Color of Hockey: Charlton thrilled to play for Delaware's 1st women's team

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Katelynn Charlton, a forward for the University of Delaware’s NCAA Division I women’s team that makes its debut Sept. 26 against Long Island University.

What better way to return from a severe injury than to attend a camp that could decide your college hockey-playing future?

That’s what Katelynn Charlton did when she participated in a women’s hockey camp at the University of Delaware in August 2024 after surgery and rehab to repair a left ACL injury she sustained playing high school lacrosse in May 2023, which cost her the entire 2023-24 junior hockey season.

“I see (the camp) on Instagram and stuff and I’m, like, ‘This is pretty cool,’” the 19-year-old freshman forward said. “I was just cleared, first time playing, scrimmaging, being on the ice with more people in a game situation setting. I go down there, met Coach (Allison) Coomey … got toured around the campus, loved the campus, had a really good time at the camp.”

Charlton was one of four players from that camp to make the roster of Delaware’s first NCAA Division I women’s hockey team, which makes its regular-season debut on Sept. 26 against Long Island University at Rust Ice Arena on campus in Newark, Delaware.

The 45th NCAA Division I women’s program will play in the Atlantic Hockey America conference with Lindenwood University, Mercyhurst University, Penn State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Robert Morris University, and Syracuse University.

“I'm super excited, especially it being the inaugural team, first season,” Charlton said. “There are a lot of firsts to come for myself and the team.”

Coomey said she’s excited to have Charlton on a team that includes 17 freshmen, five transfer students and a senior goalie from Delaware’s American Collegiate Hockey Association women’s club team. Charlton was second last season on Burlington's Under-22 AA team in the Ontario Women’s Hockey League with 40 points (17 goals, 23 assists) in 40 regular-season games and three points (two goals, one assist) in four playoff games.

Coomey said she didn’t notice any ill effects from Charlton's ACL injury at the 2024 camp or during the 2024-25 season. What she did notice was Charlton's play.

“She's just big (5-foot-7), strong, moves the puck well, sees the ice well,” said Coomey, who was an associate coach for Penn State’s NCAA women’s team last season. “She showed a lot this year that she can score goals, but she can also find the people that are goal scorers as well. She can kind of do both of those things. There's a lot to like about her game, and we're really excited to get her here.”

Charlton comes from a hockey family; her cousins are forwards Mikyla Grant-Mentis, who will play for the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s expansion franchise in Seattle this season, and her twin brother Marquis Grant-Mentis, who played for Motor City and HC Venom of the Federal Prospects Hockey League last season.

For Charlton, Mikyla Grant-Mentis, who was MVP of the Premier Hockey Federation in 2020-21, is a role model, as well as a taskmaster.

“Just, like, being in the gym with her and on the ice with her, having a mentor like her to look up to, and her always pushing me, maybe, let's say, during an exercise or something, she's like, ‘You can do more than that,’” Charlton said. “It's like, ‘OK, I’ve got to compete with her and keep up with her.’”

Grant-Mentis said it’s she who sometimes has trouble keeping up with Charlton.

“She has an unreal shot, and it's kind of annoying sometimes because when we go on the ice together we play competitions and sometimes she beats me, and that's just not allowed, you know?” Grant-Mentis said.

The two cousins put their practice rivalry aside and served as coaches at the Black Girl Hockey Club Canada’s annual girls camp in July, helping to put nearly 200 players of color through their paces on the ice at the Ford Performance Centre, the practice facility of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"It means a lot to me," Charlton said, "especially since this was my second year doing it and just going up and being able to teach these girls things and have them, like, look up the way I look up to my cousin, having the younger ones be able to look up to me and the other coaches so they can see familiar faces so we can help grow the game."

Charlton said she was also proud to help grow the game as a member of a team of players of Caribbean heritage that finished second in the women’s division of the 2025 Dream Nations Cup, an annual international tournament at The Rink at American Dream in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The Brampton, Ontario, native, whose father is Jamaican, was second in the tournament’s women’s division with 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in five games.

Coomey said it takes a special player and person to commit to a new program like Delaware.

“I say that to them all the time … ‘Thanks for taking a chance on us,’” she said. “But I do think it's a great opportunity for some players that maybe, like Katelynn, got injured during the recruiting process or developed late.”

Delaware’s launch was aided by a year-long feasibility study funded by the NHL and NHL Players’ Association through the Industry Growth Fund, which was created as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2013 to support and accelerate the development of League and Club initiatives and projects that promote long-term fan development and increase participation in hockey at all levels.

The nearby Philadelphia Flyers have a multitiered partnership with the university’s hockey program. Delaware women's hockey players, as well as other university students, will have access to career and professional development opportunities, as well as the chance to take part in the Flyers Next Shift program, which was developed to allow college-age women to shadow professional women throughout the Flyers organization on a game night.

The Flyers and Delaware also will co-host youth hockey clinics at Rust Ice Arena and the Flyers Community Caravan will make additional visits to Delaware during the offseason.