Arizona Kachinas taps iSport360 as the exclusive player development platform

Hey Everyone, iSport360 and Amy Masters is here with Lyndsey Fry, former member of the US Women’s National Ice Hockey Team and 2014 Olympian. Lyndsey is the current President of the Arizona Kachinas. They are the only all girls hockey association in AZ. She shares how the past year has been for girls ice hockey in AZ, how they dealt with Covid-19 and why they decided to move forward with iSport360.

The goal of the Kachinas is simple, to provide growth and development for all female hockey players in Arizona. They provide a growth-focused competitive atmosphere with the long-term goals of competing in the USA Hockey regional and national tournaments. 

What has been the biggest positive change to come from running the only all girls hockey association in Arizona? 

I think the biggest positive has been giving these girls a legitimate option to play competitive girls hockey in Arizona. The boys programs now respect girls hockey and everything we are doing which is something these kids have deserved for a long time.  

The past year has been difficult for any youth sports organization to run and manage through. What has been your biggest challenge during covid? 

The biggest challenge has been the unknowns. Everyone has a different comfort level and opinions around COVID so creating policies that made everyone feel safe and also allowed the kids to play was extremely difficult. 

How did those challenges during the past year impact your players and coaches? 

I think overall the players and coaches handled things pretty well. The toughest part for them was when we had to shut down a team due to an exposure. That was devastating for those kids. But they stayed strong and positive and we got through it!

Why did you want to work with iSport360? And how did you think it could help the Kachinas?

The Kachinas wanted to work with iSport360 because we felt the platform would help us further develop and grow our athletes. Especially on days when we don’t practice and see our players. iSport360 allows us to conduct player evals, share practice assignments with the team or individual players and allows us to keep in touch with both parents and players. It really helps create transparency in our program and allows us coaches, well… coach. 

What features about iSport360 did you like the most? 

Our favorite features so far are the player evaluations and goal setting. The player evaluations feature enables scoring and feedback for 10 categories under 4 main competencies: technical, tactical, physical and life. It makes it easy for our coaches to give consistent feedback across all levels and that creates alignment in expectations as our players advance in their hockey careers. 

The ability to create assignments for the team or individual players as well as upload/share videos within those assignments is also really helpful. Video is a really clear way for coaches to convey skill demonstrations for players to improve and practice away from the rink. When you think about the way youth players are consuming media in their daily lives, video is top source. It just makes sense to have this feature. 

For more information on the Arizona Kachinas, click here. For more information on iSport360 and what we can do for your youth sports athletes, click here.