The seed of an NCAA women's ice hockey championship was planted decades ago, when sisters began joining their brothers in youth hockey leagues and on frozen ponds in Canada and the United States. Harvard University coach Katey Stone started playing hockey when she was 3 years old in Watertown, Connecticut. Her brothers played, and she played with them. Stone went to a private high school that fielded a girls' ice hockey team, which stoked her interest in the game. Now, high-school girls' teams are commonplace in hockey hotbeds such as Minnesota or Massachusetts.
Stone points to increased opportunity for girls, but also said there are many more ice surfaces now.
With more ice time available, practice times are more reasonable and do not force a player to pick between hockey and a normal schedule. Another large factor was the 1998 Winter Olympics. In Nagano, Japan, the United States took the first gold medal awarded in women's hockey. With the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, enthusiasm is building for another American victory. Barto sees women's ice hockey exploding much as women's soccer did recently, when the women's World Cup became one of the most-watched sporting events of the summer.