Every year in March, states across the Midwest and East Coast host their high school hockey state championships, teams from all across their respective states play in an exciting tournament to show off their skill, teamwork, and hair to determine who’ll bring their school the glory of a state championship. The largest of these tournaments is Minnesota’s world-famous Class A and AA high school hockey state championship, which is hosted at the Xcel Energy Center every year, sells thousands of tickets, and is viewed nationwide. However, this excitement around hockey, especially high school hockey, does not exist here at Bothell or across the state.

Or not yet, at least; with the Kraken coming to Seattle in 2021 and the rise in youth hockey programs and participation across the state, could we see a hockey team here at Bothell and a real high school hockey league in Washington any time soon? The sport is growing consistently, and the demand for ice time is rising; however, an official high school hockey league will not likely happen for a while. The first reason for this is obvious: participation. Although the sport is growing, there isn’t a consistent number of players from each high school to fill up a whole 20-30 man roster. The other problem is ice, ice time is expensive and sometimes hard to acquire. Here in the Bothell/Seattle area, we’re lucky to have a solid handful of rinks, but not everyone around the state has access to a rink, and even when they do, good ice isn’t a guarantee. Compare this to states like Minnesota, Illinois, or Massachusetts, where every team has its own rink, own locker rooms, and their own staff of coaches and trainers. The last issue is cost, hockey is an expensive sport to play in Washington, ice time plus player fees plus equipment cost makes hockey extremely expensive. There just isn’t enough money put into the sport here in the PNW; most of the people and coaches who help out are volunteers, and a lot of the money goes towards maintaining the facilities. Coaching, especially good coaching, is hard to come by in Washington. Coaches do not get paid most of the time, and most kids in the sport do not have a parent with prior experience with the sport. There just aren’t enough coaches to keep up with the rising number of players.

Despite all of these inconveniences, Washington is moving in the right direction toward growing the game, which will no doubt eventually spark interest in a high school hockey league. Hockey is a fast and exciting game, you never know what’s going to happen next or who’s going to emerge a star. It’ll no doubt be a sport that the people and students of Bothell and Washington will fall in love with when the time comes.