Girls high school hockey in Rhode Island is marking its 20th anniversary this winter with 192 players on eight teams.
At first glance, the totals look impressive. But, as we all know, looks can be deceiving.
Those girls come from 22 schools, thanks to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League’s policy of allowing co-operative teams — one team comprising players from two or three schools.
When the RIIL dropped the puck on girls hockey for the 2002-2003 season, five teams lined up: Mount St. Charles Academy, Burrillville and North Smithfield High Schools, and two co-operative teams, Lincoln School/Providence Country Day and St. Mary Academy Bay View/Bishop Keough.
Eight teams in 2022-23. Five teams in 2002-03. Not much growth in two decades. Were it not for co-ops, girls hockey would not exist in the Interscholastic League.
The numbers are stronger on the boys side. Twenty-four teams — nine co-ops — with 688 boys are skating this season. That’s a drop of 34 boys, or 4.7%, from the total of 722 last year.
RIIL officials are concerned, especially for the girls.
“We want to see girls hockey grow. How do we do that?” Mike Lunney told me recently. He is the executive director of the Interscholastic League.
“A lot of girls in Rhode Island are playing hockey, but with boys — or they’re not playing at all,” Cortney Lacey said. She coaches the Burrillville-Ponaganset-Bay View Co-op — the 2022 girls state champion — and is convinced that allowing four schools in a co-op for a brief period is an answer to the growth question.
“What I wish is for a few years to allow these girls to play on a [co-op] team. I know a few girls from North Smithfield and a few others are not playing. That’s tough,” she said.
Among its eligibility rules, the Interscholastic League has a three-school maximum for co-ops. Lacey understands the reasoning.
“Co-ops can be tough on the league. It’s so hard. If you go to four or five schools, then it’s like a club team,” she said.
“Even with three schools they’re struggling to get numbers,” Lunney told me. “Now four schools? Where does it stop? We always say we are school-based. The more schools in a co-op, the more it gets away from high-school sports. None of us wants to see girls hockey go away, but philosophically, how many schools are too many? I think three schools in a co-op is a lot.”
Digit Murphy’s hockey life spans the decades from youth hockey in Cranston in the 1970s, to intercollegiate hockey at Cornell in the early ‘80s, to coaching at Brown from 1989 through 2011, to promoting hockey in China, to her current position as president of the Metropolitan Riveters of the Premier Hockey Federation, a women’s professional league.
Twenty years ago, she pushed for girls hockey in North Smithfield when she resided there “because my daughter wanted it.”
Murphy said the problem in Rhode Island is the feeder system. When girls start out, she said, hockey is fun. Girls share a sense of community. By the time girls are pre-teens, “it’s not fun any more. It’s a hockey thing, not a fun thing. It’s competition, not a community.”
Sean McNamara agrees with Lunney, Lacey and Murphy. He has coached the La Salle Academy girls team to seven RIIL championships in his 12 years behind the bench. He recognizes the challenge of managing co-ops, the need for more opportunity for girls in the RIIL, and the breakdown in the system as girls approach high school.
But he likes what he sees on the ice this year.
“There’s more parity this year than in a long time. Some years one or two teams dominate. This year there could be four teams vying for the championship. This will probably be one of the most exciting seasons for girls high school hockey in a long time,” he told me.
The Burrillville-Ponaganset-Bay View, Narragansett-North Kingstown-South Kingstown, Smithfield-Coventry-Moses Brown co-ops plus La Salle are in the top half of the league. The remaining co-ops are Barrington-Mt. Hope-Portsmouth, Cranston-East Greenwich, Mount St. Charles-Cumberland-Lincoln, and Toll Gate-Pilgrim-Chariho.
McNamara mentioned that girls are playing on boys teams in the Interscholastic League. Lacey is familiar with that scene. A forward in high school, she played on the boys team at Burrillville for three years in the mid-1990s. She told of skating against Division I schools like Mount St. Charles and Bishop Hendricken and suffering concussions from being hit so hard. After her junior year in 1995-96 she transferred to Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, N.H., so she could play on a girls team.
Girls are also playing at prep schools St. George’s and Portsmouth Abbey and at private schools out of Rhode Island. Club programs like the Rhode Island Sting of the New England Girls Hockey League are another option.
Girls high school hockey peaked in 2011-12, when 11 teams competed in divisions named for former schoolgirl stars Sara DeCosta and Karen Emma. DeCosta was the goalkeeper for the Toll Gate boys team in the early-to-mid-1990s, Providence College, and the U.S. Olympic team gold medal team in 1998 and silver medal team in 2002. Emma is a Bay View alumna who as a Brown senior in 1997 helped the Bears to a 22-0 ECAC record, the ECAC and Ivy League titles in women’s hockey, and the Ivy League championship in softball.
“Sara was a senior when I was a freshman. To see her do what she did, for me it was really cool,” Lacey said.
Since 2016 eight teams have taken the ice every winter. In 2017 and 2018 all were co-ops. La Salle has been the only solo program since the 2018-19 season. Mount St. Charles, a six-time champion, joined a co-op before the 2016 season.
“Mount St. Charles is a hockey school. When they went co-op, it was telling,” Lunney said.
Several factors illustrate why girls hockey has plateaued. Start with culture. Men and boys have been playing hockey since 1875. Women started playing in U.S. colleges about 100 years later. Girls have been playing in Rhode Island for a generation. It takes time to build a base and a tradition.
The high -school population in Rhode Island declined by about 1,100 students from 2021-22, according to enrollment statistics from the state Department of Education. Hockey players must travel to rinks around the state for practice and games. Most can’t just walk down a hall to a gym.
Plus, hockey is hard.
“It’s the hardest sport to play,” Lacey said. “Football is physical. Hockey is much more difficult. If you take a group of five people and put them on a basketball court, hockey players can hold their own. If you take five basketball players and put them on the ice, it won’t even be close,” Lacey said.
What is the future of girls hockey in the Ocean State?
“I see a lot of challenges,” Lacey said. “It’s going to be tough just because of how difficult the game is and how expensive it is. The Interscholastic League is not allowing expansion of co-ops, and I understand why. There are a lot of challenges to girls hockey.”
McNamara offers a slightly more optimistic view. The current parity and potential for exciting playoffs may entice some girls thinking about leaving to stay home and play for their local school in 2024, he told me.
“I look at Smithfield last year. A number of girls stayed home, and they went undefeated. South County is a little hotbed. They are up and coming and have great numbers.”
As for players and parents who think a club program or prep school is a ticket to college hockey, Lacey mentioned that her three captains last season are playing Division III hockey at Nichols, UMass Boston and Salem State this winter.
“There are plenty of opportunities to stay home and then go on to Division III or club hockey in college,” McNamara said.
All the Rhode Island Interscholastic League has to do is convince high school girls that that’s the case.
“We’re okay right now,” McNamara said, “but I don’t know what the future holds.”
Mike Szostak can be reached at mszostak@ripr.org
