School board hears pitch for girls hockey team

BY LIZ ANDERSON
Journal Staff Writer

BURRILLVILLE -- The town should take the lead in the state by forming a high school girls varsity hockey team for the next school year.

That's what representatives of a local girls hockey league, Brown's women's hockey coach and a gender-equity consultant told the School Committee last night.

Their proposal got a cautious, but warm reception from the committee. Members said they would have to research the idea before making any decision, although several expressed their enthusiasm.

Jason Brown is a parent and representative of the Rhode Island Wolves, a girls team made up of players from a number of area towns. He told the committee that many girls leave hockey programs now by the start of their teen years because they see no chance to play the sport in high school.

Brown introduced his young daughter, Jordan, a Wolves team member.

"It's important she has something to look forward to," he said.

Bill Nangle, president of the Wolves, said that although co-ed youth programs exist, girls want to play on all-girls teams.

"Until you get high school hockey, you're never going to give girls what they're really entitled to," Nangle said.

"I'm tired of hearing there's not enough ice time, why don't you come back in a couple of years," he said. "It's the girls' turn."

Mitzi Witchger, the consultant, has come to Rhode Island from Minnesota to help hockey boosters get a girls league started here.

She noted Burrillville High's hockey team had a female goalie this year -- 1 of only 11 girls playing on varsity hockey teams in the state.

But Witchger said the school could still be violating Title IX, the federal regulation requiring gender equity in school sports teams. She said allowing girls to try out for a mostly boys team is not an acceptable alternative to giving them teams of their own.

Margaret "Digit" Murphy, the Brown coach, urged the board to be "pioneers." She told them she can't find enough hockey recruits now in her own home state, where only four schools, all private, have girls teams.

"There simply aren't enough girls playing the sport," she said.

Murphy suggested towns may be able to work together to get a girls league off the ground by sharing teams in the league's early years.

Committee member Raymond Trinque said North Smithfield had expressed interest last year in the idea of starting up a team. Cranston has also looked into the idea, Witchger said.

Brown said organizers were willing to guarantee they could form at least four teams by next winter. Parents and state officials plan to meet over dinner in North Smithfield tomorrow night to discuss the potential league, supporters said.

Trinque and board member Debra Stockwell both said they would vote to add a girls team. Stockwell said she would have loved to play hockey during her days at Burrillville High School, but was steered to figure skating instead.

Another board member, Alan Chuman, questioned whether going straight to a varsity program was the best idea, versus spending several years with development teams. But Witchger told him the various new teams would all have players with comparable skills.

The committee ultimately voted to ask the superintendent to research the cost, other requirements and student interest, and pledged to take the idea up again at a future meeting.