Eighteen girls ages 4-9 attended the Try Hockey for Free event Oct. 5 at Patterson Ice Center in Grand Rapids. The event was part of Girls’ Hockey Month.

No hockey experience was necessary. Girls who attended were provided a helmet, gloves, elbow pads, shin pads, chest protectors, sticks and any other required equipment. If the girls needed to rent skates, they were outfitted with their correct size.

A coach from the Grand Rapids 10U team, and players from the 10U, 16U and 19U Tier III team, along with some other volunteers, helped the girls in the locker room with the equipment and then assisted them on the ice, too. They also had a couple of former GRAHA players who now play college hockey helping as well. 

“I think it’s good for the girls to see those players,” Laxton said. “Because they come in their jerseys or their windsuits. … It’s kind of like a good role model. They just love hanging out with the girls.”

Once on the ice, the girls were divided up based on their skill levels. Some of the older girls could skate on their own without using the skate aid, so they were on one end of the ice doing basic drills and playing three-on-three.

At the other end of the rink, the volunteers threw little colored balls on the ice. They also put tires up with a bumper pad over the top so the girls could slide under them. At the end, they took a group photo minus a couple of younger girls who got tired and left the ice after about 30 minutes.

The girls trying hockey for the first time donned USA Hockey jerseys, and each also received a gift bag with a juice box, candies, headbands and neon-colored bag tags. Laxton also includes a letter to the girls, thanking them for attending and providing information to reach out to her if they loved hockey and would like to enroll in their Learn to Skate or Learn to Play program.

Laxton received two inquiries from girls who attended the event. The next step is to have those girls register to get into the Grand Rapids program. Some of the girls might wait to join after other fall sports conclude, Laxton said.

Laxton noted that girls’ hockey is the fastest-growing market for Grand Rapids. They have five girls’ teams with 123 girls currently registered. With future events like Learn to Skate, Laxton hopes they’ll attract even more girls to the sport, get them interested and, hopefully, join a team.

Events like Try Hockey for Free are really about exposure, Laxton said.

“Getting them out there at absolutely no cost to them,” Laxton said. “They love getting the cool jerseys and goodie bags. Just getting out there and skating, and oftentimes, we transition a couple out each event that we have.”

As much as it’s about exposing girls to the sport, it’s about exposing the parents to it as well. Some aren’t familiar with hockey, didn’t grow up watching it and might be “really, really green to the whole process,” Laxton said.

Laxton started the first girls’ travel team with GRAHA in 2001 because she noticed there wasn’t girls’ hockey in western Michigan at the time. The teams have been growing ever since.

“So, for us to be able to offer something that’s totally free and no commitment at all, they always leave smiling,” Laxton said. “We never have anybody that looks like they didn’t have a good time. They all thank us.

“Whether or not it’s for them, we don’t know that. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t. But at least we give them an opportunity to try it for free without any obligation.” 

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.