It’s a girls’ sport too – Hurricanes’ outreach helping get girls into hockey in Raleigh

McKenna Roberts and her Junior Canes girls’ U10 team love going to Carolina Hurricanes NHL games. Her mom, Kelly, said they all try to get on the big screen at PNC Arena, or find a television camera to get themselves on TV every single game.

“They always would talk about it in the locker room,” Kelly Roberts said. “‘Who’s going to the game tonight?’ or, ‘Who’s going to the game this weekend?’”

And, of course: “‘Let’s meet up and let’s make sure we get on the on TV so that everybody can see us.’”

Much of that is typical 10-year-old bravado, but the cue it sends — a horde of hockey-playing girls front and center in an NHL arena — is an important one. Hockey has grown steadily in the Triangle since the Hurricanes relocated to North Carolina from Hartford in 1997, but through the continued efforts of the Hurricanes and many committed parents and volunteers, that growth continues, particularly in girls’ hockey.

McKenna, meanwhile, is the established “hockey nerd” of the family. She knows just about every statistic for every Hurricanes player, and then some. But Kelly said she’s loved watching her daughter interact with Carolina players — past and present — like Brett Burns and Tim Gleason, seeing them embedded in the Raleigh community.

More importantly, Kelly has loved that her daughter has a space to play hockey, has a team of all girls supporting her, and an organization backing that mission.

Canes community outreach

Many Hurricanes players have found ways to embed themselves into the Raleigh community, through connecting with their families, establishing businesses or doing community service. The Hurricanes organization itself helped establish the local First Goal program to partner with the Junior Canes, as a way to introduce young players to the game.

“I get so many amazing emails from parents telling me they are just enjoying seeing their kids fall in love with the sport,” said Shane Willis, the Hurricanes’ director of youth hockey and community outreach — and a former NHLer. “Their kids just didn’t connect but one thing, but I get a parent that emails me, and multiple parents really, to say, ‘we’re so happy to be part of this family.’”

The Hurricanes’ implementation of its local First Goal program has been important, giving young players the chance to have all the necessary equipment for a lower cost, and the subsequent volume of players — more than 3,000, according to the Canes — helped in the creation of the Junior Canes girls’ program, the steady growth of which has resulted in the creation of at least two girls-only teams per age group from U10 to U19, as well as the creation of an all-girls “Super-8” team for 7- and 8-year-old players.

It’s all part of a coordinated effort to continue the sport’s local growth. The Hurricanes and their affiliated youth organizations hold camps throughout the year, but find the most interest during the season, naturally, because kids are seeing their favorite players on the ice at PNC Arena and throughout the community.

“The hockey community as a family as a whole is is very important to the long term development of fandom,” Willis said. “But everyone’s got a little bit of a different story, and a different pathway of why they’re playing.”

The most productive tactic in getting kids to try out a sport for the first time has typically come from these top-level athletes embedding themselves in the community in some capacity, whether staying after a game to sign autographs and take photos, remaining in the community after retiring and raising a family — even going so far as to create a foundation or establish a local restaurant.

“When you get that in a nice, non-traditional marketing campaign in Carolina, they know to grow their fan base, they have to generate more people playing the sport, more people knowing the sport,” NC State head ice hockey coach Tim Healy said. “More people engage in the sport, and for them, it becomes a much deeper build out within the community.”

‘Win-win situation’

McKenna Roberts’ teammates are her “circle,” her mom said. Ever since Kelly put McKenna on an all-girls team, she said her daughter has blossomed with enthusiasm for the sport, even more so than she initially started falling for the sport.

“She’s been with the same girls now for four years,” Kelly said. “Then she gets to go out there and also do what she loves, which is play hockey. I mean, it was kind of like this win-win situation for her.”

Healy has also coached in the Junior Canes girls’ program for a number of years, and his daughters have played alongside Roberts. Healy said not only are the girls’ teams growing in and around the Triangle, but that Raleigh has some of the top players in girls’ hockey — and not many people realize it.

“Most people don’t realize there’s way more opportunity for a female hockey player to come to the Junior Canes to play youth hockey and go into college and actually play collegiate hockey,” Healy said. “And what I think is really unique about the Raleigh girls hockey market is you’re having a lot of first generation families, too.”

Added Kelly Roberts: “It’s like this hotbed of hockey that I didn’t realize was here until I moved. It’s great to see so many youth teams that are here so many, and then you have the college teams and then you know you also have the big Hurricanes, so you have a lot of different options.”

Kelly Roberts is proud to see her daughter enjoy hockey, and said she hopes McKenna plays the sport for many more years.

“I love the fact that she was into hockey and it was something that I really enjoyed,” Kelly said. “And now she really enjoys it. But (I also love) the fact that she gets to do it with other girls who are just like her.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2023 at 5:30 AM.