The Connecticut Polar Bears are proud to be the first all girl ice hockey program in Connecticut. To this day, the Polar Bears remain the only girls hockey program in Connecticut to have been started for girls only. As the only program to not have ever been affiliated with a boys program, the Bears are happy to be a true champion of girls sports in Connecticut! The Connecticut Polar Bears are one of the premier girls hockey programs in the country. The Polar Bears have won 10 National Championships in fifteen years and had 4 players on the Gold Medal winning US Olympic Team.
The Polar Bears organization was started in 1985 by a small group of people who shared a common philosophy of excellence in education and athletics for women.
In the early 1980's, only a few Connecticut girls played hockey; those who did had to play on boys' teams as there were no girls' teams in our state. In other states such as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Michigan and Minnesota, many girls played in organized girls' leagues. The girls who played in the all girl leagues were identified and actively recruited by college coaches. As a result of the Connecticut girls being "hidden" on boys' teams, they were not identified and lost out on significant educational opportunities. The Polar Bears were started to allow Connecticut girls to compete nationally so that they could gain recognition and take advantage of the same educational opportunities as girls in other parts of the country.
In the fall of 1985, the first Polar Bears team was organized at the PeeWee (13-15 year old) level. During that first season, the Polar Bears had no standard ice time. All of our players, therefore, also played with their boys' teams. When an hour of ice became available a game would be scheduled to provide the competition necessary for our team development. Our goal was to play in the U.S. Women's' National Championship Tournament. On April 6, 1986, the Bears played in and won the PeeWee National Championship. Not long thereafter, college coaches began calling to schedule scrimmages for the 1986-87 year. The Connecticut girls had arrived.
Since winning the National Championship in 1986, the Polar Bears went on to play in six consecutive national championship games winning in 1990, 1991 and 1995. On April 14, 1996, the Polar Bears PeeWee 1 team defeated Assabet Valley, Massachusetts 5-2 to capture our fifth National Championship in 10 years. In April of 1997, the Polar Bears PeeWee team and Midget team won our sixth and seventh National Titles. In 1998, our Midget team won our eighth National Championship. In 1999, our Midget team three-peated to win our ninth National Championship.
Today, the Polar Bears have a nationally known reputation for the high caliber of young women's' athletics and academics. Through hockey, our young women gain leadership abilities, learn teamwork and are comfortable with competition. During the past few years we have had young women coming to Connecticut to join our organization from Alaska, Arizona, California, Iowa, Illinois, Texas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Montreal, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Many of these young women attend nationally known college preparatory schools while playing for our organization.
Four of our former players were selected for the current United States Women's Olympic Ice Hockey team and won the gold medal for the United States in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan. Polar Bear Julie Chu joined this elite group when she was selected for the 2002 Olympic Team.
College doors begin to open
All of this success on the ice would have meant very little unless it provided educational opportunities. Our original group was given those opportunities and responded by demonstrating outstanding academic success. Of the original group of sixteen, three attended Yale, three attended Harvard, and one attended Dartmouth. Four have attended medical school and two are working as investment bankers and attended nationally renown MBA programs. Two attended the University of New Hampshire and won additional national championships at the college level. One attended the University of Connecticut and received All-American recognition in soccer. One attended the University of North Carolina and received All-American recognition in field hockey. One attended St. Lawrence University, was named to the U.S. National Women's Ice Hockey Team, and is presently coaching hockey and soccer at the college level. The list could go on, but this short list of accomplishments demonstrates that these women established that they were the best both academically and athletically.
As a result of the accomplishments of the original group and their successors, the calls that started coming in the summer of 1986 have continued to come. Since our first graduating class in 1988, our players have gone on to play hockey for colleges including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Boston College, University of New Hampshire, Middlebury, Colby, St. Lawrence, University of Connecticut, Northeastern and Cornell. Some did not go on to play hockey in college; however, we believe that our emphasis on academic excellence led to young women being accepted to schools such as the United States Naval Academy.
This year the Midgets will play many of the schools listed above. At most of these schools, the Midgets will face former teammates who took advantage of the exposure gained from prior college tours. Once again, our Midgets will be recruited because of the reputation for quality established by the PeeWees of 1986 and maintained by their successors.
The program grows
As stated before, the Polar Bears was started in 1985 with one team - a PeeWee (13-15 year old) team. In 1986 that team moved up to the Midget (16-19 year old) level. In 1987 the Polar Bears added a PeeWee team. In 1993 a Squirt (12 year old and younger) team was added. In 1994 we added a second PeeWee team and a second Squirt team. In 1998, we added a second Midget team. We now have approximately 150 young women playing on nine teams.
Twenty-two years ago the Polar Bears hosted their first ice hockey tournament for young women. Four teams, approximately 60 players, participated. Since then, the tournament has gradually expanded. In 2007, we expect 250 teams to participate at thirteen levels of competition. Approximately 3,400 young women from ages 9 to 19 will participate. Teams from all across the United States and Canada are among those that will participate.
Attending the tournament are many of the women's ice hockey coaches from the major colleges and universities in the country as well as nationally known college preparatory schools. These coaches will be coming to scout and recruit players for their schools. Many former tournament participants have gone on to play college hockey for the major women's teams in the United States. When Team USA took the ice for the first Women's Ice Hockey Olympics in Japan in 1998, many of our tournaments former participants were there.
Our responsibility to our players
Our younger players think of college only as a distant event. To maximize their educational opportunities, our coaches remind them often that their present academic efforts will play a critical role in their future admissions prospects. When they begin their college tours as Midgets, the college coaches will not question their ability on the ice. Rather, they will ask two questions: 1) what kind of a person is she; and 2) does she qualify academically? To discharge our responsibility as coaches, we continually emphasize the importance of academic effort to our young players so that the doors that hockey has opened will remain open.
Our future
As we move forward, we keep in focus that our record of college admissions should be the standard by which we judge the success or failure of the program. As our participants get older, the number of young women in the Midget (or high school) age classification grows. In order to allow all of our participants to reap the same educational opportunities as their predecessors, we must add teams.
The problem the Polar Bear organization is facing is one that is common for "grass-roots" organizations - controlling operational costs. Reasonably priced ice time for the program is not available. We are concerned that due to the cost of the program, some excellent athletes and students that could receive college exposure through our organization may not be able to continue to participate. Therefore, we are seeking corporations and individuals who would be willing to become sponsors of our organization and assist us in creating an endowment fund which we can utilize to ensure the program will continue for as long as young women require.
The Polar Bears organization is tax exempt under IRS Code Section 501(c)(3). Not one person within the organization receives any remuneration for the services they perform. Everyone involved is committed to the organization because of their belief in the goals we have set and our history of achieving them.