Grow the Love of the Game in Wyoming
Build Competitive Teams that represent "Wyoming Grit"
Keep both time and financial costs reasonable for our families
Who We Are
Rocky Mountain Sparks is a state-wide girls tournament travel team, competing in 10U, 12U, 14U, & 19U divisions. Sparks is partnered with Wyoming Cutthroats Hockey, which is a similar Wyoming based coed hockey team participating in 10u, 12u, 14u, 16U and 18u divisions, making Sparks and Cutthroats the ultimate option for Wyoming Hockey families looking for more hockey for the entire family. We are open to players from Wyoming, and limited surrounding Northern Plains District States who are looking for more hockey beyond the traditional WAHL hockey season.
As proud members of the Wyoming Hockey community, we know how tough and passionate Wyoming hockey kids are. We also know the challenges our smaller population, big geography, and limited rinks can cause when families are looking for opportunities to play more hockey, and higher level competitive hockey in Wyoming. Sparks exists to provide that supplemental opportunity in addition to your home association practice and league play.
Are We A Home Association
No, Sparks is not a home association. Sparks has a limited practice schedule, we do not play in WAHL league play, and cannot solely provide your player the appropriate amount of ice time to fully develop their game. We provide a complementary hockey experience, giving your player development opportunities with coaches beyond their normal team, through added game experience, and through fast paced tournament play that they do not get with their home association. Your players development is maximized from having both the strong foundational experience of a home association, and the additional experience of higher level tournament play through Sparks.
Our players are expected to play for a local home association, and prioritizing and participating with that local team. Sparks prides themselves on having good relationships with the Wyoming hockey community. Many of our coaches also coach teams within WAHL and many of our Sparks parents serve in leadership and volunteer positions on WAHL teams. It is important to us that we maintain that partnership with our local WAHL associations as it makes both Sparks and our local Wyoming Hockey clubs stronger.
Their home association will always be their first priority, but our goal is for
Sparks to be their favorite team.
Who is eligible for Sparks
All 10U, 12U, 14U, and 19U girls players from Wyoming. USA hockey roster policy limit the ability for players outside of Wyoming to be rostered on an official USA Hockey Roster through WAHA. For players within the Northern Plains District, some exceptions can be made, and Sparks does have some players from Montana for that reason.
Practice and Tournaments
Players who are selected for Sparks teams will participate in 2-3 practice weekends prior to the beginning of WAHL hockey season, and attend 4-5 tournaments in Denver, Salt Lake and other regional markets on non-league weekends.
Practices are often in Casper due to year round ice availability, however Laramie, Sheridan and other rinks who put in ice early may be an option depending on available practice times.
Tournament travel is kept regional, meaning driving distance within the Rocky Mountains. We do historically stretch that distance with a Vegas or Omaha tournament, but the majority of travel will be to Denver or Salt Lake area tournaments.
Costs:
Unfortunately youth sports has become a business and travel sports and select teams can be an expensive proposition. Our belief is we can provide Wyoming families the tournament team opportunity, play competitive hockey, and have quality coaching, practices, team communication, and family experience while keeping costs under control. Tryouts are a $45 fee to cover ice time, jerseys are $85 for a customized reversible jersey with socks, and $650 is the cost of a season of play, covering four tournaments and 2-3 practice weekends.
We also work hard to travel all our age groups, Sparks 10U-19U as well as our coed Cutthroats 10U-18U together as much as possible. Sometimes this means same tournaments, and sometimes this may mean both teams playing in Denver the same weekend. This helps keep travel costs down for our families, reducing the number of travel weekends, limiting the number of times you have to split following multiple kids and helps keep family calendars more reasonable and give parents more opportunities to watch all their kids play.
Occasionally teams may choose to pursue additional tournaments. Cost for those additional tournaments range from $100-$150 per player.
Coaches
Our coaches come from all across Wyoming. All our coaches are USA Hockey Certified, SafeSport Certified and Background checked per USA Hockey requirements with many holding level 4 or 5 coaching certifications, and bringing decades of coaching experience in both hockey and other youth sports. You will recognize many of them, as most of our coaches also volunteer in their home associations, serving as head coaches, coach in chiefs, board members and refs that you interact with through out the season in Wyoming. They are the committed individuals that make hockey in Wyoming possible, and Sparks and Cutthroats are an extension of their love for the game, a desire to grow our sport. All our coaches are volunteers, donating their time and travel for the love of the game and helping keep our costs reasonable.
Brief History of the Club
Rocky Mountain Sparks started as the Cheyenne Sparks in 2019. Overtime the girls from that team aged out and the Cheyenne Sparks went dormant. In 2024 Clint Connally revived the sparks team as the Rocky Mountain Sparks. Connally's son had played with the Wyoming Cutthroats for several years, and as his daughter progressed in hockey he saw an opportunity to provide a similar experience for girls hockey in Wyoming. Connally, with help from several other Wyoming coaches with daughters of similar age started recruiting and building a 10U girls team.
The inaugural season was a success, building a sisterhood of girls who won banners, had fun, and grew their love of hockey. As the season progressed families across Wyoming began requesting Sparks expand their age groups covered. Sparks has now expanded to 10U, 12U and 14U, and will be opening a 19U division for the 2026-2027 season.
In the spring of 2025 Connally took over Wyoming Cutthroats from Chad Forsman, combining them into Sparks. Connally had joined the Cutthroats family in 2021, with his oldest son playing on the Cutthroats PeeWee team and much of the Sparks model, culture and format was developed from the Cutthroats experience. The partnership of the two teams made sense, and gives Wyoming families a single source for tournament travel hockey, girls, boys, coed, 10U through 19U.
Cutthroats Hockey:
For information on our Coed Wyoming Cutthroats team visit www.wyomingcutthroats.com