Allowing girls co-op ice teams will help get the league started

04/29/2002

Nobody can say the Interscholastic League's Principals Committee isn't doing its part to help the growth of girls hockey in Rhode Island.

In an effort to support the development of a girls high school league in the state, the committee last month took the unique step of voting to allow cooperative teams (two schools joining to form one team) for at least next year and possibly longer.

Interscholastic League officials had been saying for a few years that they wanted to start a girls hockey program next year. But by last month only three league schools, Mount St. Charles, North Smithfield and Burrillville, indicated they would have enough players to field a varsity team next winter.

There were some schools, however, that were interested in joining a league but didn't think they had enough players to form a team. So the committee voted to allow two schools to combine their players to make up one team.

So there will be a Interscholastic League girls hockey season next winter with at least five teams. In addition to Mount St. Charles, North Smithfield and Burrillville, there will be co-op teams from Lincoln School/Providence Country Day and Bay View/Keough.

Interscholastic League Executive Director Dick Lynch
said Pilgrim also has said it might be interested in co-oping with one of the other Warwick public schools.

The vote to allow co-op teams is a reversal of the stand the committee has taken for decades regarding one team from two different schools. During the decade of the 1970s, when girls' sports were just getting started, the committee very wisely refused to allow some schools an inexpensive way out of funding girls sports by forming combined teams.

It's hard to believe now, but back in those days there were school committee members in the state saying there wasn't enough interest to start a girls soccer team or a girls softball team. So they wanted to split the cost of a team with another school.

The committee wisely felt co-op teams would slow the development of girls sports, so it said no.

"Form the team and the girls will come," the committee members said. History has proven they were right.

It's a slightly different situation for girls hockey today, however. Many of the young girls who became enthralled with hockey after the success of the 1998 U.S. Women's Olympic team still haven't reached high school. It still will be a few years before there are a lot of high school girls with four or five years of hockey experience.

But it's important to have a high school league in the state as quickly as possible. Some young girls might give up on hockey if they don't see a team at the high school that they will attend.

So the committee made the right decision to allow co-op teams for the immediate future. League officials will just have to keep an eye on the situation to make sure the co-op teams never become all-star teams that limit playing opportunities for less-talented players at either school.