“She’s been like a rocket ship since the Storm started,” Kimmel said.
Girls who are new to the sport can enroll in the Storm’s rookies program. The association also holds Try Hockey for Free events twice a year.
The rookies program evolved from a single six-week session to four sessions of six weeks each starting this season.
Recreational players can join house teams from the 8U to 14U level. This fall, Kimmel estimates the number of house teams could be as many as seven.
The Storm has one 12U select team and a 14U travel team. Last season, the 12U select team won a tournament hosted by the Nashville Predators, coming from behind on several occasions to beat some stiff competition.
“It was like a perfect season,” Kimmel said. “We were playing against good programs. The resilience of the team, knowing they can depend on each other, they were often out-skilled. Their teamwork and camaraderie enabled them to overcome and achieve greater results.”
The program plans to form a 16U/19U team for players who are in between recreation and competitive.
“Hopefully next year, we’ll have the numbers for that,” Kimmel said. “We’re trying to find something that fills the gap for them to keep them involved in the sport. One of our mantras is, ‘Leave no girl behind.’”
Shortly after its launch, the Storm scheduled a home-and-home scrimmage series with a team from Austin. This led to statewide Girls Hockey Weekend Celebration events, with teams from Dallas, Austin and Houston taking turns hosting teams from other cities.
The idea, conceived by Mike Salekin, the girls hockey director for the Dallas Stars Elite, was to bring girls of all ages and skill levels together from across Texas to celebrate hockey in a competitive, yet fun environment.
Known as Team Texas, the collaboration allowed the three cities to schedule several events each year. Kimmel and his daughter attended the first Team Texas event in Dallas in 2021, followed by another in Austin in the spring of 2022. As enjoyable as the hockey was, how quickly the girls bonded with each other was what impressed Kimmel the most.
Kimmel and several of his fellow coaches decided to put their own spin on the celebration weekend in 2022 by hosting a 3v3 tournament.
Held over the Fourth of July weekend, the three-day event features giveaways, free skates for the players and their families, fireworks, games, food and a tournament that included a skills competition.
This year’s 3v3 tournament took place July 5-7 at the Aerodrome Ice Skating Complex. Girls were divided into four divisions, which allowed beginners to participate with players of more advanced skill levels.
“The 3v3 is an awesome format,” Kimmel said. “It greatly accelerates the number of puck touches these kids get. It cuts the ice down, so it evens out the playing field so you can have beginners playing with the more high-skilled where lack of speed won’t be taken advantage of.”
These statewide events have not only given girls the confidence to play hockey, but they have fostered friendships that go beyond what happens on the ice.
“My daughter instantly became friends with the girls from Austin, great friends with girls in Dallas,” Kimmel said. “Throughout the year, they’re communicating, just from a couple of weekends together.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
