High school girls hockey to hit ice this season
By LIZ ANDERSON
Journal Staff Writer

BURRILLVILLE -- The School Committee has agreed to spend just over $4,000 to set up a high school girls hockey team this year.

The team will function as a club sport, not a full varsity sport, for this year, said Schools Supt. Barbara VonVillas. She said the club team is the first step toward creating a full-fledged varsity team for the following winter season.

The School Committee had voted in May to establish the team. Their vote came after representatives of an area girls hockey league, a Brown University coach and a gender diversity consultant urged the town -- which has a rich hockey history -- to be a leader in establishing girls hockey as a high school team sport throughout Rhode Island.

The budget approved this week will help pay for a coach, transportation, game officials and some minimum equipment and supplies, VonVillas said.

She said a coach for the team has not been appointed yet, but that the position would be posted and advertised.

VonVillas said the girls team is expected to have a "limited schedule of 10 to 12 games" this season.

High school Principal Richard Trogisch could not be reached for comment on the development. But high school athletic director Paul Sawyer said he believed there were people interested in coaching the team who had helped Trogisch put together the budget.

Sawyer said Mount St. Charles Academy officials had contacted him about setting up games between their girls team and Burrillville's, but no schedule had been set. He said those and other details remain to be worked out.

Burrillville breaks ice
By John Gillooly
Journal Staff Writer

Speaking of hockey, it's probably fitting that Burrillville apparently will be Rhode Island's first public high school with a girls varsity hockey team.

Last week the Burrillville school committee agreed to fund a team this year. It will be a club team, but the expectation is that it will be raised to varsity status next season.

Currently the only schools in the state with varsity girls teams are private schools such as St. George's, Portsmouth Abbey, Lincoln School and Mount St. Charles.

Burrillville's is the most tradition-rich public school hockey program in the state. From 1948 to 1971 the Broncos won 11 state hockey championships. Even over the last three decades when private schools have dominated the state high school hockey scene, Burrillville has remained one of the few public schools to play in the state's top division. The Broncos currently are one of only three public school teams that play in the Interscholastic League's Championship Division.

Hopefully, Burrillville is the first of many Rhode Island public schools to have varsity girls hockey teams. Both Minnesota and Massachusetts already have girls hockey leagues with several public schools competing.