What Gender Equality Month means to me: Lyndsey Fry

Also a brand ambassador for the Coyotes, the 26-year-old is helping to reach more youth, especially girls, in Arizona, where hockey continues to grow. So it's been extremely exciting to see and we're just loving growing it here in Arizona.We've been working really hard on the growth of girls' hockey in Arizona. Our amateur hockey development director Matt Shott has been working hard since I've been in college, so this is something that I would say has really been a sixth-year-in-the-making journey with girls' hockey. But now what we're doing is really focusing on the base and focusing on retaining these girls, keeping them involved and getting them to know the other girls so that, when they're 13, 14, when it's their time to switch over to girls-only hockey, they're so emotionally connected to Arizona girls and the community we've built here that they're going to want to stay.Part of my playing hockey on boys' teams when I was a kid had to do with the fact that there was literally no other option. And then with Small Frys and the Kachinas program and everything we're trying to do with the girls, we get them all together and that's what keeps them there, because they see, 'Wow, this isn't just a boys sport, this is for me.' For me it was just, 'This is what it is, and this is what I know I'm getting into.' And I think that's where this evolution has happened where the girls know there are other girls just like them playing the game.Seeing the development is really reassuring.