Even before COVID-19 came to town, sports gear was a breeding ground for bacteria and odors. With a return to sports on the horizon, it’s never been more important to get into a routine of cleaning and disinfecting your child’s equipment.

Washing Sports Clothes and Uniforms

Unless your child is wrestling in ancient Greece, they are likely wearing some sort of uniform to game and practices. Use the following tips from The New York Times to thoroughly disinfect and sanitize sports clothes:

• More detergent doesn’t mean cleaner clothes. In fact, using too much detergent and laundry boosters like fabric softener can lead to a build-up that actually absorbs more odor.
• Throw a cup of white vinegar in with a half-dose of laundry detergent to eliminate odors and wash away build-up.
• Wash sports clothes inside out in cold water with sports specific detergents. Toss in a quarter or half cup of vinegar or baking soda for the particularly pungent loads.
• Air dry elastic clothing like football and baseball pants.

Washing Pads and Gear

The best way to maintain sterile, odorless gear is to spray and dry it regularly after use. However, everything needs a periodic deep clean.

• Spray gear with Force of Nature, Clear Gear, or a similar product on the EPA’s Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) list.
  Allow the gear to air dry.
• Pads and bags can be washed in the washing machine using the detergent guidelines above. Use gentle settings on top load washers, as the mixer may knick or damage equipment. Set the washer for a large load, pre-wash, and heavy soil level.
• Wash football shoulder pads in a pillowcase with the open end tied.
• Do not machine dry sports equipment as it can lead to warping and malfunction. Instead, hang dry or place on a rack and use a fan to circulate airflow.
• Helmets: wipe down and spray regularly, paying close attention to chin guards. To deep clean, fill a bathtub with warm water and baby shampoo and use a sponge or toothbrush to scrub nooks and crannies.
• Skates, cleats, and shoes: Spray and air dry immediately after use. Insoles can be removed and machine washed, and periodically replaced as needed.

Sterilizing Equipment

Some sports require athletes to touch and share the same equipment. If that’s the case, it’s important to have a plan in place to sterilize equipment and the players using it.

• Encourage players to properly wash hands before and after practice, and keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in the dugout, on the bench, or in the locker room.
• Use sprays and wipes on the EPA’s Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) list or make your own CDC recommended cleaning solution: 5 tablespoons (⅓ cup) bleach per gallon of water.
• Per CDC COVID-19 guidelines: “Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces … at least daily, or between uses as much as possible. Use of shared objects and equipment (e.g., balls, bats, gymnastics equipment) should be limited, or cleaned between use by each individual if possible.”
• Reduce the need for shared equipment by encouraging each athlete to use their own batting helmets, balls, bats water bottles, towels, etc.
• Clearly label all gear to avoid mix-ups.

Designate a parent volunteer to frequently disinfect shared items at games and practices.

Repost from SportsEngine. Written by Sam Wigness, Contributor at SportsEngine Inc.

TOP TEN (and more!) SHOOTOUTS!

The word for this 2019-20 season is undeniably SHOOTOUTS! Take a look at some of our top shootouts of the season!

We know that everyone across the nation has been facing a difficult challenge with the coronavirus pandemic.  In this climate, we know hockey may not be your first thought but attached is our March 2020 newsletter highlighting events from 2019-2020, announcing new members (more to come), and outlining a tentative showcase schedule for the 2020-2021 season.  We hope that this provides a welcome distraction at this stressful time.  

Our hearts and thoughts go out to the people who have been affected by this virus and we appreciate the rink owners, programs, the various districts, USA Hockey, in addition to those who are on the front line working to contain the coronavirus.

Stay healthy. Let’s take care of ourselves and each other.

NGHL Newsletter March 2020

THE NGHL IS THRILLED TO SHARE THAT THE CT NORTHERN LIGHTS WILL JOIN THE LEAGUE FOR THE 2020-21 SEASON.  

The CT Northern Lights is the only all-girls ice hockey Tier 1 and Tier 2 hockey program in Northern Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. The program is committed to supporting the development of young women as athletes, leaders, and members of society through a competitive hockey environment that instills life values such as teamwork, sportsmanship, a consistent work ethic, and respect for self and others.

The Connecticut Northern Lights Girls Hockey program was founded in 2000 as part of the Avon-Canton-Farmington-Youth-Hockey organization. Connecticut Northern Lights Girls Hockey, then known as Avon Girls Hockey, had only one U-15 team in the 2000 – 2001 inaugural season. In the 2002 – 2003 season, Northern Lights also added an additional U-15 team and launched the Learn-to-Play and Learn-to-Skate (Foundation) program which was the first team called the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights became a standalone program in the 2003-2004 season. The program moved to the Newington Arena in Newington, CT for the 2003 – 2004 season and started a U-12 team and also a High School team. In the 2004 – 2005 season Northern Lights moved to the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury, CT, where the Northern Lights call home today. The Northern Lights continues to grow and offer programs to girls of all ages and abilities throughout the state of Connecticut.

The Lights have a great history of players who have gone on to play college hockey. Below is a list of their most recent alumnae and some of their current players who have college commits.

• Grace Melanson – Nichols College (2020)
• Nora Birmingham – Assumption College (2020)
• Kori Bartko – Western New England (2020)
• Samantha Kulman – Kings College (2020)
• Ellen Cook – Utica College (2020)
• Maddy Manser – Nichols College (2020)
• Carly Duval – Assumption College (2020)
• Samantha Ostrowski – Sacred Heart University (2020)
• Abby Harris – Manhattanville College (2020)
• Jill Croteau – Western New England (2020)
• Julia Swanson – Assumption College (2020)
• Andy Chancio – UNE tryout offer (2020)
• Luci Alissi – Keene State (2020)
• Audrey McMillen – Bentley College (2020)
• Brigitte Goeler-Slough – Wesleyan University (2019)
• Aishling Cavanaugh – Salve Regina (2019)
• Meghan Stepka – University of Rhode Island (2019)
• Katheryn Pettibone – Nichols (2019)
• Kathleen Olmstead – Grand Valley State University (2019)
• Jacqueline Howlett – Anna Maria College (2019)
• Kelly Worthington – R.I.T. Club (2019)
• Georgia Kraus – Dartmouth (2019)
• Lindsay Madigan – University of Rhode Island (2019)
• Cassie Nevers – Sacred Heart (2019)
• Meredith Mack – University of Delaware (2019)
• Allison DiPrato – Lebanon Valley College (2019)
• Maya Borden – UMass Amherst (2019)
• Tori Amaral – Salve Regina (2019)
• Nikki Herz – UMass Amherst (2019)
• Rachael DeLong – Sacred Heart University (2019)
• Holley Riva – Elmira (2019)
• Stephanie Nevers – Trinity College (2019)

Girl’s ice hockey is far from being sleepless in Seattle.  Just ask the Seattle Junior Lady Admirals.  The National Girls Hockey League is proud to announce its newest member in the Seattle Junior Lady Admirals for the 2020-2021 Season!

The Seattle Junior Hockey Association is a coed club founded in 1974. The association began hosting all-girl teams in the mid-1990’s.  The program has been home to a number of accomplished female hockey players, including:

• Kelly Stephens – 2006 USA Olympic Bronze Medal Winner and Gopher Grad
• Brooke Whitney – 2002 Patty Kazmaier Award Winner and Northeastern Alum
• Molly Doner  – 2011 National Champion at University of Wisconsin
• Lexi Bender – Current Professional with Boston Pride and Boston College Grad

The amount of registered USA girl hockey players has tripled in the state of Washington over the last 4 years.  With the coming of the newest NHL franchise, the number of girls in the region is expected to triple in size again.  Seattle Junior is working closely with the new NHL Seattle franchise to provide opportunities for girls to play hockey and just recently hosted a try hockey for free in collaboration with the NHL Seattle organization.

In addition, to growing the game for the girls, Seattle Junior will be the host of the Pacific Districts female divisions including teams from California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska this year and Seattle Junior has been host to both an all-girls Veterans Day tournament and Washington State Female District camp.

The Lady Admirals play local coed teams for league play and participate in a number of all-girls tournaments during the season.  The NGHL will allow the Lady Admirals to play on a national stage with some of the best teams in the country while still having time to play league games locally.

“Seattle Junior is excited to join the NGHL league.  We are committed to the growth of girls hockey and giving our girls the opportunities to play nationally that we believe the NGHL will provide.” – Nick Fouts, Seattle Junior Athletic Director.

The National Girls Hockey League is proud to announce its new member in the LA Lions for the 2020-2021 Season!

The LA Lions is an all-girls hockey club founded by Becki Winckler and Megan Rivera (BC alum and former LA King employee) and operated by the LA Jr. Kings. It started with a small core group of girls that were playing on different boys travel teams. This group had all been on the same in-house team previously for several seasons and had developed a special bond. 

 Becki was instrumental in working to keep the team together, amidst doubt that it could not be done successfully, due to past attempts that failed. Gaining the support of the LA Junior Kings, the young LA Lions teams entered their first tournament over Labor Day weekend in 2015 as a single Mite team and placed 3rd out of 7 against all-boys teams ( having never practiced as a team). The families were ecstatic, and Becki knew this team had something special. This began the grassroots efforts to grow girls hockey in LA. The Lions started having open clinics and pounding the pavement getting the word out looking for girls. Within a month they had about 25 girls. Shortly after, they were branded by the NHL Club, LA Kings. The Kings provided an amazing name and logo and announced the new program during a game at the Staples Center. 

While the La Lions flagship girls team at the Peewee level is successful on the ice, they continue to face struggles as a new club. Retention, travel and the cost to play are the three main hurdles they hope to overcome as they continue to grow. There is not a local “girls league” to play in so their weekly games are against boys teams and most of their teams don’t typically experience success in this model.  GM, Tori Pizzuto and Becki are constantly trying to find a solution for and also change/create the culture in LA for girls hockey. ”We think the NGHL is a crucial step in that direction and supports our vision. We are extremely excited about next year!!”

This year for Thanksgiving weekend, the National Girls Hockey League hosted the first annual Country Classic Showcase in Nashville, Tennessee. The event brought 28 teams of which 24 American Teams and 4 Canadian Teams to Nashville for the weekend where they competed at the Ford Ice Centre in Bellevue and Antioch, Tennessee. 

The three-day event showed great competition across the U12, U14, U16, and U19 divisions. 

Congratulations to the 2019 winners of each division!

2019 Country Classic Winners: 

• 19U Division – Dallas Stars Elite 
• 17U Division – Winnipeg Avros 
• 14U Red Division – Burlington Barracuda 
• 14U Blue Division – Florida Alliance 
• 12U Division – Team Illinois 

In addition to the youth event, the Country Classic also played host to the D1 Girls College Showcase which saw Harvard, Boston College, Minnesota, and Wisconsin compete in a 2 game showcase. Each game saw an amazing turn out with over 800 fans composed of both NGHL member teams and local hockey fans enjoying a great display of Women’s Division 1 Hockey.  A special thank you to members of each college team who took some time to meet with NGHL players post-game! The meet and greet was a memorable experience for all youth players who were able to attend! 

College Showcase Results 

Friday, November 29th, 2019 

• Wisconsin (5) vs. Harvard (1) 
• Boston College (2) vs. Minnesota (2) 

Saturday, November 30th, 2019 

• Wisconsin (5) vs. Boston College (3) 
• Minnesota (4) vs. Harvard (0)

In addition to the hockey, Nashville had many sights to offer our families including Music Row, honky-tonk bars, great shopping and of course chicken and biscuits!  

We want to thank the Nashville Predators and the Ford Ice Centre Staff for their support for our girls’ and women’s hockey events.  Lastly, we want to give a big thank you to all the teams and their families who traveled to Nashville over the holiday weekend and made this event such a success! 

We hope you’ll join us next year as we return to Nashville, November 27-29, 2020!

The NGHL works to put in place quality events for girls hockey programs across the country. Our goal is to support a healthy environment for our member’s teams to thrive. We know that hockey requires a large commitment from both the player and their families, and we want to thank you for your commitment.

As we end the first half of our inaugural season, we’d like to share our first NGHL Newsletter with you. Click here to read, download and share

If you’re interested in joining the NGHL contact us at info@nghlhockey.com

Combine, Develop & Promote

As the landscape for girls hockey has been changing the mindset in Raleigh, NC has adapted to keep up with the needs of its players.  In the Raleigh area, there has always been an interest in girls’ hockey. The area had the RYHA (a precursor of the Junior Hurricanes), Team Carolina then the Lightning and a rejuvenated Junior Hurricanes program 3 years ago, and the Carolina Lady Eagles.  While both were girls’ programs, they starkly contrasted each other – one was a local weekday program, the other a regional program that drew from all areas in North Carolina that did not have all-girls teams.  

For the 2019-2020 season, the two organizations merged and became the Carolina Jr Hurricanes with the goal of:

• Retention – keeping their players home
• Promotion of their players
• Growing the game
• Building competitive AAA, AA, and A (coed and girls) programs in the southeast
• Long-term relationship building with an NWHL team

The challenges the Hurricanes faced were varied but the largest was losing players to prep schools, travel, costs and lack of local girls teams for gameplay. Compounding those issues is the cost of 50 minutes of ice – over $500 in North Carolina – and the fact that the closest girls’ teams are 4+ hours away. 

David Reaugh, the Carolina Hurricanes Hockey Director, did not play ice hockey. He is a former soccer player who was inspired to try and solve at least two of the challenges above along with the help of 3 minor league pro players:   

• Marc Genest, who taught players how to skate and work hard (Tim Knoke was a student)
• Dean Whitney, who taught the mental game of hockey
• Jocelyn Langlois, who stayed true to his philosophy of “what is best for the development of the player and the program”

The result of the collaborative efforts was a success. During the tryout process, the Jr. Hurricanes formed 8 full-time teams and 2 part-time U10 and U12 tournament teams. They’ve been able to show that local girls can stay at home with their families and still succeed.  David’s daughter Shelby Reaugh is a prime example of this success. Shelby was born in Raleigh, played in Raleigh and signed in Raleigh.  

Like many other female hockey players, Shelby’s introduction to hockey came when she was dragged from rink to rink to watch her older brother play. In December 2013 Shelby said “Dad, I want to play ice hockey and I will pay for it” and she did. She started playing hockey at 12 ½ years old at a local rink public program and quickly became hooked.  Being the only girl on the team she was only allowed in the team locker room during the coach talk, which made her feel like an outsider. David, Shelby’s father, began reaching out to people to get guidance on how to nurture Shelby’s new love of hockey. Don Schaap, the president of Carolina Lightning at the time, worked on her skating and soon Shelby was playing on the 14U all-girls Lightning team.  

Working with some great pro (minor league) coaches over the next few years, like Marc Genest, Dean Whitney (brother of beloved NHL Ray Whitney) and Jocelyn Langlois, Shelby worked harder and harder on and off the ice. 

• Year 1 (Carolina Lightning U14) of hockey she never scored a goal, 
• Year 2 (Carolina Lightning U16), 1 goal, 
• Year 3 (Carolina Lady Eagles U16), 6 goals
• Year 4 (Carolina Lady Eagles U16) over 60 goals and over 100 points in around 50 games (highest U16 point scorer in the southeast). 
• Year 5 (Carolina Lady Eagles U19) still a top scorer in the district. 
• Year 6 Shelby will be playing Division III hockey for Coach Eliza Kelley at Becker College in Central Massachusetts.

Shelby has used her daily off-ice training and her synthetic ice sheet as a substitute for the ice time girls up north get but is too expensive to have in Raleigh. Shooting 200 pucks a day, working out 4-5 days a week, and playing for multiple teams during any given season was a way to get the development she needed.  

Most players from the area who have a goal to skate in college must leave for prep schools or hockey-centric schools for exposure. Local stars Alyssa Gagliardi and Colleen Murphy went from prep school to college hockey and now skate in the NWHL. The Carolina Hurricanes hope to change this exodus by providing an organization that meets the needs of its athletes.  For Shelby, the lure of Becker College was its top-50 D3 ranking, a great scholarship offering, and its top-10 Pre-Vet academic program. 

With the newly combined program, a strong focus on development and leagues like the National Girls Hockey League (NGHL), the Carolina Jr. Hurricanes hope the advancement of its players will soon be a common occurrence.

Watching your daughter play a sport on a college campus offers an insight that playing on a regular rink can’t. It offers the vision of what could be – what it could be like if your player was drafted by a college and you made campus visits to see her play.

This past weekend was like that. The NGHL’s Ohio State “Big Ten” (September 13-15) hosted teams across 3 divisions. The skaters had the opportunity to play on the Ohio State University Ice Rink, home to the Ohio State Buckeyes women’s ice hockey team, and the aptly named Chiller Dublin Rink.

7 Clubs traveled to play in the showcase, most brought multiple teams. 

• Carolina Junior Hurricanes 14U, 16U, 19U
• Chicago Fury 14U, 16U
• NoVA Ice Dogs 14U, 16U, 19U
• Nashville Junior Predators 14U, 19U
• Cleveland Lady Barons 14U 
• Gilmour Gladiators 16U
• Ironbound Hockey 14U, 19U

The showcases throughout the season, help us get a clear gauge on what level the teams should participate at the end of season NGHL Championships to be held in St. Louis in February.  One of the goals of the NGHL is to promote girls’ hockey so that those who want to play college hockey will have the opportunity for exposure and hopefully reach their goal.

Division results from this weekend are:

• 14U winner Cleveland Lady Barons
• 16U winner Gilmour Gladiators 
• 19U winner Nashville Junior Predators

The next NGHL event will be the Nashville Country Classic, November 29 – Dec 1, 2019, which will host T1 & T2 girls’ hockey teams across four divisions, from 12U to 19U. The event will also give the teams the opportunity to watch Women’s NCAA hockey. Four top 20 ranked women’s teams – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Boston College & Harvard – will be playing in a showcase tournament. Looks like a great weekend for girls and women’s hockey!