The first Ponytail Tournament, held at Mount Pleasant Ice Arena in Baltimore in March 2003, was quickly organized by a group of parents who did not want their daughters’ first full season of girls’ hockey to end. Neither did the girls. It had been too much fun.

Baltimore Youth Hockey’s 2002-2003 season included, for the first time, an all-girls 19U team, formed over the previous summer following a promotional “Girls Night Out” event to recruit players. 

The range in age of those on the inaugural roster was shockingly wide, the oldest turning 18 during the season and the youngest player but 10 years old. Skills also varied; some girls had never skated hockey-style before the fall of 2002 while others had played on BYH co-ed teams since the age of eight.

We soon discovered that other hockey clubs in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia had started developing girls’ teams while a few others — Montgomery County, Maryland, for instance — had established programs for girls a few years earlier.

By late winter 2003, the first Baltimore Stars girls’ team had played several games and lost most. But neither parents nor players had had enough. Coach Lisa Stratton suggested that, with March ice available at Mount Pleasant, the Stars could invite three to six other teams for a weekend tournament of two divisions — an Under-14 and an Under-19.

We found teams in Hershey and York, Pa., Prince William, Va. and Montgomery County eager for a post-season Tier II tournament. The schedule was fairly easy to put together, though none of the BYH parents had had any experience doing that.

The tournament was a success and great fun.  The next year we named it the Ponytail and put out word that we would again host the event in Baltimore. Clubs in the tri-state area were eager to get here, and entries doubled. In the second tournament, we needed ice time at three rinks to accommodate two divisions of eight teams.

The Ponytail grew each year, with developmental and Tier 1 divisions added to the core Tier II division. In 2004, the Baltimore Stars merged with the York Devils to form the Susquehanna Rapids girls’ program, and the Rapids became official hosts of the Ponytail for about six years. 

By 2008, some 60 teams representing 25 clubs played games in Baltimore and in York, Pa. Teams from as far away as Massachusetts and North Carolina competed in our mid-March tournament. 

The next year, for the sixth annual tournament, we had even more teams representing 36 clubs. More than 100 games were scheduled in Baltimore, Reisterstown, York and Lancaster. The next year we added a women’s division and drew four senior teams from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The tournament also attracted college club teams and some high school teams.

By the 10th annual tournament, in 2013, the tournament had moved to the Gardens Ice House in Laurel, Md. Over the next decade, we welcomed girls’ teams from across the country. In 2025, the team from San Diego that had travelled furthest to seek Ponytail gold was easily surpassed by the entry of a team from Alaska.

The tournament is a little different every year with skill levels ranging from Tier I to developmental teams but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the fun and excitement experienced by hundreds of girls every March.