Pursuit of the Puck

The Super Bowl is on full volume with everyone gathered in the living room, watching the football fly across the wide screen. Subs, salad, and chips are spread across the kitchen island with all of the adults gathered around and chatting. Half of the family is watching the game intensely hoping to win the bets they placed. Everyone else is excited to see Taylor Swift pop up on the screen for a few seconds at any moment.

On the multi-colored carpet under the TV sits Kayla and her little cousin Stella. Kayla has dark curly brown hair, wearing a loose dark gray Yosemite t-shirt with a silver chain necklace, baggy khaki cargo pants and slippers in contrast to Stella, wearing clothing covered in bright pink hearts and clip-on princess earrings. They are playing “princesses” on the floor with a small pink castle- even a small toy figure of Buffalo Bill’s Josh Allen made an appearance. Kayla loves spending time with her extended family on the weekend at home.

Kayla Suders, 17, is a junior in high school at Penfield Central High School in Penfield, N.Y. Most of her free time is balanced between spending time with friends and hanging out with family. Kayla, along with her two younger twin siblings, Ella and Ryan, 12, spend half the week at their mom’s house and the other half at dad’s, rotating on the weekends. Her family is her biggest support system and she sees her extended family frequently, playing with her little cousins and attending all of their events. Like other teenagers her age, Kayla spends a lot of time on her phone, connecting with friends and creating content on social media.

Kayla has started looking into colleges and discussing options with her parents. "I'm very influenced by the people I'm around, my personality changes, depending on who I'm with…” says Kayla. “I want to move far away so I can figure myself out.” One factor in her decision will be how she continues her hockey career. “I like to take it one day at a time,” she says. “If you worry about the week ahead, you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

(Top) Kayla lays on her bed, scrolling through TikTok on her phone at her mom’s home in Penfield, N.Y. TikTok is one of her favorite platforms to use and she has a following of about 150k. She describes TikTok as something fun she does once in a while, but not her main interest. (Bottom Left) Kayla has photos of the people who mean the most to her hanging over her bed. The photos include her parents when they were still together (left), her best friend (right), and her girlfriend (bottom). (Bottom Right) Kayla smiles at he brother, Ryan, who laughs at a video he showed her on his phone.

Varsity hockey mainly serves as the developmental piece of the sport, her priority lies within her tier 2 (AA) girls travel hockey for the 19U Rochester Jr. Americans. Kayla played on a boys travel team until she was about 12 years old, “Playing with the boys when I was younger gave me the competitive and aggressive mindset I have today.”

Kayla found that as she got older, it was harder for her to fit in when age caused more of a separation based on gender. She started playing girls travel hockey and developed deep bonds with her teammates that she never had with the boys. Girls hockey brought emotion and care to the sport compared to the boys that she only saw when at the rink.

The limited opportunity in girls hockey compared to boys can make it more difficult to get the exposure necessary to advance to a higher level like college hockey. Many young women find themselves dedicating most of their time to the sport in hopes of meeting this goal.

“I just want to be happy with what I'm doing with my life. Sometimes I think about making it a part of my career. Whether it's in physical therapy for athletes or a coach at the college or pro level,” says Kayla.

As of late December, Kayla is officially part of inaugural Greater Rochester Girls High School Hockey. The addition of a third hockey team gives Kayla the opportunity to play hockey with her younger sister, Ella, on the same team. Ella looks up to Kayla as a big sister and a hockey player; she even wears the same number on her jersey, #12.

The balance between playing on three hockey teams is challenging for Kayla to navigate as it takes up most of her free time. She has days that she needs to attend two practices at different rinks, and days that she needs to prioritize one team’s game over the other, which tends to be with the Americans team. The girls travel team serves as an opportunity for recruitment exposure to play college hockey. Many of the tournaments they play in around the country serve as a showcase of her talent, and increase the chances of her goal to play at a more advanced level.

Any time available in her packed schedule is for family. She is extremely appreciative of her parents, grandparents, and cousins attending most of her games to cheer her on. Kayla likes being able to put the sport aside and bond with family away from the rink when possible.

Section V in western New York is known for having some of the top, most expansive hockey programs in the state, along with Section VI. These hockey programs include youth travel leagues to high school teams. For the upper high school years, boys travel hockey offers up to 93 teams across all levels while girls travel hockey sits at 16 teams. Tier 1 (AAA) and tier 2 (AA) hockey is the highest level in travel and provides the best opportunity for recruitment. With the tiers combined, boys travel currently has 33 teams and girls have 14. "Girls hockey takes the backseat to the boys program" says a father from Syracuse Valley hockey program. Based on the fewer team options for girls, it’s more competitive and requires much more travel to participate. Members of the Syracuse Valley team are made up of girls from multiple NY sections with distances ranging from 15-90 minutes just for practice alone.

As of 2022/23, there are 46,097 USA player memberships total in New York State. 6,938 of those memberships are girls.