USA Hockey Magazine

H O M E G R O W N JUNE 2022 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM // 45 IDAHO NATIVE LOOKS TO MAKE HOCKEY BIGGER AND BETTER FOR NEXT GENERATION OF GIRLS By Jaclyn Brandt K AITLYN SCHLAKE has been playing hockey most of her life, but it wasn't always an easy thing to do. Like their brothers before them, Kaitlyn and her sister Becca inherited their dad's passion for the game. And while the brothers, Brandon and David, both stopped playing after high school, the sisters continued to pursue their passions. Growing up in Idaho playing a sport that wasn't com- monly supported was one thing—being a girl added an extra challenge. Kaitlyn said there were rare occasions when other girls played in her league. "I pretty much grew up playing with boys," she recalls. "I had my girls' travel team and we traveled here and there, and then I had my boys' travel team where I could actually play with kids my age." After high school, Kaitlyn spent her "gap year" before college playing in the New England Women's Junior Hockey League before enrolling at SUNY Morrisville in New York. In her four seasons on the Mustangs blueline, she racked up 48 points and earned multiple conference honors for her work on and off the ice. With her college career behind her, Kaitlyn was ready to give up hockey, at least for a little while. "The 20 years I've been playing, it was a lot," she says. "One or two hours on the ice daily plus road trips for games and schoolwork on top of that, plus whatever jobs I was working in college. I was burnt out." The hockey hiatus didn't last long as Kaitlyn returned home to Idaho after graduation and stepped into a pivotal role in growing girls' hockey in Boise and around the state. She currently coaches the Idaho Select girls program (the Idaho Vipers), a tryout team that includes girls from across the state, as well as house programs. She also runs numerous camps throughout the year. She has already seen the fruits of her labor as the local girls' program has changed significantly in a relatively short time. "It's definitely gotten a lot bigger, that's for sure," she says, attribut- ing some of that growth to a new girls' learn-to-play program. "A lot of girls joined in on that. I think that helped a lot. There's definitely more girls at the same age." While the Idaho Vipers is the Idaho Select (tryout) team, the Idaho Fireblades is an open local travel program for girls. The Vipers play teams from other states, while the Fireblades travel around Idaho. For both teams—travel is crucial because there are not enough girls in Boise to continually compete against each other. To get the most experience, many girls still play with boys, at least until checking is introduced into the game.

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