FINAL: The growth of girl’s hockey programs

According to a recent survey conducted by Southern States Skate, 64.3 percent found girl’s hockey has grown in the southeast because more girl’s hockey programs have been established.

Washington Pride Head Coach Kush Sidhu - courtesy of Pride Hockey Association.

Washington Pride Head Coach Kush Sidhu can be held accountable for this progress in the growth of girl’s programs in the southeast.  Sidhu is most notable for forming the first ‘travel’ girl’s ice hockey program, the Washington Little Capitals, in the Washington, D.C. area in 1993.  The team, now called the Washington Pride, is part of the Junior Women’s Hockey League (JWHL), which Kush co-founded in 2007-08.

The JWHL is the first known ‘Junior’ style hockey league for females.  The Washington Pride is the only team from the southeast in the league.  Other teams include North American Hockey Academy, National Sports Academy Mountaineers, Boston Shamrocks, Colorado Selects, Balmoral Hall School Blazers, Warner School Warriors, Edge School Mountaineers, Minnesota Thoroughbreds, and Pacific Steelers.  The Washington Pride competes against these teams in both the United States and Canada.

“Over the years, it seems that the number of girl’s teams at the U-19 level has dropped to just a handful in the Southeastern District, although there do seem to be a lot of girls playing,” says Sidhu.

The Washington Pride has two girls programs, the Pride College Prep U-19 and the Jr. Pride U-16.  The Pride College Prep team is “for juniors or seniors in high school or post-graduate or ‘Gap Year’ players who would like to spend a year in the DC area before heading off to play collegiate hockey,” according to the Pride Hockey Association.  The Jr. Pride team is for freshman and sophomores in high school from the Washington DC-Baltimore metropolitan area who are tracking towards playing collegiate level hockey,” according to the Pride Hockey Association.

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The Washington Pride College Prep team has endured daily practicing and training as they play in top competition in the JWHL.  The team also plays in intense local competition against boy’s teams in the Washington, D.C. area.

The Washington Jr. Pride team has one practice and one off-ice session a week with the College Prep team.  The team competes in a 20-game schedule in the JWHL U-17 Division.  The Jr. Pride players are future prospects for the College Prep team.

Nearly every Pride alumnae has been offered to play hockey on an NCAA Varsity program, Division I and Division III.

This map shows the Division I colleges where Washington Pride alumni from the southeast have gone.

Jessica Lutz, a member of the University of Connecticut’s women’s ice hockey team, is a Washington Pride alumna who has gone to a Division I women’s college hockey program.

Sacred Heart University sophomore defenseman Jennifer Burroughs started playing hockey in Raleigh, N.C.  She played for the Carolina Junior Hurricanes and Wakefield High School.  Similar to Lutz, Burroughs has made it to the collegiate-level for hockey.

Burroughs and Lutz speak about girl’s programs in the southeast in this podcast.

The Washington Pride has helped several girls move on to Division I women’s college hockey programs, and it has contributed to the growth of girl’s hockey throughout the southeast.

“There do seem to be a lot of girls playing,” says Sidhu.  “There are still a lot of high-level girls playing for teams such as ours in the southeast.”

~ by kelley davies on May 5, 2010.