In addition to the equal B format, the association hosts a beginner clinic prior to each season. For $35, all ages can participate for two weeks, touching the ice seven to eight times during the clinic. They hope about 50 percent will join the association. Last year, Alexandria had 90 participants.

“Our goal is to get about 50 percent of those kids to sign up for our association,” Severson said. “We go anywhere from 4-year-olds up to 12-year-olds. We see a lot of new kids trying the game and we think that is really important.”

Let’s hear it for the girls

A big part of Alexandria’s success is its girls program, which is thriving.

“We do treat our girls as 100 percent equals to the boys,” Severson said. “They get just as many opportunities as far as ice time, what programming we provide for them, the focus, once again, on those girls having fun at the rink. And just overall improvement from the beginning of the season to the end of the season.”

While equal treatment is important, AAHA does make a special effort to keep the girls coming back by splitting the beginner clinic into a boys and a girls group. When they’re first learning the game and learning to skate, they give the girls their own environment so they aren’t intimidated by the boys. But once the season starts, the Mites are mixed in together.

“We put a focus on that beginner clinic and saw those numbers grow,” Severson said. “Our girls program is flourishing, so that’s really exciting.”

One hockey community

Alexandria’s hockey community goes beyond the association. All teams in the town work together to have fun and help develop new players.

Both boys and girls high school teams, as well as the local junior team — the Alexandria Blizzard — help coach youth teams and serve as role models for the young players. Additionally for the girls, the association asks these players to adopt a team. Each player picks a team for the season and is expected to go to so many practices and so many games, giving the young girls role models to look up to and for everyone to form bonds through the game.

A community initiate has also made it easy for the youth players to attend high school games. The Friends of Hockey group has partnered up with the high school and pays admission for home games for all youth hockey players to attend for free.

“All the kids have to do is wear their jersey to the game,” Seveson said. “It just adds excitement to our association.”

All these efforts within the Alexandria community only fosters a stronger focus within the association. Despite the different teams that make up the association, they’re all one.

“One thing we’ve also really pushed this year is that we are all Cardinal hockey players,” Severson said. “We all skate with the same logo on our chest. In the big scheme of things, we’re all on the same team; we are all one.”