Women, Girls and Diversity in Kraken Ice Hockey with Katelyn Parker
Marianne North March 24, 2023
The energy in the Captain’s Room was palpable as we heard Katelyn Parker describe the Kraken Hockey Youth Development Program at our March 15 meeting in the Kraken Ice Complex at Northgate. Katelyn has been involved in ice hockey since her childhood in Bellingham, WA. In her teens she had to go out of state because there were limited advanced youth hockey opportunities in Washington.
She went on to join the Colgate University Women’s Hockey Team while majoring in Geography and Environmental Science. After captaining the winning Colgate team for two years, she was the assistant coach with the Brown University hockey team, and then she coached in the Division 1 Hockey League at University of Connecticut. When she got the Kraken call, Katelyn eagerly returned to the Pacific Northwest.
The Kraken Youth Hockey serves children ages 7 on up. They also have 93 women in adult hockey and sponsor four women-only teams as well as co-ed teams. Youth in need of financial assistance to play hockey are helped through the One Roof Foundation. The Kraken are working to develop youth hockey in Washington so that young players don’t have to go out of state to play hockey. Katelyn said the Kraken organization is dedicated not only to raising up a diverse group of hockey players but also to fostering women as leaders in the organization.
Our AAUW members were so enthusiastic about the topic that the Q & A session lasted as long as Katelyn’s excellent presentation. We thank AAUW member Liz Ebersole for organizing this program for the March meeting as well as the 32 Bar & Grill for the wonderful array of appetizers.