Teamwork Makes First Season of Small Frys an Overwhelming Success

GLENDALE --Hockey history soon will be made in Arizona. As summer comes to an end, the Arizona Coyotes' biggest women's hockey initiative, Small Frys, will celebrate its first graduating class on Sept. 16.
Fifty-six girls will have participated in all three steps of the program and will be honored at a graduation ceremony.
Olympian and Arizona-native Lyndsey Fry, who is sad to see the end of the first season approaching, couldn't have predicted her program's success.

"It's really exciting to be able to think back to last year, even two years ago, when all of this was kind of an idea that we were tossing around," Fry said. "To be completing our first season, and have it been such a successful season is really incredible. I already have parents e-mailing me wanting to do it next summer. So I think that speaks volumes to what we have accomplished here so far. The girls are dying for more, and the parents are dying for more, so hopefully we'll be able to deliver something in the fall and the winter."
While Fry is the namesake and a huge pillar of this pilot program, she stressed that none of it would have been possible through her work alone. The success of this first season was truly a team effort. Success sometimes comes from being in the right place at the right time, but it can also come from working with the right people.

Matt Shott, who is the Director of Amateur Hockey Development for the Coyotes, worked with Fry to develop the program, which was funded by the Coyotes through a hockey industry growth fund awarded by the National Hockey League. Without this initial assistance and funding, the program might not have existed in the same sense that it did this inaugural season.
The price and amount of gear needed to play hockey often can deter parents from committing their kids to the sport. Luckily for all of the girls who participated in Small Frys, gear was supplied. Fry states that Behind the Mask, a local hockey equipment store that services most of the hockey programs in the state, has been a tremendous help this season. The store has helped on many levels, from skates to helmets to the Kachina jerseys each girl dons during scrimmages on Saturdays.
As for coaches and staff, Small Frys stuck true to its goal of being a women's hockey program provided by women. Every practice and game was run exclusively by female coaches.
"I got e-mails from girls who play on the high school teams, or Lady Coyotes, telling me the program sounded awesome and that they wanted to be involved and donate their time," Fry said. "Same thing with the college girls. It's kind of becoming the cool thing to do and become a part of. I think the girls, especially the ones who grew up here, realize how special this program really is and how much potential it has. A lot of the women are just excited to be a part of it because they know where it's going."
Most people familiar with Arizona youth hockey are familiar with Shott and would expect him to be as hands-on as possible in a program of this importance, but not even he grabbed his whistle to oversee the program that he helped champion.
"Even on days we were running low on available coaches, I told Lyndsey we would make it work," Shott emphasized. "I never stepped foot on the ice. I think it was so important for the girls in the program to constantly see the incredible women dedicating their time to teach them."

The all-female staff is one of Fry's proudest accomplishments this season.
"For me, a huge success is the all-female staff on the ice that we've been able to maintain the entire program," Fry said. "It wasn't always easy, but we stayed strong to our mission of having an all-female staff and we accomplished that. That's a huge shout out to the women who have been involved and made the time to do this."
It's not surprising that the support didn't stop there. Parents stepped up whenever needed, helping in any way they could. The local Girl Scout Troops and schools reached out to Fry to see how they could help with recruitment and support. The outreach was almost overwhelming. Everyone rallied around this program to make it succeed. They all know just how special it is.
The program is the most in-depth developmental program the state has seen.
This is not to take away from any work that has been done by other programs in the past. When Fry was growing up there was a group called the Arizona Selects that she played for. Grand Canyon University and Arizona State University women's teams also hold development camps.

"This is really a unique program in the sense that it's really designed to take the girls from learn-to-play, which is Little Howlers here, and then help them build the confidence to go out and play in the leagues with the boys," Fry said.
Fry's philosophy is that girls should be playing in co-ed leagues until checking is introduced to the game. This is because boys are innately more aggressive and that makes the hockey faster paced, and physical in the corners. These are aspects of the game that Fry sees making better hockey players at a young age.
"A lot of girls, and I was never this player so it took a lot for me to realize this, came to our program, and when they were playing in Little Howlers with the boys they were timid," Fry said. "They would analyze every play because they were like, 'Well, I don't know if I'm good enough on my skates' … and by the time they've made their decision the boys have already beaten them. So, to see them build that confidence among other girls and now making body contact with the other players is awesome. I'm just so excited to see how that translates when they go back in the co-ed league. I think they're going to beat up on the boys and it's going to be awesome."
While the goal of Small Frys was to develop the girls' talents and skills, Fry had a goal of also improving their confidence and social skills. Seeing the girls blossom with confidence as their skills grew was extremely rewarding for the whole staff. They loved watching girls embrace the social aspect of the game and build friendships as the season went on.
So, what's next? In the fall and winter every girl is encouraged to play in their co-ed house leagues. Fry hopes to also be able to have an option for the girls to play together and to continue to develop the group. Hopefully "house teams" will be made as something complementary to what the girls will be doing at their house program.
"The goal of all of that is to continue to develop the relationships and the community," Fry said. "Because that's historically been kind of gap. A lot of the girls grow up playing boys hockey and not really knowing each other. So by the time they're 14 and need an option it's easy for them to leave the state because they don't have any emotional ties to any of the girls who are playing here. So we're really trying to build that foundation and build those connections so that when the time comes for them to play girls hockey exclusively they're excited to play with the girls they grew up with."
In Fry's opinion, a lot of girls leave the state to pursue hockey options when they don't necessarily have to. It is absolutely a goal to retain more female hockey players in the state. Long-term it would be amazing to have 100-plus Small Frys playing together in 5-10 years on competitive teams, to add to the Lady Coyotes, who went to Nationals this year.
Statistically girls drop out of sports in general, but particularly hockey, way earlier than boys do. This is a statistic that Fry is hoping to curve at least in Arizona. She would be shocked if any of the girls graduating from the program chose not to continue with hockey this coming fall. If they continue to provide the social element of playing with all girls and having the role models of the all-female staff coaching them, Fry sees no reason why the girls wouldn't want to continue playing. The work of Small Frys starts at a young age but should hopefully impact these players far down the road and into their hockey journeys.

Heading into the next season of Small Frys recruitment is also a priority. Fry knows going forward it's important to have a presence in the community. Fry wants to get more women involved in the street hockey clinics the Coyotes provide. Small Frys is also working with the Girl Scouts and the charter school association to work on getting visibility and recognition in the community. In Arizona it's not uncommon for people to be surprised ice rinks exist in the state. Part of the mission of this program is to change that. Hockey in Arizona isn't going away anytime soon.
In fact, the NHL has been keeping a close eye on the program during its inaugural season. There is a lot of interest in possibly using this as a pilot program to expand across the League. Soon all NHL teams could have an all-female development program because of the hard work put into Small Frys.
"I would call this season a complete success," Fry said. "I had to get surgery during the season and it forced me to sit out and watch and it was so cool, half way through this season, to sit back and just watch the girls. It was amazing to see how they were skating, competing, and stick handling. They were doing all of these things, had you seen them day one, they were night and day. It's incredible, and I know the future is going to be awesome."
Fry, however, is always looking for ways to improve. There are ways to improve the program and, together with the people who have supported Small Frys this year, she can't wait to work on them next season.