Arizona Kachinas girls hockey gets new home
Coyotes Community Ice Center opens in Mesa
The seventh full-time hockey rink in the Phoenix area and ninth in the state opened for business Thursday morning in Mesa.
Coyotes forward Clayton Keller joined general manager Bill Armstrong, special advisor and Arizona Kachinas president Lyndsey Fry and rink owner Eddie Hill in a ceremonial ribbon-cutting to open the Coyotes Community Ice Center. Then all took the ice, grabbed sticks and shot the ceremonial first pucks into a net.
Leighton Accardo, the young girl whose battle with cancer inspired the Coyotes last season and who has remained close with the organization, was also present via remote video.
The rink, located near Country Club Drive and First Street in Mesa, will serve as home to the Kachinas girls and women’s hockey program. There will be 12 girls teams practicing and playing home games on the ice, with teams of 12-yearolds already scheduled for practice Thursday evening.
“This is huge for the girls, not just for the girls who are playing hockey now but for the girls who are going to be playing for next 10, 15, 20 years. We’ve never had a home that’s exclusively dedicated to girls hockey,” Fry said. “Before, we were just putting our programs where we could. We were finding whatever ice time we could. Sometimes one program would be across three different rinks. To be able to have one core place. … to know that we’re here I think is going to be a game changer volved.”
Girls hockey in the state has grown 53 percent over the last five years and 236 percent over the last 10, according to the Coyotes. Team president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez said the opportunity to partner with Hill came up within two weeks of him taking office, and the Coyotes made a substantial financial investment to making the center the Kachinas’ home ice.
“From the first day I was here, I made it very clear that youth hockey is a central part of our business plan. This is a phenomenal youth hockey market,” Gutierrez said. “When you think about the youth hockey Coyote fan, you’re really accessing 3.3 fans, because you’re accessing the parents, the siblings on average. So for me as a business person, that’s a phenomenal return on your in
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“It’s the No. 1 youth hockey market for girls, No. 3 youth hockey market for boys in terms of growth. We’re the professional hockey franchise here. It is important for us to be supportive, to be engaged, to be involved,” Gutierrez added.
Keller was reminded of his youth hockey days, when a rink where he used to play was 45 minutes away from his home outside St. Louis before another facility opened 10 minutes away.
“Back when I started playing, the same thing kind of happened. A new rink opened up and I was just so excited to come play,” Keller. “It’s a huge part, having rinks and having somewhere you can you can call home.”
Armstrong said being at community rinks was a major part of his youth in Canada. His daughter played, and he has witnessed the growth in youth participation as a parent.
The success of Valley native Auston Matthews, who honed his game in local rinks before becoming a big name in the NHL, will inspire youngsters from the area, he added.
“Somebody in this neighborhood is going to become an NHL player, simply by this ice sheet being created,” Armstrong said. “Some family will stroll in that are not hockey people, and the next thing you know, their kid just gravitates to it and the next thing you know there’s an ice hockey player that’s coming from Arizona that’s playing in the National Hockey League.”
The Coyotes hope to partner with other Arizona ice rinks in an effort to unite them under one brand and concept, Gutierrez said.
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