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Colorado Select - One of the Best Girls’ Hockey Programs

Colorado is home to one of the biggest girls’ hockey programs in the country.

By Taylor Clark
Colorado Select U19 - picture by Scott Cattelino at Colorado Hockey Hub
Scott Cattelino at http://www.cohockey.org

This week for HERSday, we want to acknowledge the Colorado Select Girls Hockey Association.

Colorado Select is the first and only all girls’ hockey association in the state of Colorado. Their mission is to promote, support, and expand girls’ hockey in Colorado. They are known for servicing all levels of players – from beginners to elite level athletes.

The program was founded in 2000. In their inaugural season, they iced only one team. A competitive Tier I U15 team. By their season year in the 2001-02 season they had expanded to five teams ranging from U12AAA to U19 AAA Extreme.

In 2014 the Colorado Select became the first and only independent all-girls association to receive USA Hockey Model Association designation.

Now, last season they fielded 10 teams with even more competitive and recreational teams at all levels. They are one of the largest all-girls’ hockey associations in the country.

No matter how big they get, their mission of continued growth and success is the same. Last year they launched the Select Futures program which allows players new to the sport “to learn in practice conditions designed for their development.”

Not only is Colorado Select a place for hockey in Colorado to find a home and grow, but they also provide competitive opportunities to girls around the west.

Many states do not have competitive programs housed in state and as a result the girls move at a young age to continue their hockey career competitively.

One example of that is defenseman KC McGinley who grew up in Arizona but moved to Colorado to pursue a better hockey career. She went on to play two seasons for UMass Boston, before returning home to captain ASU’s women’s hockey team in its inaugural season.

She is just one testimonial to the many success that have come out of Colorado, and an advocate to the top-notch program that they are building there.

When it comes to girls’ hockey – at any level – Colorado seems to have a recipe for success and only continue to make it better.