RinkWise podcast: Why is girls hockey growing so fast?

Caroline Humber plays at St. Paul's. (Patrick Donnelly/NEHJ)

Girls hockey is surging around New England and the country.

Some of the statistics, especially when it comes to the increases in registration numbers over the last decade, are staggering. The number of girls playing hockey in Massachusetts in 2023 is up 21 percent compared to 2013. It’s up 15 percent in all of New England and a whopping 39 percent nationally in that time frame.

What’s driving the meteoric growth? In the latest RinkWise episode, New England Hockey Journal editor Evan Marinofsky and writer Patrick Donnelly dive into some of the findings and insight featured in the cover story of our latest magazine issue.

They also break down some of the biggest storylines around prep and high school hockey, like Salisbury boys’ big win over Kent and Burlington High girls’ upset of Hingham.

RinkWise podcast: Why is girls hockey growing so fast?

On some of the most noticeable trends in girls hockey:

Donnelly: “I think one of the biggest things is when you look at it especially in high school and prep schools. In the MIAA, girls hockey has seen a pretty big spike as far as the schools that are offering it. It increased from 125 to 211 in the last 10 years. So, a 69 percent increase, but boys hockey actually dipped 298 schools to 279. … There hasn’t been the same growth in prep schools, but the biggest growth in the prep school and high school side is really when you look at how many schools now offer JV teams and how many schools now have freshman teams as well, on top of the varsity.”

Marinofsky: “The other thing is not just at the high school and the prep levels, but at the youth levels. I think one of the big things, and Christa Talbot Syfu from Williston brought this up is, when she was playing it, she was 12 on a U19 team. … Now, so many girls are playing that you have all these options. Players don’t just have to go to Assabet. They can go to Assabet, but they can also go to the Jr. Eagles or they could go to the Breakers or a ton of different teams. And I think just those offerings have helped.”