Women's Hockey in the United States


International Hockey

Team USA defeated Canada by a score of 3-1 to win the first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's hockey history to raise the American flag over the stadium on the mighty strong flag poles. Victory was sweet for Team USA, as they had placed second to Team Canada at all four IIHF Women's World Hockey Championships leading up to this event.

Women's hockey in the USA is on the rise, and Team USA has an impressive record in international competition, particularly at the Winter Olympics.

Here is a link that provides the results of all games played by the U.S. Women's National team.

For a little history on the U.S. Women's NationalTeam, don't miss the USA Hockey Women's Hockey History page. Here are some pictures of Team USA players from the 1997 WWC.

Team USA also competes in the Three/Four Nations' Cups. These championships feature the top 3 or 4 countries in women's hockey: Canada, USA, Finland, and Sweden.

In the years between the 1994 and 1997 World Championships, the United States has competed in the Pacific Rim Championship. The 4 countries that participate in this Championship are Canada, USA, Japan, and China.

Here is some information about Team USA's 1995 Finland Summer Tour, 1996 Sweden Summer Tour, and 1997 China Winter Tour.


USA Hockey Web Page

The following links are to the various pages on women's hockey that are on the USA Hockey Web site:


Team USA National Team Rosters


Team USA National Camps


Three Nations Cup

Team USA claimed the silver medal at the 1998 Three Nations Cup. They finished with a 2-2 record, while Team Canada had a 4-0 record, and Team Finland finished the tournament at 0-4.

Pre-World Championship Exhibition Action

The inaugural TSN Challenge will see the top two teams in women's hockey face-off, as Canada's National Women's hockey team will take on arch-rival Team USA on March 1, 1999 at the Brampton Centre for Sports and Entertainment. This game will be broadcasted by TSN.

March 1, 1999: Canada 6 -vs- USA 1 -- game summary
Brampton Centre for Sports & Ent., Brampton, ON at 7:00 pm EST

1999 World Championship

Team USA is currently competing in the 1999 Women's World Championship in Espoo, Finland. Here is their schedule and other information from USA Hockey.

  March 8-14 ¥ Espoo and Vantaa, Finland
  Date            U.S. Opponent
  Feb. 21-28      Training Camp (Lake Placid, N.Y.)
  March 1         vs. Canada (Exhibition Game - Toronto, Ont.)
  March 8         vs. Russia (Preliminary Round)
  March 9         vs. Sweden (Preliminary Round)
  March 11        vs. China (Preliminary Round)
  March 13        Semifinal Game
  March 14        Bronze and Gold-Medal Games

1998 Team USA News

This information was provided by Lynn Olson (olson.lynn@dorseylaw.com) on June 15th 1998:

I was fortunate enough to be in Colorado Springs, Colorado, this past weekend to enjoy the company of 17 of the finest women hockey players in the world. Team USA signed autographed pictures for USA Hockey volunteers on Thursday evening, they were honored Friday morning at a breakfast sponsored by the Colorado Sports Authority, and at the USA Hockey Annual Congress at a banquet on Saturday, June 13. Ben Smith received the Distinguished Achievement Award and the Women's Olympic Team received the Bob Johnson Award. Cammi Granato spoke of the efforts of the "team" and of the trust they held for each other. She also spoke of Bob Johnson in her acceptance speech and used his famous words, "It's a great day for hockey." Bob's widow was there to present the award. It was a wonderful moment with several standing ovations for the players and coaching staff. It was an emotional moment for all present and many a joyous tear was shed. The players mentioned by Cammi Granato that were not returning included Gretchen Ulion (who is getting married July 11), Lisa Brown-Miller (who is expecting a baby boy around the middle of September), Sandra Whyte (entering the workforce - she is a Harvard graduate), and Sarah Tueting (returning to school and does not plan to play hockey). Players not present at the celebration included Sarah DeCosta, Vicki Movsessian and Gretchen Ulion. Several of the players will be participating in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame Gold Tournament in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, on August 14, 1998, where the team will be honored with the 1998 Heritage Award for women, along with Phil Housley of the Washington Capitals who is being awarded the Heritage Award for men. Information on the tournament may be received by e-mail at trbcfc@uslink.net or by calling 218-326-9367 - Ted Brill is the chairman.


Past National Teams

As information in this page becomes outdated, it has been moved to the archive that stores old information about the national teams each year. Go to the U.S. National Teams page to see this information.


Souvenirs, T-Shirts

The Minnesota Girls' & Women's Hockey Association has t-shirts for sale that Cammi's Mother spoke of on the Lifetime interview. The Minnesota Girls' & Women's Hockey Association bought 6 boxes of them to sell at tournaments with the profits going to the Minnesota parents who make the Olympic team. They only come in two sizes XLarge and Medium.

Isaac's is selling a limited edition print of Stephanie Boyd. It has been signed by the Olympic team and is lithographed into the print.

There are also some great Women's Hockey Olympic Souvenirs available from this web page. Their T-shirts are great!


Team USA Under-19

The first national women's under-19 team competed in a three game series against Team Canada in Lake Placid, New York, from July 8th to July 10th, 1996.

Team USA won the three game series against Canada, by two games to one.


USA Hockey Women's Player of the Year


Hockey within the United States

Here is a list of teams in the United States that was compiled by Rhonda Paprocki (rpaprocki@gatecom.com). Please send her any additions or corrections that you might have.

This file contains information about hockey camps and clinics in the United States. Please submit any hockey camps in your area. Here is a file that lists tournaments in the US. Please submit any additional tournaments.

Please see this link for results and information on the USA National Championship. The Massachusetts Hockey site may contain additional information. The following five divisions compete at the National Championship: Squirt, PeeWee, Midget, Senior B, and Senior A.

Here is a link to a page that has a picture of a women's hockey poster.
The poster is called Future Olympians?!


Information for Various US States

We have created web pages that contain information about women's hockey in each American State. The list of teams in the U.S. was originally created by Rhonda Paprocki, and is currently maintained by Debbie Minden. If you have any information to add to the list, please send it to Debbie at debbie@whockey.com.


USA Hockey

For more information on USA Hockey ( see old page), you may contact the national headquarters at (719)599-5500. Here is a link to the USA Hockey rulebook, and here is a link that summarizes the Philosophy of Youth Hockey in the United States. Here is a link to their women's hockey web page and here is a more recent women's hockey link.

Karen Lundgren has replaced Lynn Olson as the women's USA Hockey representative. Karen can be reached in Michigan at (517)547-6565.

Here is some more information about USA Hockey that was posted to the Youth Hockey Mailing List:

"The best source of info we have found is USA Hockey. They have a wealth of detailed information on just about everything from league management (including risk management- how to not get sued) to skills development programs at all levels and coaching criteria, including selection, interview questions, and evaluation forms.

Some of the stuff they will provide free for the asking and some they sell. You can contact 'em for a list of available publications at 1-800-643-8557 or by mail:

USA Hockey
1775 Bob Johnson Dr.
Colorado Springs, CO
80906

(719) 576-USAH Telephone
(719) 538-1160 FAX for Ice Hockey
(719) 538-7838 FAX for InLine Hockey"

US National Championships


Ages for Registration

The ages for girls in USA Hockey who register to play on all girls teams for the 1998-1999 season are as follows:

12 - Under: born 1986, 1987, 1988 (Squirt)
15 - Under: born 1983, 1984, 1985 (PeeWee)
19 - Under: born 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 (Midget)
Women - any age: to be divided into A and B categories

  • December 31 is the cutoff date for girls' teams.
  • Girls/Women who participate must comply with the age requirement of the classification in which they compete.
  • Girls who register to play on boys' teams in USA Hockey must follow the age requirements for boys' classifications. These dates are as follows:

    6 - Under: born 7/1/90 or before (Mini-mite)
    8 - Under: born 7/1/88 - 6/30/90 (Mite)
    10 - Under: born 7/1/86 - 6/30/88 (Squirt)
    12 - Under: born 7/1/84 - 6/30/86 (PeeWee)
    14 - Under: born 7/1/82 - 6/30/84 (Bantam)
    17 - Under: born 7/1/79 - 6/30/82 (Midget)
    17 +: (Junior)

  • June 30 is the cutoff date for boys' teams.

  • 1997-98 USA Hockey Female Registration

    There was a total of 27,273 amateur players registered during the 1997-98 hockey season. The breakdown was Senior 4,774, 19 & Under 3,101, 15 & Under 5,031, 12 & Under 5,912, 9 & Under 8,455. For comparison, there were 6,336 females registered in 1990-91. The top five states were Minnesota 5,568; Massachusetts 3,712; New York 2,747; Michigan 2,512; and Wisconsin 1,562.

    Please remember that numerous high school and college teams are not included in these numbers because they do not register with USA Hockey.

    -- Lynn Olson

    USA Hockey Women's/Girls' Team Registration

    These numbers include girls registered on youth teams (mixed boy and girl) and girl only teams, as well as adult women.

              Year    Teams  Players
    
              1999-00         36295
              1998-99  1268   34156
              1997-98  1071   28346
              1996-97   910   25253
              1995-96   710   22569
              1994-95   498   18841
              1993-94   352    6336
              1992-93   269   10416
              1991-92   232    8291
              1990-91   149    6336
              1989-90   153
              1988-89   188
              1987-88   169
    

    1996-97 USA Hockey Female Registration

    USA Hockey registered 18,580 females in 1996-97 season. Minnesota registered 5,011, Massachusetts 3,285; Michigan 2,422, New York 2,377; Wisconsin 1,263 for the top five states. These numbers do not include Minnesota's high school hockey program (which numbers approximately 2,400 females), and some of the United States colleges, who do not register with USA Hockey because they have their own insurance programs. In addition, I just received information at the Midwest Collegiate Women's Hockey Alliance meeting that shows in 1997-98 there were 29 college varsity women's teams. The projections for 1998-99 are 39 varsity teams and 39 college club teams. The 39 varsity teams break down into 15 Division I teams, 3 Division II teams, and 20 Division III teams. We are certainly getting closer to the magic 40 varsity programs for a NCAA championship if they count all three divisions.

    -- Lynn Olson


    1993-94 USA Hockey Female Registration

    During the 1990-91 season there were 149 women's teams registered in the United States. This number has increased more than four times since then. The number of teams registered during the 1997-98 season was 910. This accounts for more than 23,010 registered players in the United States for the 1997-98 season.

    The chart below shows how many girls' or women's hockey teams existed in each state during the 1993-94 season. There were a total of 353 teams that sesason. The categories were under-12, under-15, under-19, and Senior (open age).

      -----------------------------------------
      State                   Sr   19   15   12
      -----------------------------------------
      Alaska                  19    -    2    -
      Arizona                  2    -    -    -
      California               4    -    -    -
      Colorado                 8    2    1    -
      Connecticut              -    2    4    1
      Delaware                 1    -    -    -
      D.C.                     2    -    -    -
      Idaho                    1    -    -    -
      Illinois                 3    3    1    2
      Maine                    2    5    2    -
      Maryland                 2    -    -    -
      Massachusetts           23    7    8    9
      Michigan                24    5    7    2
      Minnesota               33   12   16   14
      New Hampshire            1    4    5    -
      New Jersey               3    4    1    1
      New York                11   22   10    1
      Ohio                     1    2    1    -
      Oregon                   2    -    -    -
      Pennsylvania             1    5    -    -
      Rhode Island             1   12    1    1
      Vermont                  2    2    3    -
      Washington               3    5    1    -
      W. Virginia              1    6    -    -
      Wisconsin                5    2    2    1
      Wyoming                  1    -    -    -
      -----------------------------------------
      TOTALS                 156  100   65   32
      -----------------------------------------
    

    Here is part of a paragraph from Jeanne Albanese's article on girls' hockey that was published April 6, 1996 in The Post-Standard:

    "Girls participation in youth, high school and college hockey has been rising the past few years. Hockey officials expect that steady growth to explode in a few years, when the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, will award the first medals in the sport.In 1993-94, 352 teams registered with USA Hockey, accounting for about 6,300 players. That's up from about 2,700 players in 1990-91...."

    USA Under 18 News

    From the CHA Women's High Performance Program Newsletter...

    In June 1995, USA Hockey held four open camps across the States for any players Under 18. Hundreds of players attended and they selected the top 80 to attend a week long camp in Lake Placid. From the camp they selected 20 to travel to Ottawa and play a Regional Select team. The USA players were billeted and spent the week touring the nation's capital, practicing and playing three games. The results of the games were as follows:

    USA 6 --- Ottawa 3
    USA 3 --- Ottawa 3
    USA 2 --- Ottawa 1

    Publications

    To subscribe to American Hockey Magazine or USA Hockey InLine Magazine, please contact the Publishing Group at (800) 521-8381.


    Links to women's hockey pages in the USA

    If you make a page for your club team or league, please send me your URL, and I'll add it to this list.

    General USA

    Alaska

    Arizona

    California

    Colorado

    Connecticut

    Delaware

    Florida

    Georgia

    Idaho

    Illinois

    Indiana

    Maine

    Maryland

    Massachusettes

    Michigan

    Minnesota

    Missouri

    New Hampshire

    New Jersey

    New Mexico

    New York

    North Carolina

    Ohio

    Pennsylvania

    Rhode Island

    Tennessee

    Texas

    Utah

    Vermont

    Virginia

    Washington DC

    Washington

    West Virginia

    Wisconsin


    Don't Miss these pages! **


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    National Federation


    This page is maintained by © 1998 Andria Hunter (andria@whockey.com).

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