Born less than a year before the first girls' state hockey tournament, Alyson Niesen grew up with the sport in Richfield. She watched the Spartans' varsity girls' hockey players and dreamed of becoming one.

 

But she came of age amid a recession. The senior began this year with only seven other players in the program, prompting Richfield to cancel its varsity season.

 

The aging, first-ring suburb is not a unique case. In a state where hockey is revered, the number of girls' hockey teams has decreased from a high-water mark of 130 teams in 2005-06 to 121 this season.

 

"You work up through this long career of hockey and you hope to have the great senior year -- or at least a senior year," Niesen said. "It is very sad."

 

Niesen was fortunate. She joined the Richfield-based Holy Angels varsity team, a move granted by the Minnesota State High School League. Less than five years ago, that same organization expanded the state tournament ahead of schedule, in hopes of growing the sport.

 

But the boom is over, gone the way of wooden sticks and, mercifully, Cooperalls. Some communities are finding opportunity outweighs interest and must co-op at the high school level and various levels of their youth programs.

 

Varsity coaches once elated by the sport's explosive growth -- If you flood it, they will skate -- face the more sobering challenge of sustainability.

 

Hockey offers its inherent share of obstacles. It's expensive. As school-age populations have grown more racially and ethnically diverse, it has not drawn a wealth of minority athletes. And unlike basketball or football, where good athletes can pick up the sport late, hockey requires years of development.

 

"There are a lot of little variables adding up against a sport not overflowing with numbers to begin with," Blaine coach Steve Guider said.

 

 

Girls' hockey, which became a high school league-sanctioned sport for the 1994-95 season, nearly quadrupled in its first five seasons, growing from 24 to 98 teams. The Gophers won back-to-back national titles with players from that era, most notably Olympians Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell.

 

"We all just kind of assumed this thing would just be blooming and growing continually," said South St. Paul coach Dave Palmquist, who developed one of the sport's early dynasties. "We did grow very quickly and we're kind of at a plateau."

 

The foundation is settling. Last season, there were nine more schools supporting six fewer teams than compared to the 130 teams in 2005-06. Seven of the eight sections in big-school Class 2A include a co-op program.

 

Richfield activities director Todd Olson said he could not find a co-op for his program, which had enough players for only a varsity team the past three years. The Classic Suburban Conference does not allow schools to co-op within the conference and at least five outside schools have turned Olson down in the past four years.

 

"The reality is, people within the home schools were concerned about player displacement," Olson said.

 

Youth hockey associations are also relying on co-ops to both sustain teams and create a better competitive fit for players.

 

South St. Paul must co-op with Inver Grove Heights to offer A and B teams at the 12U level. Blaine/Centennial (14U) and Irondale/Coon Rapids (12U and 14U) merged to support specific teams. Other youth associations such as Osseo/Maple Grove, Cooper/Armstrong and St. Paul Johnson/Como, share players at all levels.

 

Participation numbers in South St. Paul are "actually growing after a couple of down years," Palmquist said. But like many communities, South St. Paul cannot support a 14U team because eighth- and ninth-graders are needed to fill varsity and junior varsity rosters.

 

 

Girls' hockey in Minnesota has grown each of the past 10 seasons at the U8 level, according to data from Minnesota Hockey, the state's governing body of youth and amateur hockey. Girls made up 22.2 percent of the state's U8 youth hockey players last season.

 

But growth and decline within individual youth associations have some groups taking a harder look at better promoting themselves.

 

Jon Smart, a former bantam coach, was appointed Youth Recruitment Coordinator in the Hopkins Youth Hockey Association this season.

 

Smart, a teacher at Gatewood Elementary in the Hopkins School District, helped create free clinics where young boys and girls can skate with Hopkins varsity players.

 

"[Hopkins girls' hockey coach] Vin Paolucci and I sat down and said, 'We have done a really poor job getting more kids involved,'" Smart said. "We need to be better ambassadors of our sport."

 

Smart talks to students at all six elementary schools in the district, runs clinics and encourages current hockey families to spread the word. Smart said "eight or nine" kids, "about half of them" girls, started playing hockey this winter. He's hoping to attract at least 20 player next year.

 

Back at Richfield, Olson hopes to offer a JV team next winter. Niesen, the only member of the dissolved varsity team who played this year, said she hopes the Spartans' woes aren't permanent.

 

"When I was younger, hockey for girls was booming," Niesen said. "Maybe this is just a valley right now. Hopefully it gets better. I know when I have kids, I'm going to put them in hockey."