Think hockey is a just \u201cboy\u2019s sport?\u201d Don\u2019t try to tell that to Reegan Hanson, age 9, and her sister Bailey, age 11.<\/p>\n
As members of Juneau\u2019s new all-girls youth hockey squad, they\u2019re liable to take you on the ice and teach you a lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a boys\u2019 sport because now there\u2019s a girls hockey team,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like getting aggressive, it\u2019s fun!\u201d Reegan added.<\/p>\n
Now in its first full season, the Juneau-Douglas Ice Association all-girls program has had trouble meeting demand. It\u2019s grown from the eight girls who participated in last year\u2019s state youth hockey championships (after playing on separate coed squads) to the 20 who now practice and play games together prior to the state tournament.<\/p>\n
Eighteen girls age 9 to 13 showed up for their first game of the year in December, a morning tilt against a 10U boys squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first year there\u2019s been enough girls interested in forming an all-girls team. \u2026 We\u2019ve been pretty overwhelmed by the amount of interest from the girls already playing coed to the girls who have never skated before,\u201d coach Jill Weitz said after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s encouraging because some girls feel more comfortable and more excited playing on an all-girls team. It makes for a really supportive and exciting environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 30 percent of JDIA\u2019s coed youth teams are made up of girls, according to board member Susan Stoupher. This is slightly higher than statewide numbers of 22 percent, according to USA Hockey.<\/p>\n
That ratio is high compared to other states, with the number of female USA Hockey members in Alaska (1,935 players of all ages) rivaling those of California (2,287) and Colorado (2,275).<\/p>\n
Every JDIA youth team invites both girls and boys to join, but the girls have enjoyed having their own space, especially as they get older.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs girls go into high school, they might stop growing maybe at 100, 120 pounds and they\u2019re playing against people who are 200 pounds. So as parents of a girl, we really want her to have a place to go with her love for hockey,\u201d Stoupher said.<\/p>\n
When they get into high school, the girls can continue playing on the JDIA team while joining the Juneau-Douglas High School team, which currently rosters four girls players.<\/p>\n
Reegan and Bailey, like many players both male and female, learned to skate at JDIA\u2019s Intro to Hockey program, which runs Saturdays 10:30-11:30 a.m. from early October until February. There, youth players can gain the basic skills they need to join JDIA\u2019s age-specific teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe moved up here three years ago and did the intro to hockey program,\u201d Reegan and Bailey\u2019s mother Tanya said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been in love with it ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Sports and Outdoors reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Think hockey is a just \u201cboy\u2019s sport?\u201d Don\u2019t try to tell that to Reegan Hanson, age 9, and her sister Bailey, age 11. As members of Juneau\u2019s new all-girls youth hockey squad, they\u2019re liable to take you on the ice and teach you a lesson. \u201cIt\u2019s not a boys\u2019 sport because now there\u2019s a girls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":27898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27897"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}