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s Minnesotans, we pride ourselves on having the best players, the best numbers, the best venues and so on. We love our hockey. We are proud of our history and culture. And when it comes to being rich in talent and success stories, our girls' and women's hockey has set the bar incredibly high. In a time of uncertainty for many sports and programs, Minnesota girls' hockey is taking a serious look at the landscape of their programs. While some areas are still dealing with small teams and cooperative agreements, girls' hockey as a whole in Minnesota continues to grow at a rapid pace. There are some major highlights and some very exciting developments coming soon. Our grassroots efforts are thriving and we have the largest 8U population of players (3,901) in Minnesota Hockey history. Try Hockey for Free, Girls' Hockey Weekend, Little Wild and other ventures have been very successful in get- ting new and young players on the ice and falling in love with the game. More importantly, they are staying in the game. Success breeds success, and in this case, growth. The Gopher women continue to make an incredible run, and as you can see in their attendance, the youth have taken notice. The quality of play continues to improve at all levels. Girls' high school and women's college hockey is faster, more skilled and intensely excit- ing to watch. Our young female players have their pick of role models to follow these days. On an even bigger scale, the 2016 U.S. Women's National Under-18 Team won gold in January— with 16 out of 22 players hailing from Minnesota! So where do we go from here? We have heard from you and we're ready to roll out some awesome events for our female play- ers. With an emphasis on female player development at all ages, we are looking to keep our female players active and skating together. Specific skill clinics, age group clinics and other variations are in the works, and the hope is to roll them out during the 2016-17 season. We have a very talented team of female coaches and players with incredible résumés on hand to not only skate with our girls, but serve as role models for them. It is important for our girls to work with female leaders and see the opportunity for them to do the same someday if they choose. Female leadership in our game is on the rise, and youth teams should reach out to the well-known female hockey stars this state has produced. These women want to help girls' hockey, whether it be recruiting, speaking or teaching/coaching. In the meantime, how can you best help your female player? How can we keep this momentum going? Embrace your association. Follow your high school team. Volunteer when possible. At the end of the day, remem- ber this: as a girls' hockey player, you are in the best place to be playing and developing. Have fun and enjoy it. And when someone tells you that you play like a girl, remember … that is a compliment! Jessica has more than 12 years of coach- ing experience at the high school and college levels. She is a USA Hockey Level 5 certified coach and the Minnesota Hockey Associate Coach-in-Chief for female coach development. MINNESOTAHOCKEYJOURNAL.COM // MARCH.2016 BY JESSICA CHRISTOPHERSON FINAL BUZZER The STaTe of GirlS' hockey MINNESOTA IS CRANKING OUT MORE—AND BETTER—PLAYERS THAN EVER BEFORE 30 PHOTOS: FRANCOIS LAPLANTE / HHOF-IIHF IMAGES A