Glad to hear that they think about hockey first, gender second still in Michigan!

Reminds me of how my daughter got onto her first house mite team in Troy. At the time, the facility was in its first year of operations and she had gone through their learn to skate and learn to play hockey programs. You still had to try out for house league as they had 3 qualified (previous experience or class experience) skaters for every 2 openings (3 sheets of ice operating 18 hours a day was not adequate for demand).

About 1/2 way into the season, I asked the coach why he had selected my daughter for his team (as she was the only girl (and as a 1st year mite too!) selected other than a coaches daughter in an 8 team league). He said that he watched her miss a cone on a drill, stop herself, go back to the start and run the drill correctly without being asked. He said - "Coachable!" He just didn't realize how many girls are coachable. LOL

I agree 100% with your assessment of Southern Hockey bias. If you are an outsider (out of town and not well known) or worse yet a girl, you gotta basically be the best player on the team to be selected. And all things being equal, in a 3-goalie race the girl always gets picked last.

Sounds like you have a friendly boys situation as well and I can understand why you don't want to rock the boat by introducing the confusion of girls hockey. If you do get the itch to play elsewhere, the Wild are not against carrying a 3rd goalie (especially if that part timer is the one who gets all the ice at Nationals) although I definitely would understand your girls desire to play with friends in Texas.

Mr. Knoxville Hockey parent, you are absolutely killing me. To hear you talk, your daughter will be in the NHL next season. Give it a rest, please. I have seen her play in a tournament in Louisville two years ago and I was not all that impressed.

If she has a standing offer to play at the boys AA level in Nashville, I don't understand why you wouldn't make that choice over the Heartland Select Girls Team. The calibur of shots will be significantly better at the boys level. In fact, it is not even close. I know because my daughter plays both U-19A hockey and Boys AA Bantam hockey.

To me, the choice is clear if you want your daughter to improve at a much faster pace.

Welcome aboard, hockeyisforme. You do have a valid point that the calibur of shots would be higher in Boys AA at the bantam level and higher as the physical strenghth becomes a bigger difference.

However, I will argue that the best girls teams in the country at a given age play a far more sophisticated game (they know how to pass) than most boys AA teams I have seen in this part of the country. I think that is far more important than the radar reading on a slapshot from the blue line. My daughter played against several girls who played on Boys AAA (Tier 1)teams in addition to their girls teams, so the quality of competition is definitely there.

I believe I remember the early bird tournament you are refering to and you probably watched the one game where she got torched. I remember it well. BTW, that was the highest goal count she has ever had scored on her to this date. I think you'd be pleasantly surprised and maybe even impressed to see her play currently. Two years is a long time.

If you want to look at her statistics at Nationals last year on USA Hockey's website (she was the only goalie for Heartland, so she should be easy to find), you will see that she was in the upper half of goalies (.913 save pct IIRC), despite playing against the #1 and #2 teams in the country (BTW she beat the #2 team in the first game of the season) with a first year startup team that had a short bench and was very young (carrying a couple of 10 year olds).

My daughter plays National Bound girls hockey because a) the obvious benefits (social) of participating on a girls team that you are well aware of. b) No girl from our affiliate (Georgia - Arkansas) has ever gone onto play Division 1 hockey by just playing southern boys hockey. You either go prep, or play girls club national bound. c) Playing top level hockey is far better exposure than playing up an age bracket at second tier girls hockey.

My daughter's dream has been to play Division 1 hockey for several years. She works hard, had a 3.92 GPA last year, and loves her girl teammates. Who am I to deny her this.

I would though ask you, what are your daughter's goals and what is your plan to advance them?

I would welcome you to bring your daughter to Heartland's mini-camp on Labor Day weekend. They are taking the time to build the team from the ground up, installing offensive and defensive systems in the camp.

If your girl is a good skater (I am assuming so because of the credentials you describe), she would be welcomed on the team for whatever games she could make to get the 10 required to go to nationals. And trust me, we will be back there again. The team has girls who play on distant boys teams that have conflicts from time to time and are accommodated. And playing at the AA level at the Polar Bear is well worth the effort. There is nothing else like it as far as exposure in girls hockey.

I suspect that the coach knows you and has talked to you already. Come on out and give it a try. You can PM me for times. No offense taken to your comments about my daughter and the NHL. I think we all like to talk well of our children. And I probably deserve some criticism for it. Feel free to talk about yours as well.

I do get defensive when teams draw in girls (the AA team called us this season for the 2nd year in a row, NOT the other way around - I told them up front she was playing post season girls, yet they insisted she play with them) and dump them when things aren't perfectly convenient (at the end of tryout season). I'd like to think that they have watched her over time and saw her talent, but are more concerned about their limited post-season opportunities, than they are interested in taking pride in developing the best goalie available to them (they called her #1 not me).

And if a moderator is watching, sorry about hijakcing the thread.

Redwingguy,

I apologize for my earlier comments. I didn't mean to imply that your daughter is not a very good player. I simply recall the tournament and didn't think she played all that well. (Everyone can not be on top of their game all of the time). Remembering back to the tournament, I believe the Indy Racer team won the tournament 3-2 over Louisville. N.Ky took 3rd place beating your Knoxville Ice Bear team.

I am well aware of the Heartland Select team. My daughter played on the U-16 team that went to Mentor, Ohio. We did not play another game after that tournament. I saw the U-12 team play at that tournament and know several of the girls who play on that team. Alicia Schaefer is a very good player who played for the Indy Racers team in the tournament that I referenced above. Cassie O'Grady is also a very good player who needs to gain some speed. Her hands are phenomenal and she has a nice shot. Another player Hannah Smith played defense and also has a very good shot from the blueline. I didn't know many of the other players. There was one taller girl who was fast that impressed me. I didn't concentrate on the goalie position. I don't think there were many shots against her in the game that I saw. The pace of the game was a bit slow.

If your daughter is a very hard worker, that bodes well for the future. My experience tells me that she is going to face much tougher shots at the boys AA level than she would at the U-14 girls level. For that reason and that reason only, I would strongly urge you to have her play on the boys AA team.

In any event, I wish her good luck during the year and hope that the hockey situation in Tennessee improves. Maybe I will see you in the stands this year at one of the games. I am always ready to talk hockey with a willing participant.

Redwingsguy,
Don't appoligize for hijacking the thread...it is great to read some informative things that are not months old!...

All this discussion is really giving me an education as to what girls hockey is in other parts of the country and makes me feel lucky for at least the time being my kid can get good experience without traveling all over the country.

This week is my daughters local teams evening summer camp. With about 2/3 of the organization it is great to see the rink inundated with over 60 females!

I am not as knowledgeable as you people on the national exposure issue but as for this discussion about girls learning better skills on a boys team, that may be true at an earlier age and forever for goalies but once the size differential starts kicking in girls usually tend to either start taking a back seat or end up injured. Of course the larger girl that is lucky enough to make it through the season without being sent to the hospital may end up having something to brag about, but if you look at the rosters of most womans college teams you find that many players are in the 5'5"- 5'8" size. I would be worried about a 5'5 boy playing midget level.....

I've seen the quality of girls hockey improve in the 5 years that I've been involved in it. Three years ago the 12u team struggled against weak squirt teams in scrimmages. This spring the 12u team actually competed in a PeeWee spring league and had a respectable record. Once the girls can compete as a team on with boys it is easier to arrange games with boys teams so they will get the training without the checking.

Will good quality girls programs produce the same quality of "elite" players that the old "trial by fire" play with the boys route has? I think that those with the exceptional skills will rise to the top in either situation.