St. Louis Lady Cyclones

The St. Louis Lady Cyclones is an all girls Ice Hockey Club focusing exclusively on providing access to hockey for girls ages 4 through 19, with multiple teams at every age group. The club was founded in June 2002 offering a developmental/recreational program for girls of all ages. Our programs focus on teaching fundamentals, hard work, commitment, good sportsmanship, the benefits of team work, improving athletic skills and having fun in the sport of ice hockey. We strive to provide a safe and healthy environment for all girls to learn and grow as individuals and teammates, with an equal opportunity to play at an appropriate level without any undue emphasis on winning.

The St. Louis Lady Cyclones is an independent 501(c)(3) organization and solely funded by membership fees of its participants, revenues from fundraising and by generous support of corporate sponsors.

USA Hockey has recognized St. Louis as the fastest growing region of Ice Hockey for the last 3 years, one of the driving factors of that recognition is the Girls Try Hockey For Free and Girls Learn to Play programs offered by the Lady Cyclones. Since 2015 the Lady Cyclones have outfitted over 300 girls at all ages with hockey equipment at no cost to the player or their family. Ice hockey can be a very cost prohibitive sport for many families, to outfit a new player the cost often exceeds $500. Its difficult for some families to make that investment without knowing if their daughter will be interested enough to stick with the sport. The Girls Try Hockey for Free program eliminates that concern entirely, providing all the equipment necessary for free. The girls can keep the equipment if they sign up for a Learn to Play program, or simply return the equipment if not interested.

Prior to July 2016, Total Hockey offered a First Stride program that allowed us to send players to their store and they provided all the equipment necessary at no cost to the club. In July 2016 Total Hockey filed for bankruptcy. In August, 2016 Pure Hockey acquired the company and resumed operations under the Pure Hockey brand. One of the first cost cutting measures they implemented was to eliminate the First Stride program. This created a significant financial burden to the Lady Cyclones. We still provide all the equipment at no cost to new players but we have to purchase it over the counter. This effort is entirely self-funded through fundraisers. Our volunteer coaching staff and board of directors work tirelessly to make this happen. We have been successful and are still introducing up to 120 skaters annually to the sport of all girls ice hockey. This programs proven success shows that it is vital to the youth ice hockey movement but the unexpected cost increase to the club is putting the sustainability of the program in jeopardy.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to the club is the lack of ice available to us. Most clubs in the region are associated with municipalities and have access to local community ice rinks and play under their towns name. We do not have that luxury, our players come from all over the region, to include neighboring states. The Lady Cyclones are the fastest growing club in the region, the only all girls club in Missouri but do not have a home. We currently operate out of a rental storage unit and find meeting spaces wherever they are available. We buy ice time from the leftover scraps that other clubs do not want. This leads to us driving an hour to practice and then having to drive an hour in the opposite direction for games, never in the prime times that other clubs have access to.

The St. Louis Lady Cyclones have been presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity to be one of the founding tenants of the new St. Louis Ice Center. This brand new, state of the art facility will be located in Maryland Heights, MO and will be the practice facility for the St. Louis Blues. With the facility we will finally have a place to call home.