Breaking the Ice

When Isabella (Bella) Contreras was five years old, her mom brought her to an event where little kids got to try out the sport of hockey for free. This was up in Flagstaff where they were living at the time. Her mom, Lynette, had a good friend who grew up playing hockey, and he thought Bella would really like it. “So I took her out there, and I could not get her off the ice,” Lynette Contreras said while smiling widely. “And it was like done from then on. Honestly, hockey is all she has ever talked about from day one. She’s never grown tired of it, she’s always wanted more and more.”

“I just fell in love with it,” Bella recalled. Within a year of starting to play competitively, Bella was on a traveling team up in Flagstaff. Unlike most sports though, Bella had to play on a boys team. There wasn’t a girl’s hockey team available to her. This was the case for many years in Arizona, as the sport didn’t have established roots like other parts of the country. “There have been a few start-up women’s programs [over the years], but they have kind of filtered out,” Bella’s current coach Jeremy Goltz said. So Bella played on a boys hockey team for about five years. There were a few girls on the team over the years, but it was mostly boys. At an early age, it’s not too difficult for girls to play on those teams. But as they grow up, it can create some unfair advantages. “Girls can be as good as boys, but the physicality, the size, it [eventually] just doesn’t match up,” said Lynette.

When Bella reached that age, they moved down to Phoenix to join a newly established program called the Arizona Lady Coyotes. This newly formed team was one of the first to try and gather all those girls playing on boys teams and create a competitive, all female hockey squad. The problem was, there were no other girls teams in the state of Arizona to play. So the team had to travel quite a bit to find competition. “It does require so much travel, because there are no other all-girls programs,” said Lynette. “So in order for these girls to play at a competitive level, they have to go all over.” Bella started traveling in her early teenage years to Colorado, California, Minnesota, Boston, Pennsylvania, and wherever they could find opponents.

Isabella Contreras fights for a puck during a game against the Ramapo Saints.

After a few years though, the girl’s programs in Arizona were struggling to stay afloat. That’s when Matt Shott, Arizona Coyotes Director of Hockey Development, and Lyndsey Fry stepped in. If you don’t know who Lyndsey Fry is, you should. She’s a retired American ice hockey player who was a member of the United States women’s national ice hockey team. Fry was born in Mesa, Arizona, and played college hockey for Harvard University. Fry competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, where the USA team won the silver medal. Fry and Shott started the Arizona Kachinas, a program that could build on the success of the Arizona Lady Coyotes and mend fragmented programs across the Valley to unify women’s hockey into one successful program.

Bella instantly joined, and credits the Kachinas with providing an atmosphere for her to be successful while providing opportunities for her to realize her potential. “Their goal is for us to get to that level as an organization where girls get into college playing hockey and get to that next level,” Bella stated. Jeremy Goltz, Bella’s current coach on the 19U team, emphasized the importance of having an Olympian running the program. “These kids, especially at this age group as they get older, they get goals, and they need to have role models in front of them. It’s huge for them.” In addition to having Lyndsey Fry, an Olympian, as director of the program, many of the coaches are college athletes who have already achieved success in the sport. When the young girls see successful role models in the sport right in front of them, their aspirations and dreams run wild.

The Kachinas are starting their fourth year as a program, and the last three years have been incredibly successful. They now have triple the amount of girls playing ranging from ages 8-19. Last year, three separate age group teams made it to the national championship, all coming home with silver medals. Additionally, 13 girls went off to play at the collegiate level all over the country. Bella has her goals set at being one of those college players next year.

Isabella Contreras, a forward for the Arizona Kachinas, works the puck during a game against the Philadelphia Junior Flyers.

“Bella is one of those kids that is really reaping the benefits of the program,” said Coach Goltz. “If this hadn’t come together, she would have had to leave the state or quit hockey altogether. The game would have eliminated her at a certain point on the boys side. Now, not only is she excelling and playing on a national championship team, she’s going to play college hockey because of this program.”

Bella plays forward, and whether she realizes it now or not, she is one of those players that younger girls now look up to. “Pound for pound, she’s as tough as it gets,” said Coach Gotlz. “She’s got a great skill set and is a tremendous asset. But more important is her compete level and her second efforts, her willingness to engage in the game. She scored a ton of big goals last year for us, and is a great teammate. I could speak the world about her. She really represents what the Kachina’s are all about.”

Her mom echoes the growth that Bella has achieved because of this program and how it has helped her daughter develop into not only a great athlete, but a great woman as well. “I get asked a lot, isn’t hockey expensive, isn’t it time consuming, isn’t there a lot to go into it? There is,” Lynette said. “Even if she didn’t go to play for college, she has played for a lot of the years with the same girls, these girls are good students, they’re responsible, they’re dedicated, there is just a different level of maturity. This work ethic that has developed because of this organization is priceless.”

For Bella, the best thing about being part of a girl’s hockey team is the bonds that she develops with other players. “It was just an awesome experience to just get to know other girls. There are so many girls that are like sisters to me. I think that is the game changer. When you play with so many girls for so many years, you just become like best friends. Hockey just changes me. It’s like a different me when I hit the ice. It doesn’t feel like a game to me, it feels like I am playing with my family.”

“I think the biggest thing I want to take away from all this is the friendships that they develop,” Coach Goltz echoed. “They have all been through the boys program, and now they are all so tight. To me that is the best thing, they have lifelong friends and allies now.”

It’s safe to say girl’s hockey in Arizona has officially been established. After three successful years and national championship runs, the club is positioned to be a staple for girl’s hockey for years to come. The Kachina’s are also fostered by the Arizona Coyotes and receive quite a lot of support from the NHL players associations. “There are a lot of great [girls] hockey players in the state,” said Lynette. “Why can’t we develop them here?”

For Bella, it’s the recognition they get when traveling that means the most. “When I went out to the East Coast a couple weeks ago, the girls out there were faster and had more experience, because the sport is more popular there,” she said. “But we got so many compliments from the East Coast teams. They were like, you girls are from Arizona? You girls are amazing. I can’t believe how well you’ve kept up with us.”

“The women’s side of hockey in Arizona is very new,” said Coach Goltz. “Now the women’s side of it is actually gaining more respect than the boys side of it. It’s pretty cool to be a part of.”

Isabella Contreras (center) poses with her 19U Arizona Kachinas squad at the national championship game last year. The Kachinas earned a silver medal, and honored their late director, Matt Shott, by holding up his jersey in remembrance of all he did for the sport and the Kachinas organization.