Reagan Carey talks about Women’s Team agreement, new advisory group

By @MichaelCaples –

PLYMOUTH – Now the real work begins for Reagan Carey and the Women’s National Team.

While preparing for her team to arrive at USA Hockey Arena, Carey – the team general manager and USA Hockey’s director of women’s hockey – said everyone is excited to get back to hockey.

“Really excited,” Carey told MiHockey, “although this is probably the most expedited pre-camp we’ll ever have.”

MORE: USA Hockey Arena gets ready for Women’s Worlds | USA Hockey officially announces agreement with Women’s National Team

The U.S. Women’s Team finalized a new contract with USA Hockey just three days before puck drop for the prestigious Women’s World Championship; they will hold their first official practice Thursday in Plymouth. They play Canada Friday at 7:30 p.m.

“We’re eager to get to the games,” Carey said. “The players are prepared, they’re training every day for these events, so we’re confident in our preparation and we’re just making sure we get some fine-tuning done in these 48 hours.”

Late Tuesday night, USA Hockey and the Women’s National Team announced they had reached an agreement after a two-week boycott by the players. While much of the media focus has been on compensation for the players, the new agreement also brings forth a new ‘Women’s High Performance Advisory Group’ of former and current players from the Women’s National Team working alongside volunteers and staff to promote and grow the sport on the women’s side.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for all of us at USA Hockey to be able to make sure we are doing the things that help our sport grow,” Carey said, “and that we can also bring some awareness and continuity and integration between all the different areas of USA Hockey as well as our members and volunteers. That combination of having all those people represented somehow, in some form, in that committee and advisory group, I think it’s going to show that there’s going to be a lot of positive changes and continue the momentum that was started with this agreement.”

For Carey, the new contract between the two sides offers a major opportunity to help the sport and its participants.

“I think just a lot of positive awareness has come from all of this,” Carey said. “I think there’s just a new heightened sense of excitement for what it can be, and knowing that everybody has to be a part of growing women’s hockey just like growing men’s hockey and sled hockey and youth hockey. It’s not just the responsibility of one or two people in the building, everybody has ownership in all this. I know that with all those people working together, we should see some exciting things, whether it’s just from marketing/promotions standpoint or just our player development and hockey operations side of what we’re able to do.”