Florida Girls’ Hockey Program Creates Training Path From Beginners to Elite Players

Lightning Made Training Center in Egypt Lake-Leto has constructed a training system for girls' hockey. It serves almost 200 players. The facility runs programs from Ball Hockey and Learn to Skate all the way to travel hockey squads competing in SGHL and Tier 2 tournaments.

The center spent four years building its Girls Only programming. Staff kicked things off with beginner classes, then expanded. Now there are two recreational leagues, plus Learn to Play presented by Outback and Learn to Play 201.

"Our vision was to create the entire pipeline all the way through, and over the last four years that's what we've done," said Hockey Development Coach Kelley Steadman, according to Tampa Beacon. "We didn't start with travel programs — we started with Learn to Skate and Learn to Play. And then those girls that started in those programs four years ago, some of them were on my (most-experienced) team."

The training center rents skates to new players in Learn to Skate classes. Kids can also rent equipment for Learn to Play if they want to keep going.

"It's not a big deal if some girls come and just do Learn to Skate and they don't move on to hockey," Kelley Steadman said, "but the majority of them want to take the next step."

The program has support from ownership down through management. Jeff Vinik used to own the team, while Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz are the new owners, and CEO Steve Griggs runs operations.

"What is different from other organizations is that we have the backing from the highest level," Kelley Steadman said. "I think it's a big deal for them to just create the same opportunities that they have for boys, for girls, too."