Girls ice hockey is growing on Long Island

Raegan Muller, 9, of North Massapequa, was only 7 when she suited up in her ice hockey gear to join a youth coed skills workshop.

While Raegan considers hockey a “fun sport,” she didn’t like playing alongside boys.

“I was the only girl on the team and had no one to hang out with,” said the fourth grader at the Woodward Parkway School in Farmingdale. “There wasn’t a team feeling . . . and no one wanted to talk to me.”

Now that Raegan has joined the New York Islanders Girls Elite Hockey team — an all-girls ice hockey travel team based at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow — she said she feels like a valued team member.

“I like the fact that there are so many girls [on the team] and that there are no boys to shut you out,” she said. “We laugh on the sidelines and encourage each other.”

Raegan is part of a growing wave of girls, ranging in age from 6 to 19, taking part in girls-only ice hockey clubs and inspired by players like those on the women’s U.S. Olympic team, which defeated rival Canada in overtime on Feb. 19 to take home a gold medal. And with the popularity of HBO Max’s “Heated Rivalry,” a queer hockey romance story, and last Sunday’s first win for the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team since 1980, it feels like the sport is hotter than ever.

65% GROWTH IN 15 YEARS

While dozens of youth coed teams operate across Nassau and Suffolk counties, girl-focused programs remain comparatively rare, even as demand has risen. Nationally, female participation in hockey has grown 65% over the past 15 years, according to USA Hockey, the governing body for American ice hockey.

Compared to coed teams, all-female rosters promote girls’ positive social connections, accelerate their skill development and boost confidence in girls entering a traditionally male-dominated sport, local players and coaches said. Girls teams also have different rules, for example, body checking is restricted.

Although the sport is attracting more female players, hockey professionals said lacrosse and especially soccer have historically dominated youth participation on Long Island.

“Hockey is not necessarily something they’re aware of. . . . Sometimes when a girl picks a sport, they gravitate toward the things that are popular on the Island like lacrosse and soccer,” said Alexis Moed, president and founder of New York Islanders Girls Elite Hockey and the New York Metros, a coed program focused on skill development based at the East Meadow rink. Despite competition from field sports, Moed said the membership in her program has grown from 25 girls in 2016, when the club was formed, to more than 130.

The New York Islanders Girls Elite Hockey fields seven teams with players ranging in age from 6 to 19, said Moed, a former Division 1 collegiate ice hockey player. “We also have a house developmental program called Mini-Islanders/Hockey 101 to help these kids transition from knowing how to skate to learning how to play the game,” she added.

And those teams seem to be hitting their stride. Last season, the 19-and-under, 12-and-under and 10-and-under teams all wo league championships, and the 14-and-under team played in the finals, she said.

FROM FIGURE SKATING TO PLAYING THE GAME

Ava Pepe, 14, of Oceanside, was 9 when she first stepped onto the ice in figure skates. A few years later, her father, a die-hard New York Islanders fan, suggested she try ice hockey.

She joined the Junior Rangers Ice Hockey for girls ages 5 to 10, where she learned how to play the game at the Long Beach Municipal Ice Arena and played home games at Clark Gillies Arena in Dix Hills. 

Last year, Pepe tried out for the New York Islanders Girls Elite Hockey team and earned a spot as a goalie on the 14-and-under squad. “Everyone welcomed me with open arms,” said the ninth grader at Oceanside High School, adding that joining the team has made her “stronger mentally and physically.”

On a recent Tuesday at Northwell Health Ice Center, Pepe joined teammates in the weight room, working on strength training and chin-ups. They later practiced stickhandling and skating with a puck before Pepe worked on shot-blocking and glove saves in front of a net.

TRAVEL CLUB

Membership at Team Long Island, a competitive travel club based at the Clark Gillies Arena, is also climbing, said Dani Rylan-Kearney, director and a former Division 1 collegiate ice hockey player. The club, formerly the Lady Islanders, now includes eight teams, from 8-and-under to 19-and-under, and totals more than 120 girls.

“The growth has been incredible,” Rylan-Kearney, founder and former commissioner of the National Women’s Hockey League, wrote in an email. “The biggest challenge now is ice time. We’ve grown faster than the available rink space.”

Despite the rapid expansion, she said the program will remain committed to its original mission: “to give girls a true home for hockey on Long Island . . . a place to develop, compete and love the game together.”

Melissa Beach, 16, of St. James, said she’s all-in on ice hockey. Beach, a center forward on Team Long Island since 2021 and a Smithtown High School East junior, said she and her teammates push each other to stay competitive.

“On the ice, we have each other’s backs. There’s no drama,” Beach said. “If an opposing player is messing with a teammate, someone is there to help them. . . . We are not playing for ourselves or a stat sheet.”

They also bond off the ice. A group chat helps them stay in touch, she said. “And when we’re away at games and tournaments, we get food together, and we hang out in the hotel and joke around like sisters,” Beach said. “These are my sisters.”

$2,000-$6,000 PER SEASON

The parents must be just as committed as the players. Youth travel hockey typically requires two weekly practices, off-ice workouts and weekend games, with teams playing up to 60 games and tournaments between September and March. Seasonal costs range from $2,000 to $6,000, not including equipment and travel.

Grace Scolaro, 17, and her twin sister, Natalie, seniors at Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, said the investment is worth it. They play in the 19-and-under division on Team Long Island and previously played on a coed hockey team, where they were the only girls.

“When we were playing with boys, we felt isolated from the rest of the team,” said Grace Scolaro, of East Setauket. “For example, there’s a little bit of not passing the puck . . . and uncontrolled boys trying to kill you on the ice. Also, we had to get dressed in a closet because we couldn’t use the boys locker room. With girls, it’s a lot different, and it’s so much fun. Before the games, we warm up together, and we listen to our music.”

Program organizers said high school rosters in the New York Islanders High School Hockey League in Nassau County and the Suffolk County High School Hockey League remain heavily male. “There are not enough girls yet to have a high school girls team,” said Phil Trocchio, president and general manager of the coed Sachem Ice Hockey Club.

Nicole LaVoi, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, said some girls may still see the sport as masculine.

“If a girl doesn’t associate with strong, fast, aggressive and tough, she might say, ‘I don’t want to be that, so I’m out,’ ” LaVoi said. “But we have to message that hockey is for everyone.”

The lack of female-focused teams can reinforce the perception that hockey isn’t for girls, she added.

“If you don’t provide opportunity, you’re not going to provide interest,” LaVoi said. “We know from research, that if you offer, she will come.”

PORTLEDGE SCHOOL TEAM

Samantha Brodsky, 18, of Port Washington, has been lacing up her hockey skates since she turned 4 and now is captain at the Portledge School, a college preparatory school in Locust Valley.

Brodsky, a senior, said she is pushing herself to sharpen her skills, skate faster and improve her decision-making on the ice. “My teammates build each other up and create a positive environment” where goals can be achieved, she said.

The squad plays 22 games a season, traveling to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, said Julie Lenz, head coach of the girls varsity hockey team.

Lenz, a native of Canada who previously coached boys, said all of her team members “put their skills into action.”

“I wish more people would understand that girls know the game and are as incredibly skilled as the boys,” she said, adding “in fact, girls need an even higher skill set to retain possession of the puck because boys are permitted to body check and push people off the puck.”

For Team Long Island’s Rylan-Kearney, the impact is deeply personal.

“Hockey gave me so much growing up,” she said. “It’s incredible to watch these girls fall in love with the sport. The joy, confidence, teamwork . . . it’s why we all do it.”