My personal feelings on the issue....
Socio-economics.
The Coast Guard does a terrible job advertising. This is in large part because of the small budget for Coast Guard Recruiting Command (CGRC). How many Coast Guard commercials have you seen in the past...month? Week? Heck, lets even say year. I saw a grand total of TWO since "Born Ready" came out, and those were both in movie theaters.
Where do people often interact with the Coast Guard? Generally....on the water. And now, who is on the water? Who's friends are on the water? If the Coast Guard is going to board you, what do you need? A vessel.
I don't own a boat. I don't have the money for it. Before I joined the Coast Guard I didn't leave near the Coast Guard. I did however attend American Legion Boys' State, and was turned on to the Coast Guard by an Army apache pilot.
So, with the absence of commercials and "in your face" recruiting campaigns (which the Coast Guard doesn't need to do right now), how do you find out about the Coast Guard? First, being in an area the Coast Guard operates helps....like the coast. Who lives on the coast (besides most of the people in populated cities) and who goes out on the water? The well off.
Poverty levels are higher for minority populations. That problem becomes two fold, one, in lower socio-economic areas, people will not have access to the same information as people who are more well off. Second, private schools or access to a great education is not as available. So, if someone does have the information regarding the Coast Guard or Coast Guard Academy, but has not taken the classes needed to be competative or has not achieved high enough test scores to compete, they will not be in the best shape.
People know Army (Army Strong), Navy (A Global Force for Good), Marine Corps (The Few, the Proud), and the Air Force (some kind of space commercials now comparing AF to the future). Because people see those commercials, they have an idea that not only services exist, but that there may be college's associated with those services. Tanks for Army, Aircraft carriers for Navy, Marines for Marine Corps, and F-22s for Air Force. What about the Coast Guard? Who knows.
People didn't know Coast Guard (Jobs that matter) or Coast Guard (Shield of Freedom) and they don't know Coast Guard (Born Ready).
The other service academies lag in female numbers. Maybe Congress should drop congressional nominations all together. I found them to be....practice fro real interviews. It's another step in the application process, but it's not any harder. If you're competative enough to get into a service academy, there's a nomination out there, somewhere, for you. If you're not competative enough....there's still likely a nomination out there, somewhere, maybe not as easy to get, but still there.
How do you recruit minorities? Hit them early, plant that seed of service specific to your branch and continue that relationship and presence in the school system.
For the Coast Guard; if we don't do that, and we don't have a movie like The Guardian come out every year, we will have trouble in that area....
Hockey. Hockey is an expensive sport to play. In addition to the thousands of dollars of gear, you require a rink, a sheet of ice to play on. If your community doesn't have a facility that can cool the ice and keep it frozen all year, then you have to wait for it to freeze in the winter, and that will really only happen in an area where the temperatures get cold enough. Now, to play hockey, which is a team sport, you need to have more than one kid on the block, who not only wants to play hockey, but can afford to play hockey.
In America, do you find urban, lower socio-economic populations hanging around a rink, playing hockey? No. First, there's no rink, and second, there's no gear. They're playing basketball, a sport on a court that involves one ball and shoes. Is that hockey's fault? Is it because basketball is being marketed to this population? No. It's because it's readily available, just as information regarding the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force is.
Some communities have programs to provide ice time and equipment to underprivaledged kids, in a hope to foster a lover for the game. Washington does this, and they've seen some great results.