organization behind you.

You simply need to look at the part of the hockey world you can influence.

Then make it a little better.

This season:

Coaches: Bring your team to help younger players once.

Organizations: Create pathways that make recreational and introductory hockey accessible.

Older players: Become the hockey hero a six-year-old remembers.

Parents: Welcome the family standing by themselves.

Players: Pass the puck to the beginner and help them score their first goal.

Fans: Watch women's professional hockey and help make the PWHL part of everyday hockey culture.

Those actions may seem small.

But growing the game has always been a collection of small moments.

A first stick.

A first goal.

A first teammate.

A first professional game.

A coach who believed in you.

A parent who welcomed your family.

A player you looked up to who took five minutes to say hello.

That's how people discover hockey.

More importantly, that's how they decide they belong.

🏒 Keep growing the game, keep creating room for the next player, and keep supporting the people helping girls discover everything hockey can give them.

Listen to Our Girls Play Hockey for more conversations about raising, coaching, supporting, and inspiring the next generation of female hockey players—and share this episode with someone who can help make your hockey community stronger.