enlarge
Photos by John Patriquin/Staff Photographer
GORHAM — They skated onto the ice for their first practice Monday, and the Gorham High girls' hockey players could already celebrate.
They had survived.
With dwindling numbers in the second season of sanctioned girls' hockey, the Gorham team looked endangered. But the Rams reached out to their neighbors in Standish for a little help.
Now the team is known as Gorham/Bonny Eagle, with a roster of 14, two coming from Bonny Eagle.
"This helps the Gorham team because we didn't have numbers and it gives an opportunity for the girls at Bonny Eagle, which they never had before," Coach Nat Germond said.
Monday marked the first day girls' high school teams could practice for the 2009-10 season. And while girls' hockey was considered a growing sport, high school teams are still searching for players.
There will be 16 teams this year, down from 17 last year when Maranacook fielded a team.
"The high schools are really struggling for numbers," said Alex Agnew, an officer with the Maine Girls Ice Hockey Association (MGIHA), a leading supporter for the sport.
And teams like Gorham needed help. Over the past two years, the Rams have lost 20 players to graduation. Reinforcements have been few.
"Girls' hockey is not real popular," said Gorham senior and team captain Kat Whitehead. "Basketball and winter cheering seem to be more popular for girls."
If Gorham did not sponsor a team, Whitehead would not be playing hockey. She did not grow up playing youth hockey but took up the sport her freshman year as something to do after field hockey in the fall.
Gorham, like other schools, had club hockey teams before being sanctioned by the Maine Principals' Association.
Gorham had to appeal to the MPA this year to add Bonny Eagle players to its team, and the MPA granted a two-year waiver.
"After that we're on our own," Gorham Athletic Director Gerry Durgin said. "We're the second-smallest Class A school. That said, we are a Class A school and if we don't have the numbers (for a team), we shouldn't have a program."
Gorham has an advantage with the nearby University of Southern Maine rink, but it is like several schools looking for feeder programs.
The Huskies Youth Hockey program at USM does not have girls-only teams. Most girls either play on boys' teams or with girls' travel teams in the Casco Bay Youth Hockey Association.
And until this year, middle school club hockey organizations did not have teams only for girls.
A middle school division for girls-only teams is being created this year, supported by the MGIHA and the Southern Maine Middle School League.
Agnew said there will be five teams competing. The MGIHA has been sponsoring fall and spring leagues, along with free "learn to skate" programs for girls. The MGIHA also will sponsor a team for high school-aged players who don't have a team. It will play exhibition games.
A middle school girls' league will be "fantastic," said Germond, the Gorham coach. "It's really what they need to keep the sport going forward.
"A lot of these girls who play youth hockey, they get to that middle school age against the boys where there is checking and they become less and less interested."
The two Bonny Eagle players, freshman Rachel Litif and junior goalie Carissa Farwell, have played on boys' teams for several years. They said they considered playing on the Bonny Eagle boys' team until the Gorham roster opened up to them.
"I was pretty excited to play on just a girls' team," said Litif.
The addition of players from a rival school presented no problems.
"It's a good thing," Whitehead said. "We have a lot of returning players and, with the Bonny Eagle players, we have the potential to go pretty far."
The girls' hockey season begins Nov. 20. Boys' hockey teams can begin practicing Nov. 16.
Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at: kthomas@pressherald.com
Reader comments
Click here to view or add comments on this story
Were you interviewed for this story? If so, please fill out our accuracy form