The climb has always been steep, but there was a time, not so long ago, when the nation’s best young female hockey players faced an even tougher ascent to National Team status.

That changed in 2008, with the inaugural International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 Women’s World Championship, which gave girls an intermediary step to span the gap between teenage hockey and elite international competition.

United States Olympian Brianna Decker took full advantage of it, capturing gold with Team USA at the first and second U-18 Women’s World Championships before making the jump from competing against teens to competing against seasoned international foes. For Decker, it was a valuable development step, an incremental move toward loftier heights.

“I was lucky to have the opportunity to play at the U-18s,” she said. “I’ve talked with my older teammates who didn’t have that option and they think it’s great that girls have the opportunity for that extra step now. Before the U-18s, girls only had the Under-22s, and that was only three games against Canada in August. Plus, being a freshman or sophomore in college, it was pretty tough to make that U-22 team.”

USA Hockey’s national player development camps helped prepare athletes for that challenge, beginning with the annual Girls 15 Camp and progressing through the Under-18 Camp held annually in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Last year, USA Hockey added a third national camp – its U-18 Select Player Development Camp in Biddeford, Maine – which provided yet another opportunity to develop and strengthen the under-18 player pool. The addition also made it possible for more girls in total to experience USA Hockey national camps, further boosting nationwide player development.

Building on its inaugural success, USA Hockey’s Biddeford camp is back for a second showing, beginning tomorrow, and this year it will include four U.S. Women’s National Team mentors to guide the campers. Decker, now a sage 25 with six gold medals to her credit, is among them.

“I’ve been in their shoes to an extent,” she said. “I know what’s it’s like to be involved in this kind of competition at their age, and in this type of setting for the first time, so I want to help them feel confident, but also maintain the high standard and expectation level that USA Hockey has, meaning players need to come in prepared and work hard. My role is to help them find that competitive-relaxed feeling and maintain it.”

Decker and her fellow player mentors – Meghan Duggan, Kacey Bellamy and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson – will also help reinforce the team-first mentality that reverberates through every U.S. Women’s National Team, a grouping that now includes more development stages, and opportunities, than ever before.