Winter Classic profile: MN Unbounded, Niñas brings game to girls of color

The 2022 Discover Winter Classic at Target Field in Minneapolis on Jan. 1 will not just be an outdoor game between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues, it will also be a celebration of the "State of Hockey." Part of that celebration will include various hockey teams and clubs from throughout Minnesota skating on one of several auxiliary rinks at Target Field. NHL.com is profiling each of the teams. Today, MN Unbounded and the Niñas.

Meredith Lang and Tina Kampa thought they were just doing something special for the players when they formed MN Unbounded and the Niñas, teams comprised of all girls of color that competed in a Minnesota hockey tournament in August.

But they never dreamed just how special the program would become.

"We were thinking about the players we would impact, but we got high school girls of color to come to our practices and help coach and mentor our girls," Lang said. "For the parents, this has become kind of a sorority and fraternity and we're finding out about things in hockey we wouldn't have known. It's been such a treat for us to sit back and watch it manifest itself in a way we never imagined."

MN Unbounded and the Hockey Niñas quickly have woven itself into the fabric of Minnesota hockey by amplifying the aspirations of girls of color in the sport and spreading the message of diversity and inclusion.

Eight MN Unbounded players and two coaches will skate on one of the auxiliary rinks at the 2022 Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues at Target Field on Jan. 1 (7 p.m. ET; TNT, SN1, TVAS, NHL LIVE) while their teammates look on from the stands, courtesy of tickets provided by the Wild.

Their presence at the game is a testament to the program's impact on the sport. What started with 31 players on Under-10 and Under-12 teams, including Lang's daughters, Mia and Aubrey, has grown to more than 50 girls with the addition of an Under-14 team.

"If there's going to be a place to do what we're doing and make hockey more diverse and inclusive and to continue to build up our girls, and even our boys and men, in this sport, it's Minnesota," said Kampa, a MN Unbounded coach and former Bemidji State University defenseman who was born in Colombia and adopted by a Minnesota family. "We're a state that people look to in hockey. We kind of set the tone and create those next steps to grow the game."

Kim Davis, NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Social Impact, Growth Initiatives and Legislative Affairs, agrees.

"MN Unbounded and the Hockey Niñas is a living manifestation of the sport's evolution in recent years," she said. "We are so proud to see hockey become integrated with multicultural families, and we are equally excited to see how these young women grow, on and off the ice, and positively shape hockey culture in the near future."

Kampa and Lang established the group after being inspired by Color of Hockey stories about teams of Black, Hispanic and Asian male players organized by the NextGen AAA Foundation that competed in the Beantown Summer Classic tournament in 2020 and 2021.

Through word of mouth and networking, Lang and Kampa assembled 31 players for two teams that competed in the 2021 Os Shootout, a tournament that was held in Edina, Minnesota, Aug. 12-15.

The teams were led by Kampa and a coaching staff of women of color that included Nina Rodgers, a Dartmouth College assistant and two-time NCAA Division I champion with the University of Minnesota (2014-15, 2015-16); University of Maine forward Jennifer Costa; Minnesota defenseman Crystalyn Hengler; Union College forward Maia Martinez; Augsburg University forward Kensie Malone; and former Augsburg defenseman Nikki Nightengale.

The local hockey community embraced MN Unbounded's efforts. Os Hockey Training, a girls' hockey company that operates the annual tournament, sponsored the teams.

The Richfield Ice Arena, Bloomington Ice Garden and ETS Sports Performance provided reduced rates for practice ice time and dryland training facilities for the players.

MN Unbounded's Under-12 team was 2-2 in the tournament while the Under-10 squad didn't have a win. Still, the program's appearance at the Os tournament was so impactful and well-received that it's exploring playing more games in Minnesota and beyond.

"What I know is, we're going to be around and in full force," Kampa said. "We're going to be around forever."

Photos: Cyndi Nightengale Photography