NEWARK — On a recent Saturday morning, an overnight snowstorm had coated the streets of the Ironbound neighborhood. The soccer fields and basketball courts, usually populated by the city’s youth, were empty.

But the weather did not impede about 80 youngsters who made their way to the Sharpe James/Kenneth A. Gibson Recreation and Aquatic Center. Slung over their arms were heavy bags of equipment for playing hockey, a sport that has become popular, particularly among girls.

“Our first couple of years, we watched our kids get shopping carts from the local Foodtown and put their hockey equipment in and push the shopping carts down the street,” said Dennis Ruppe, who, with Keith Veltre, founded Hockey in Newark, a nonprofit group that coordinates hockey youth programs.

There are more than 130 participants from age 6 to 18. Forty are girls, up from 15 last year. The program started in 2003 with five boys. On Feb. 21, East Side High School, the city’s only public school that offers hockey as a boys’ varsity sport, will field a girls’ team for an exhibition game against a local travel club.