Greater Cleveland youth hockey league’s first all-girls team narrowly escapes disqualification

PARMA, Ohio – For about 72 hours earlier this month, it looked like one of the top hockey teams in the suburban youth league this year – and the league's only all-girls team – wouldn't get a chance to lace up at all this season.

On Nov. 5, four days before the start of the 2024-2025 regular season, the board of directors of the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League voted to disqualify the 12-and-under Parma Flyers girls' team after it qualified for the league's most competitive division.

The reason? Its roster was identical to that of the Cleveland Barons ' peewee girls team, an elite travel team that competed in tournaments across the Midwest.

That violated a longstanding league rule that banned players from elite travel clubs from also playing in the lower-tier suburban league. The so-called "anti-ringer" rule was meant to prevent teams from illegally bringing an elite player onto its roster for a game or two to win a pivotal game.

But here's the rub: the board had previously waived the rule anytime a single member of a Barons girls team wanted to play on a CSHL team with boys. There just had never been enough girls who wanted to play in both leagues to field an entire team.

"We hadn't faced this situation before, so we hadn't set a precedent for it," CSHL President Tim O'Shaughnessy said in a recent phone interview.

The dilemma came not just on the eve of the 2024 season. It came amidst a concerted effort from USA Hockey, the national governing body of youth hockey, to expand the sport to more girls. And, while the total number of kids registered to play in USA Hockey leagues dipped slightly from 2018 to 2023, the number of girls playing hockey has skyrocketed – particularly in Ohio.

More girls than ever Girls' hockey is in the midst of a boom.

In the 2018-2019 season, 995 girls under the age of 19 were registered with USA Hockey teams in Ohio, according to statistics published on the league's website.

Last season, there were 1,585 girls in leagues across the state - a nearly 60% spike.

Melissa Katz, a spokeswoman for USA Hockey, attributed the growth to several factors. She cited the introduction of women's hockey to the Olympics in 1998, the 2018 creation of the annual Rivalry Series between the USA and Canadian national women's hockey teams and the formation last year of the six-team Professional Women's Hockey League.

She also said there's been a concerted effort by local clubs, regional leagues and national groups to market the game to girls.

And she said it probably doesn't hurt that the main character from Disney's "Inside Out" is a 14-year-old girl obsessed with hockey, and that the sport played a major role in this year's blockbuster sequel.

"While it's still too soon to see the direct correlation between those effects and the numbers, it creates such an impact for young girls across the world to be able to see women who look like them playing hockey at the highest level on their TV or seeing it in a movie they love," Katz said.

Still, the number of girls playing hockey pales in comparison to boys.

In Ohio, while the number of boys registered to play in USA Hockey League only rose by 15% from 2018 to 2023, a total of 10,948 boys played last season.

That means for every girl who played hockey in Ohio last season, there were about seven boys.

Travel vs. local The disparity means that girls who want to play hockey on a team with other girls often have few options.

The Barons, a travel club team based in Parma, is one. It has both boys and girls teams in several age divisions who travel across the Midwest to compete against other elite travel clubs.

One of the players on the 12-and-under girls team lives in Erie, Pennsylvania. She chose the Barons in Cleveland over the next-closest all-girls club teams in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, New York.

"That's a hell of a commitment, if you ask me," Kayla Wormsbecher, an assistant coach on both the Barons and CSHL Parma peewee girls team, said.

Playing for the Barons can cost parents thousands of dollars in fees, travel and other expenses.

Just this season, the peewee girls team has played in tournaments in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Buffalo, New York, on consecutive weekends.

In comparison, the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League plays all of its games in Northeast Ohio, with teams spanning from Elyria to the west, Kent to the south, and Mentor to the east.

Wormsbecher said that having more local games makes it easier for the girls' friends and family members to come watch them.

"It gives them a sense of support," Wormsbecher said. "And maybe they're inspiring their friend to come watch them, and now the friend thinks 'Oh, I want to play' or 'if Claire can play hockey, maybe I'll try out for that gymnastics team that I haven't had the courage to try out for.'"

Wormsbecher grew up in Canada. She was one of three girls in her youth leagues who did not play girls hockey until she reached high school and said playing on an all-girls team made her feel like she belonged.

"(The boys) would be calling us names, there'd be extra jabs," she said.

One of the largest differences when she switched to an all-girls team was being able to get dressed in the same locker room before a big game, or celebrate after a win or commiserate after a loss with her teammates.

However, she said competing against boys also gave her confidence and toughness she carries to this day as the only female engineer in her office.

"I liked being underestimated," she said. "I liked being the underdog. It creates adversity, and overcoming adversity is something you need to get through life. I hope that's what these girls are taking away."

Back to the board After the board's decision to disqualify the team less than a week before the opening game, the team's coach, Matt Peters, and the Parma Hockey Association's president, Pete Kraguljac, pointed out that the USA Hockey League's bylaws required the board to hold a hearing to give the team a chance to plead its case before the board could kick them out of the league.

The board agreed and held a hearing on Friday, Nov. 8.

A three-member disciplinary panel held that the violation did not give the team a competitive advantage and voted to rescind the disqualification. The change allowed the girls to play that weekend.

"I think most of the rules are there to avoid having a team, a program or a player game the system and get an unfair advantage," O'Shaughnessy, the CSHL president, said. "And I don't think this was that."

O'Shaughnessy said that the board came away from the hearing likely to rewire the anti-ringer rule to explicitly say it only applies to boys.

"In principle, we don't want ringers. In practice, girls are typically not ringers," O'Shaughnessy said. "Them playing on an all-girls team to go off and play in tournaments in Pittsburgh and Detroit isn't affecting the competitive fairness of our league."

To that end, the girls took the ice on Sunday, Nov. 10 at Michael Ries Arena in Parma to take on the Elyria Panthers team.

The girls held a 2-1 lead through much of the second and third periods. But the Panthers scored late in the third period to tie the game, and then, with 34 seconds left, slapped in the winning goal.

The girls started their groundbreaking season 0-1.