The Not-So-Secret Women's Hockey Superstar Incubator in Rochester, NY

When you think about a hotbed for women's hockey, your mind might first jump to Minnesota. After all, the Golden Gophers have won six NCAA championships, and the state has been home to numerous talents over the years. Nadine Muzerall, Natalie Darwitz, and Amanda Kessel have all played there at one point or another.

Or your mind might jump to Boston, home to an equally talented pool of players, whether as natives or by virtue of the state's collegiate programs. See: Marie-Philip Poulin, Danielle Marmer and Victoria Bach, to name a few.

Your mind may not consider Rochester, New York - but it should.

The sprawling, 42-acre campus of Bishop Kearney High School in Irondequoit, New York - a suburb of Rochester - boasts one of the strongest girls' and women's hockey program in the country. The program, which has teams at both the 19U and 16U levels, is just nine years old but boasts multiple championships, numerous accolades and an impressive roster of alumane.

Since its inception nine years ago, the Bishop Kearney (BK) Selects program has helped develop young female hockey players, with nearly all 19U graduates advancing in the sport, whether to NCAA Division I or III teams, professional leagues, or national teams.

"Seeing the growth of the individual and leadership of each kid going on to the next level, if it's to play college hockey or the national team, and seeing their growth and who they become, ultimately helps our program out and continues to build our culture, which has been really cool," Cari Coen, director of hockey operations, told The Ice Garden in an interview earlier this year. Coen has been with the program for eight years - nearly its entire existence.

"When you talk about a hockey program, the product is the athlete that we're bringing in, but also developing," she added. "It ultimately helps within the whole program and the teams when they move on."

What makes this program especially good?

"It's every day," Coen said. "We work every day. If it's a hard day or an easy day, we're going to work every day. And that's the best part about BK - it's every day."

"Our goal is to the best program in the country at getting better every day and developing players," added head coach Chelsea Walkland. "That's something that's been established here. People know that when a player steps into this program, they're going to grow - not only on the ice, but off the ice as well."

Megan Healy, an 18-year old defender from South Burlington, Vermont, said that's precisely what attracted her to the program.

"What brought me here was how high-level the program is and their day-to-day, and just the compete and work ethic that the day-to-day schedule has," she told The Ice Garden earlier this year.

Bella Fanale, a native of nearby Webster, New York, echoed similar sentiments.

"Growing up, I kind of knew the program," she said. "I'd come to the rink and they'd be playing games, and it was kind of always in the back of my mind. I knew they were an elite program; they haed everything I wanted. When I visited, they felt like my sisters right from the start."

"The compete, day in and day out, that each one of us puts in, and it's every day," Fanale added. "I wouldn't want to do anything else. Come to the rink in the morning and then go work out at night. It's the best program, and it's helped me so much to get to where I am today."

Considering only the 19U team (and not taking into consideration the 16U team), historically, much of the roster has come from the United States - but it's a widespread group. Twenty-three states have had at least one player reach Bishop Kearney, from nontraditional hockey markets such as Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas to the East Coast in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Naturally, a healthy dose have come from New York, but it goes to show that the school is truly nationally recognized as a hotbed for girls’ hockey.

That recognition extends beyond the United States and even further, beyond North America. A number of Canadians have made the trek to Rochester over the years, joined by players from countries including Germany, Czechia, Slovakia and even Australia.

Nela Lopušanová, Slovakia’s top female hockey player, just finished her second season at Bishop Kearney. Like her teammates, the program's reputation spoke for itself.

"For me, it was always a dream to go to America and play hockey," she said. "BK was, for me, the best option. They have everything. They have incredible players. Even in practice, it's really good competition and I can improve myself. The people off the ice, it's an incredible group. I'm really lucky to be here."

While Healy and Fanale are graduating, Lopušanová still has another year to play at Bishop Kearney; she's committed to Wisconsin, but not until the 2026-27 season. (Nota bene: She's worth making the trek out to Rochester if you've got the time to do so.)

The journey, it seems, is a small price to pay for the opportunity at hand. Bishop Kearney has not just established its own reputation; it's also established what sort of player it develops.

"Being on the college side of it for the last 14 years, BK has established this brand and the kind of player that you're getting," Walkland said. "That's a full-circle moment. You know what you're going to get on the ice, and you know what you're going to get off the ice. It's a good brand that's out there."

The exposure also helps, Fanale noted.

"We're at almost every single tournament, and at every tournament we're at, the college coaches are looking at us," she said. "The coaches here do the best job preparing us for what's next. You enter a program like this and no matter what skill level you are, you're going to come out way better than you started."

Ninety-six percent of Bishop Kearney's 19U alumnae have gone on to play NCAA hockey, either at the Division I or Division III level, or both. Alumnae have gone on to many of the top collegiate programs in the United States, from Boston College and Boston University to Clarkson, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Penn State, to name a few.

A handful of alumnae have represented their countries at the IIHF U18 Women's World Championships, either before, during, or after their time at Bishop Kearney. Several have also participated at Women's Worlds, including current U.S. national team members Caroline Harvey, Kirsten Simms, and Laila Edwards, as well as at Olympics or Olympic Games qualifiers.

Simms, of course, has also been in the headlines recently after scoring the game-tying and game-winning goals for Wisconsin in the national championship game earlier this month. It's the second consecutive year the BK alum scored the championship-winning tally for the Badgers.

Harvey and Edwards were both finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award.

"Amazing people, amazing individuals, when it comes to the person," Coen said of the aforementioned players. "The product you see on the ice is exactly what you're going to get off the ice: hardworking, smart, good people. You see the extra work that they're doing behind the scenes where they are right now, and it's something they've been doing since they were in eighth grade. It's been really cool to see that growth. I can't talk enough about how amazing they are as people, and that goes so far when you're a part of these teams and programs."

This season's roster, like its predecessors, saw success. But it also accomplished something never before done in the program's history: on April 6, the 19U team won the USA Hockey National Championship - the first in its history. They did so handily, defeating the North American Hockey Academy 8-0 in the final game after a casual 56-3-0 season.

Yes, you read that correctly. 56-3-0.

"There's comfort in knowing we're the best team in the country," Healy said. "You're not competing against better girls on the daily. I find a lot of comfort in knowing that I'm at the top program right now and can't get better training."

"When we practice against each other... our practices are harder than our games," Fanale added.

With such an impressive record this season, maybe she's onto something there.

The 2024-25 roster included a number of players committed to NCAA hockey, many of whom will be leaving to start college this fall:

• Goaltender Emeline Grennan (Yale)
• Defender Shayla Beaudette (Wisconsin)
• Defender Megan Healy, 3-time USA U18 medal winner (Princeton)
• Defender Miami Jones (Dartmouth)
• Forward Chloe Brinson (Princeton)
• Forward Bella Fanale, 3-time USA U18 medal winner (Minnesota)
• Forward Rae Mayer (Minnesota-Duluth)
• Forward Megan Meola (RPI)
• Forward Kayla O’Donnell (Cornell)
• Forward Payton Palsa (Stonehill College)
• Forward Stryker Zablocki, 2-time Canada U18 medal winner (Northeastern)

With a significant portion of this year's 19U team departing, it's up to the hockey operations staff to fill in the gaps.

"Any time you have a group that's impactful amongst your team, it's hard to put into words what they mean to the program," Walkland said. "They show up every day and work, and credit to them on finding ways to move the needle on this program and to continue to a grow and push it every day."

The natural trajectory will see players from the 16U girls' team aging up.

"We want these kids to be in our program from eighth or ninth grade all the way through, until they graduate," Coen added.

"When you talk about Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Haley Winn - those guys laid the groundwork when it comes to the everyday stuff," she said. "These kids are chasing those kids every day, and now they're the ones representing. The younger classmen that are on the [16U team] are doing and seeing it every day and chasing it."

"They're the ones that helped grow that, and created the culture of what today is," she added.

Over the years, not only has the Bishop Kearney program grown; women's hockey at large has seen a massive growth, including the introduction of the PWHL.

"It's phenomenal," Walkland said of the growth of the sport. "It just opens up this runway for our young players, who are in a lot of ways just getting started with their career. They're hungry; they're looking to hit the ground running with college, but to have something to aspire to after that goes beyond."

"The opportunity and the growth of our sport, the parity of our sport, it's just getting better every day," she added. "That runway, and that visibility, it helps them show up every day and have a goal, a guiding light toward what they want to achieve."

"There's excitement behind it. If you can see it, you can be it. These young ladies are doing it - they're chasing it. It's an actual opportunity," Coen added.

Right now, only a few BK alumnae have reached the pros, including New York Sirens defender Lauren Bernard (PWHL) and MoDo defender Alexandria Weiss (SDHL). Bernard won the U19 New York State championship while at Bishop Kearney.

Of course, players like Edwards, Harvey & Winn are in the pipeline and will almost certainly go pro when their time comes. And, as the professional women's hockey landscape grows, it's reasonable to expect the number of BK alumnae playing in those leagues to expand, too.

"It's amazing to see the growth of women's hockey," Fanale said. "I can't imagine how it's going to be when we're at that level. They're super competitive and it's really fun to watch."

"It's incredibly inspiring, too," Healy added. "To know that after college, there's a potential of not having to quit hockey and getting to continue. Just all the support they're getting and the fans, it's just incredible to see."

Truly, the relationship between some of the top women's hockey players and Bishop Kearney's program is a reciprocal one. Many of the top players are flocking to BK in their youth because of its reputation as an incubator for women's hockey. These players were already skilled, but Bishop Kearney supported their development & growth and has helped further their hockey careers as a result.

And to think, the program has only just finished its ninth year; it's still relatively young. With the growth of women's hockey across North America, including collegiately and professionally, one might wonder how much better the Bishop Kearney program can get - five years down the line, ten years, or even 25 years.

Stick a pin in Rochester, NY on your map. I have a feeling we'll be watching some of the top girls' and women's hockey talents grow at Bishop Kearney for many, many years to come.