The TCU Ice Girls are helping increase attendance and excitement at TCU’s men’s club ice hockey team games.

The Ice Girls have affected how many people have come to the games, said Josh Daniel, a member of the TCU men’s club ice hockey team.

The Ice Girls began in 2014 to raise awareness about the team to get more fans. Before they existed, many people were unaware that TCU had a men’s club ice hockey team, said Brittany Baerwald, co-captain of the TCU Ice Girls.

Berwald said that since the start of Ice Girls, crowds at the home games have nearly doubled from 20 to 40 people.

Daniel said it has evolved into something more.

The 20 women attend weekly home games, cheer on the team, fundraise, and manage the marketing and social media for the team, Daniel said.

“We have Ice Girls in charge of Facebook and some of them are admins on our Twitter,” Daniel said. “It’s just great to have them at our home games. It really helps the crowd get into it.”

For some, Ice Girls is more than just cheering for the men on the ice rink.

Co-captain of the Ice Girls Chloe Miller said the program is about taking something she was passionate about when she was younger and working with it now.

“Ice Girls is a way of taking something I grew up with and was passionate about, which was figure skating, and using that in college to promote the TCU men’s club ice hockey team,” Miller said.

Like Miller, many of the Ice Girls share an interest in figure skating and ice hockey. They said the TCU Ice Girls is a way to share that passion with the TCU community.

The Ice Girls plan to recruit more figure skaters next year and perform between periods to enhance the crowd’s experience. Interviews to join the TCU Ice Girls will occur next fall, Miller said.